Why do we talk so much about ending parking minimums here at Strong Towns?

Two reasons.

1. Parking minimums are disastrous for our towns and cities. They hurt small businesses, reduce walkability, are harmful to the environment, and result in parking deserts that are expensive to maintain and generate little tax revenue. In every way parking minimums undermine the economic vitality of our town. They also lead to some truly absurd situations: parking lots bigger than the stores they’re meant to serve, equations that dictate how many parking spots a nunnery should have, and the fact that American parking lots may now occupy a greater land area than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

2. Parking minimums are relatively simple to end. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a simpler change to our zoning codes or one that would have as big an impact on making our towns and cities stronger.

Now, maybe you’ve heard the same argument we have: “Well, we will need those big parking lots on Black Friday.”

Let’s set aside how nonsensical it is to commandeer valuable land 365 days a year because it might be needed on just one of them. What’s wild is how often the parking lots we used Black Friday to justify end up underused on what is the supposed to be the busiest parking day of the year.

Every November, Strong Towns organizes a social media campaign to draw attention to the devastating effects of parking minimums and the most laughable rationale used to justify them. On Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping days of the year, we ask folk across North America to take photos of the hardly-full parking lots in their communities. They upload these photos to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag #BlackFridayParking.

Last year, hundreds of photos were shared and the campaign helped spur national conversations about parking minimums. We want this year to be even bigger so we can end parking minimums once and for all.

Would you help us spread the word? It’s super easy. What we’re asking you to do is post one or more of the following graphics to social media. Use the hashtag #BlackFridayParking and set the post to “public” so we can see it. As a way to say thank you, next week we will send you our brand new parking e-book via direct message. (The e-book won’t be available to the general public until later.)

Ending parking minimums is the gift that keeps on giving for our communities. The impact will be felt for literally generations to come. Will you help us make this gift a reality for more communities everywhere?