Podcast Episode Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Brian Hamilton
Guest: Henry Grabar, author of Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World (Penguin, 2023)
Date: January 1, 2026

Overview

This episode features an in-depth interview with journalist Henry Grabar about his new book, Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World. The discussion explores the hidden role parking plays in shaping the American landscape, its catastrophic environmental and social impacts, and how reconsidering our relationship with parking is essential for urban revitalization, climate resilience, and equity. Grabar brings fascinating stories, wry humor, and deep research to bear on a seemingly mundane but surprisingly consequential subject.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Parking as an Environmental Disaster

Timestamp: 02:10–05:24

• Grabar recalls a reporting trip to Houston where a newly built mall parking lot allegedly caused upstream flooding after rainstorms, highlighting how “cities are essentially man-made floodplains, composed mostly of impervious surfaces like roads and parking lots.”
• Key environmental consequences:
  • Urban heat island effect
  • Stormwater flooding and aquifer depletion
  • Loss of natural land
• Parking not only paves over green space but “encourages all this driving”—America’s high per capita driving is “inextricably linked to our approach to parking.”

Quote:
“One thing we can say for sure is that in Houston, neighborhoods that didn’t flood in the 50s and 60s when they were built now flood because of upstream suburban development.” (Henry Grabar, 02:47)

2. The Cultural and Data Blind Spot

Timestamp: 05:24–08:48

• Despite its ubiquity, parking is largely ignored in popular culture and even by urban planners. There are few songs, movies, or even data sets about parking.
• There is no official count of parking spaces even in New York City. Decisions about parking are often based on little evidence—a process Grabar likens to “medieval alchemists.”
• Historically, parking was a core element of urban planning, but after mid-century oversupply, it was deprioritized, allowing for harmful inertia.

Quote:
“It’s sort of marooned between land use and transportation, and nobody takes any interest in it because in most places…there was enough parking. Of course, it didn’t stop being a problem for all the reasons that I outlined related to the environment.” (Henry Grabar, 07:57)

3. The Mid-Century Parking Crisis & Its Legacy

Timestamp: 08:48–11:49

• Post-war city leaders viewed parking shortages as existential threats to downtown vitality.
• Massive, intentional creation of parking—demolishing buildings and requiring all new ones to have ample parking (parking minimums).
• These regulations dramatically changed urban form. In some cases, “30% of parcels in midwestern cities like Kansas City or Buffalo are exclusively for parking.”
• The legacy of these laws persists, making dense, walkable, pre-1945 styles of development illegal today.

Quote:
“Those laws, the parking minimums…were some of the most influential laws this country has ever passed in terms of the look of the built environment and the feel of our cities. And we’re still living with the consequences.” (Henry Grabar, 11:32)

4. Why Parking Still Feels Scarce Despite Overabundance

Timestamp: 12:02–16:56

• Statistics show America has 4–9 parking spots per car, yet parking feels perpetually “scarce.”
• Causes of perceived scarcity:
  • Everyone wants to use the best spaces at the same time.
  • High expectations (wanting free, nearby parking instantly).
  • Free parking is misused, encouraging all-day use by commuters, leaving nothing for shoppers or visitors.
  • Parking supply is balkanized (private lots for single businesses can't be shared).
  • Confusing and inconsistent parking rules deter efficient use.

Quote:
“You wouldn’t expect…to walk into some hot restaurant at 8pm and get the best table…but everybody expects that with parking.” (Henry Grabar, 12:45)

5. The Parking Generation Manual & The Unbuilt City

Timestamp: 16:56–20:45

• The 1985 Parking Generation Manual by the Institute of Transportation Engineers entrenched arbitrary parking minimums for every conceivable land use.
• These requirements are based on unlikely maximum occupancy scenarios and suburban assumptions, ignoring local transit or context.
• The greatest tragedy: “No one tracks the ideas that didn’t happen.” America’s most beloved neighborhoods today—row houses, apartments above shops—are illegal to build under today’s codes.

Quote:
“Every city has its own little pre-parking vernacular that’s basically been driven into extinction by these requirements.” (Henry Grabar, 20:38)

6. Politics of Parking — A Bipartisan Stalemate

Timestamp: 20:54–23:54

• Parking politics don’t fit cleanly into usual partisan divides:
  • Conservatives could support reform (property rights, market prices)
  • Progressives could embrace reform (housing affordability, climate)
• Yet, the emotional attachment to parking unites opposition to reform across the spectrum.

Quote:
“No clear cut rainforest could upset an LA liberal more than an endangered bank of parking spaces.” (Henry Grabar, paraphrased at 20:54; quip quoted by host)

7. Success Stories: Reform and Downtown Revival

Timestamp: 24:17–27:15

• Downtown Los Angeles’s adaptive reuse ordinance scrapped parking minimums for converting old office buildings to apartments.
• Triggered a housing boom (6,500 new homes), as developers built enough—but not excessive—parking, often using existing garage capacity more efficiently.

Quote:
“They just didn’t build as much as the code had previously required…So, you know, the whole fundamental notion of parking requirements…went out the window in two weeks.” (Henry Grabar, 26:19, referring also to the COVID curbside experiment)

8. The Case for Managing Price and Demand

Timestamp: 27:15–30:29

• Treating parking as a commodity—metering and pricing scarce spaces according to demand—can curb wasteful cruising and free up prime spots.
• San Francisco’s experiment: increase curbside prices to guarantee at least one open spot per block, while lowering garage rates.
• Contrary to fears, managing prices cut ticket revenue (fewer violations) and better matched availability to demand.

Quote:
“It’s not rocket science…they tinkered with their prices every six months until they reached sort of an equilibrium.” (Henry Grabar, 29:01)

9. Equity Concerns: Is Pricing Parking Regressive?

Timestamp: 30:29–35:04

• Rich people own and use more cars.
• Poor parking management hurts working people (delivery, trades) through lost time and huge ticket bills.
• The hidden costs of free parking—delays, emissions, road deaths, housing unaffordability—are far more regressive than metering.

Quote:
“The costs are real: the costs are traffic…emissions…unsafe streets…and a massive, massive tax on affordable housing development…that to me is a much more fundamental injustice than dropping a few quarters into the parking meter.” (Henry Grabar, 34:01)

10. The Pandemic as an Accidental Urban Design Revolution

Timestamp: 35:04–38:58

• COVID-19 made cities rethink curb space; restaurants, businesses, and city planners seized parking spaces for outdoor dining almost overnight.
• The “monkey’s paw” wish: Grabar longed for cities to reconsider parking’s purpose—he just hadn’t hoped a pandemic would cause it.
• Pandemic experiments hint at possibilities: more green space, stormwater management, play areas, bike/bus lanes, all enabled by reclaiming parking.

Quote:
“The whole fundamental notion of parking requirements…went out the window in two weeks. And everybody was like, actually, it’s better to just have it all be restaurant.” (Henry Grabar, 36:15)

11. International Inspiration: Paris Shows What’s Possible

Timestamp: 38:58–42:02

• Paris demonstrates the power of repurposing parking (turning garages into urban farms, planting trees, and making ‘play streets’ outside schools).
• Planting trees in parking spaces helps combat brutal heatwaves in dense cities.
• Play streets transform school neighborhoods, offering safe, convivial spaces for children and families.

Quote:
“I think my favorite initiative…is building play streets outside schools…they’ve closed the streets outside something like 170 schools…any American city could do something like that.” (Henry Grabar, 41:09)

Memorable Quotes

• “We have covered a whole lot of land with asphalt and concrete to provide parking. And that in itself has changed the environment of cities in ways I think all for the worst.” (Henry Grabar, 03:13)
• “Parking is basically the lever you have that controls how much people will drive.” (Henry Grabar, 04:27)
• “No one tracks the ideas that didn’t happen.” (Henry Grabar, 17:41)
• “Free parking has many externalities which are unpriced … but the costs are real.” (Henry Grabar, 33:45)
• “Why stop with restaurant seating? Why not plant trees? Why not create places for kids to play?...It opened up people’s minds to what might be possible.” (Henry Grabar, 36:59)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:10 – The environmental cost of parking, Houston floods
• 06:11 – The missing data and cultural neglect of parking
• 09:07 – The postwar “downtown parking crisis”
• 12:02 – Why parking feels scarce (though it isn’t)
• 16:56 – The Parking Generation Manual and “the unbuilt city”
• 20:54 – The curious bipartisan politics of parking
• 24:17 – Downtown LA’s adaptive reuse reform story
• 27:15 – Managing parking through price (commodity discussion)
• 30:29 – Equity, street pricing, and who’s really paying for “free parking”
• 35:04 – Pandemic curbside experiments & what they revealed
• 38:58 – Paris’s post-car reforms: “play streets”, urban trees

Tone and Style

The conversation is energetic, frank, and often humorous, especially in its analogies (e.g., “monkey’s paw” for COVID-era changes, “medieval alchemists” for planners’ guesswork). Grabar brings both detailed knowledge and storytelling verve, pairing policy critique with vivid examples.

For Further Engagement

• Book: Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar (Penguin, 2023)
• Additional resources: Grabar’s essay “How Paris Kicked Out Cars” (Slate); details of in-person talks announced in the closing.