A Funeral Oration for the California Parking Lot

There's Honor in Anti-Parking Policies—But Killing Off-Street Spaces Also Means Losing Local Revenue, Gathering Spaces, and More

Friends, Californians, fellow drivers, stop honking your horns and lend me your ears.

I come to bury California’s parking lots, not to praise them.

The evil that abundant parking spaces do lives long after the ground is paved over.

So say the honorable officials and wise engineers of California. They tell us that parking consumes huge amounts of property that might be used more productively for business, housing, or transit infrastructure like bus or bike lanes. In L.A. County alone, parking covers 200 square miles. Most parking spaces are empty most of …

Dear Mr. President, Please Save California’s High-Speed Rail  | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Dear Mr. President, Please Save California’s High-Speed Rail 

'Amtrak Joe' Is the Golden State's Last, Best Hope for Making a Rail From the Bay Area to L.A. a Reality

Dear Joe,

I know I should call you Mr. President, but there’s no time for formalities. You must move fast if you’re going to save California’s high-speed rail project.

No malarkey: It …

How a Public Railroad Saved Alaska | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

How a Public Railroad Saved Alaska

Long Before Statehood, the Progressive Era Made the Last Frontier Possible

Alaska officially became a state in 1959, but its modern origins occurred in the two decades that followed the discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1896.

At the turn …

Now Is the Time for California to Think Big, Again | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Now Is the Time for California to Think Big, Again

Will the State Use This Moment to Be Ambitious—Or Shrink Back Into Its Old Habit of Budget Cuts?

Coronavirus is forcing Californians to isolate themselves. But it has brought us together in one big way: by fusing all of our biggest problems into one colossal crisis.

That crisis could …