☕ Parking Brew

Inside the surprisingly fascinating world of parking... February 24, 2024 [View Online]( | [Sign Up]( | [Shop]( [Morning Brew]( PRESENTED BY [Jambys]( Good morning. Saturday mornings are for special treats you may not have time for during the week: pancakes, a fancier coffee order, and going down rabbit holes. Today, we’re helping you dive into one rabbit hole with a special edition newsletter all about one highly charged topic: parking. Welcome to Parking Brew, an issue with bumper-to-bumper content about parking’s underrated impact on cities, how it’s being disrupted by new technology, and plain ol’ fun facts about an activity we do nearly every day but don’t think much about. Hope you enjoy the change of pace, and remember: backing in doesn’t make you cooler than everyone else. —Sam Klebanov, Matty Merritt, Cassandra Cassidy, Dave Lozo, Molly Liebergall, Adam Epstein, Neal Freyman MARKETS Nasdaq 15,996.82 -0.28% S&P 5,088.80 +0.03% Dow 39,131.53 +0.16% 10-Year 4.260% -6.7 bps Bitcoin $50,889.88 -0.77% Carvana $69.23 +32.09% *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 11:00pm ET. [Here's what these numbers mean.]( - Markets: An astonishing week in the stock market wrapped up with the S&P 500 hitting a record high. While Nvidia’s blowout earnings were the star of the show this week, Parking Brew is giving kudos to Carvana, which recorded its [first-ever annual profit]( on its comeback tour from the post-Covid depths.  CITIES [Cities are leaving parking up to the market]( [ An aerial view of parking lots at New Jersey Long Branch beaches]( Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The most important construction law in America: Make sure the building comes with 1) a roof and 2) parking. Whether they’re building apartment buildings or a Chuck E. Cheese, developers are typically required by US city governments to create a minimum number of car spots. But now, over 50 major cities nationwide have ditched parking mandates, per NPR, allowing developers to decide how much parking is enough. And in 2022, California became the first state to ax parking minimums for buildings near public transit. Why make parking optional? Officials are listening to critics who say parking minimums hinder new housing construction and encourage folks to drive rather than take public transit. Critics argue that: - Requiring parking to be built alongside housing uses up land that could be occupied by extra dwelling units. - A single parking spot can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $150,000 to construct, with developers footing the bill and often passing it on to renters. - Parking lots and garages fill up precious urban real estate with soulless concrete eyesores, making cities more sprawling and less convenient. Parking skeptics also claim that the number of spots required is often arbitrary. One Minneapolis suburb mandates bowling alleys to build two spots per lane, while another one requires seven, Minnesota State Senator Omar Fateh, who wants to ban minimums statewide, [told]( the Star Tribune. Many drivers are not on board…they claim parking minimums allow them to avoid circling every destination in a desperate search for a spot. Anti-minimum advocates say that any rescinding of mandates needs to be coupled with policies promoting public transit that’ll make it easier to ditch cars.—SK   PRESENTED BY JAMBYS [Your comfort: upgraded]( [Jambys]( You deserve a comfy boost to get through the last weeks of winter. Take your relaxation to new levels with Jambys, the performance inactivewear brand. [Jambys’ internet-famous hoodies, joggers, and shorts]( are perfect for WFH, running errands, snoozing, or hanging with friends. (They make for the perfect gift, too.)Made by expert designers previously from Nike, Lululemon, and Outdoor Voices, [Jambys are literally guaranteed to be your new favorite clothing](. Each item comes with a 77-day wear-and-wash guarantee, and they’ve racked up over 8k five-star reviews. This weekend, Morning Brew readers can save 20% on everything—including items in their Winter Sale—[by using code MB20 or clicking here](. STATS [By the numbers](#) [Wheel representing 95% of a car’s lifetime is spent parked, while only 5% is spent being driven.]Illustration: Francis Scialabba, Data: The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup 95%: The amount of time your car spends parked in its lifetime, according to Donald Shoup’s The High Cost of Free Parking. 20,000: Spots available at West Edmonton Mall in Canada, the largest parking structure in the world. 1,825: Total vehicle miles cars travel per curb space every year just looking for parking, according to Donald Shoup’s The High Cost of Free Parking. $1 billion: How much New York City is currently [owed]( in unpaid parking and speeding tickets, according to the Independent Budget Office. 12: City blocks that would be required for parking spaces if the Empire State Building was built with today’s requirements, according to urban policy journalist Henry Grabar’s Paved Paradise. 76%: Percentage of US college students who say they have to pay to park on campuses, according to a 2022 Inside Higher Ed survey. 20: The number of roller coasters the solar panel installation being put up over the parking lot at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Los Angeles will reportedly be able to power. 57%: The percentage of UK drivers whose heart rate surged while attempting to parallel park, according to Auto Trader UK. 92%: The percentage of the nearly 1.2 million parking and traffic tickets [issued]( every year to San Francisco motorists for things that do not affect public safety, like overstaying their meters or parking in the way of street cleaning trucks.—MM Q&A [Henry Grabar wants to break the parking status quo]( [New Suzuki cars and vans parked at Avonmouth docks near Bristol, UK]( Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images In his [book]( Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World, Henry Grabar explains America’s addiction to building more parking at the expense of other public infrastructure, among many other parking-related topics. Despite our frequent frustration with not being able to find free, close, and available parking, Grabar argues a lot of cities’ problems can be solved not by building more parking, but by managing it better. Morning Brew spoke with Grabar about parking’s outsized role in city planning, its waste of valuable space, how cities can tackle congestion, and much more. [Read it here]( TOGETHER WITH MANSCAPED [Manscaped]( The best in men’s grooming is now at Walmart. MANSCAPED products are now available at Walmart stores nationwide and [on Walmart.com]( Shop MANSCAPED grooming kits, groin + body trimmers, face + beard shaving tools, and skincare. Visit your local Walmart store today and [level up your grooming game](. ELECTRIC VEHICLES [EVs are changing how we think about parking](#) [Tesla charging station]Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu via Getty Images Businesses are plugging into a new market for revenue: EV owners looking to park and charge up. After a record 1.2 million EV sales last year, there are now 4.5 million EVs on the road in the US. Those EVs need time to charge throughout the day—time that companies believe can be spent shopping. - Walmart plans to install thousands of chargers at its stores, including Sam’s Club locations, by 2030. Ikea embarked on a similar venture in 2022. - Kohl’s has more than 375 charging stations at 170 stores, while select Macy’s stores have been EV-friendly since 2014. - Gas stations are investing in chargers that can get drivers back on the road in 20 to 30 minutes—just enough time to buy some beef jerky and Doritos from the attached convenience store. Chargers equal revenue. A recent survey showed that 80% of EVgo charger users spend ~$1 shopping for every minute spent charging. A bit of a weight problem. EVs can be thousands of pounds heavier than the average gas-powered vehicle. Experts warn the extra weight from EVs could cause older parking garages to collapse unless steps are taken to buttress the structures.—DL FUN FACTS [Your dream parking rotation](#) [Red Bull Car Park Drift Turkey Finals in Bursa, Turkey]Ali Atmaca/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images These parking facilities, gadgets, and drivers make finding a place to leave a vehicle less vein-popping, more exciting, and—dare we say—beautiful. Some sweet spots: - An orange birdlike [car shelter]( that’s made of 570 solar panels generates power outside the headquarters of the Thai energy company B.Grimm. - Two pristine [underwater garages]( at Amsterdam’s Centraal Station hold 11,000 bicycles (and no cars!). - China’s completely automated [Future Car Park]( stacks automobiles inside circular columns and has a rooftop garden. Automation is hot, so valets are going bionic: - A major airport in France valets cars using [autonomous forklift robots]( that look like if food delivery bots had mothers. - Another smart device, [Parkie]( can slide cars into the narrowest of spots (and does it so well that it won a [CES 2024 award](. - Volkswagen’s software company is testing out a [smart parking garage system]( that uses robots to guide cars to free spots and automatically charge EVs. But there’s just something about the way humans can park a car: - The [Red Bull Car Park Drift]( is a competition for wheel-finessers who can slide around pavement like Dom Toretto. - An amateur [parallel parking championship]( takes place annually on the streets of Pittsburgh. - The best valet drivers in America competed in parking, lot maneuvering, key matching, and trunk packing in the [National Valet Olympics]( for eight glorious years.—ML ENTERTAINMENT [Parking at the movies](#) [scene from Seinfeld]Seinfeld/NBC Parking spots and garages are not just places to put your cars in timeout while you go off and have fun without them. They are also, we maintain, the bedrock of cinema—the sites of some of the funniest and creepiest moments in film and television history. TV Tropes, a website that compiles every Hollywood plot convention you can think of (and many you can’t), features oodles of fascinating ways parking has been depicted in the movies. We’ve highlighted a few of the best parking clichés to give you a sense of how the institution of parking has been a gift to entertainment. The Ominous Parking Garage. If you’ve ever felt compelled to look over your shoulder as you try to remember if you parked on level three or four, it might be because movies have trained you to do so. [Parking garages]( have been the location of countless iconic scenes: - [Bob Woodward]( meets Deep Throat in All the President’s Men - [The climax]( of six seasons of The Americans - [Batman’s entrance]( in The Dark Knight Parking Problems. Struggling to find a parking spot in real life is a modern torment that which is previously unknown to man, but in entertainment, it’s usually a [source of chuckles]( - [Rooney’s car gets towed]( in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off - [George fights for a spot]( in Seinfeld Rock Star Parking. At the other end of the spectrum is when characters unrealistically [catch all the parking breaks]( - In MacGyver and Starsky & Hutch, there’s always a perfect parking spot exactly where our heroes need one. - In Ghostbusters, the team [parks the ECTO-1]( right in front of the entrance of a busy hotel in New York City. Other tropes include [Improbable Parking Skills]( [Stealing the Handicapped Spot]( and [Parking Payback]( RECS [Saturday To-Do List graphic] Watch: Attendants get deep on pavement philosophy in the 2010 documentary [The Parking Lot Movie](. Listen: One song that will make you feel a little [sad]( and one that will make you [smile](. Figure it out, Raleigh: Find out [how much]( of your city is parking. Park in the corncob: Two of Chicago’s most [recognizable buildings]( have a very specific way of storing cars. Broaden your horizons: 25 of the [coolest car parks]( (say that with a British accent) around the globe. Corner route: A [statistical ranking]( of the best NFL tailgates. Go behind the scenes: What happens [inside]( a giant robotic parking garage. Take that, taxes: The average American spends $250+ on their tax returns. With an [Origin membership]( you can manage all your finances in one place + file state and federal taxes, all for $12.99/month. [Get one month free here]( *A message from our sponsor. GAMES [The puzzle section](#) Brew crossword: Park your butt on the couch and [solve this parking-themed crossword puzzle](. Open House Welcome to Open House, the only newsletter section that believes cars deserve a roof over their heads, too. We’ll give you a few facts about a listing and you try to guess the price. [General view of Mount Nicholson at 8 Mount Nicholson at the Peak.]Sam Tsang/South China Morning Post via Getty Images When this [parking space]( was sold in 2021, it set a record for the most expensive place to ditch your car. It’s located in an ultra-luxury building in a bougie residential area in Hong Kong. Amenities include: - There are no amenities - It’s a parking spot - View of Victoria Harbour How much did someone pay for this rectangular slab? SHARE THE BREW [Share Morning Brew]( with your friends, acquire free Brew swag, and then acquire more friends as a result of your fresh Brew swag. We’re saying we’ll give you free stuff and more friends if you share a link. One link. Your referral count: 0 [Click to Share]( Or copy & paste your referral link to others: [morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=4904f90a]( ANSWER $1.3 million Word of the Day Today’s Word of the Day is: buttress, meaning “to support or strengthen.” Thanks to Kevin from Charlotte, NC, for fortifying today’s newsletter with the suggestion. Submit another [Word of the Day here](. Written by [Adam Epstein]( Sam Klebanov, [Matty Merritt]( [Cassandra Cassidy]( Dave Lozo, [Molly Liebergall]( and [Neal Freyman]( Was this email forwarded to you? 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