Paved Paradise

Paved Paradise

Update: 2025-10-14
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Description

Ever wonder why a “simple” parking spot can decide what gets built on your block, how long your commute takes, or whether your favorite cafe survives? We sit down with Henry Grabar, author of Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World, for a live episode recording that reveals how curb space, parking minimums, and meter policy quietly shape housing, transit, local business, and city budgets. Henry takes us from the horse‑and‑wagon era to modern dynamic pricing, connecting the dots between what seems like a technical detail and the urban life we all experience.

If you care about vibrant neighborhoods, small business turnover, housing options, or safer, greener travel, this is a candid, myth‑busting look at the hidden system running beneath every city. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a friend who swears there’s “never any parking”—then tell us how your city should use one block of curb.

Show Notes:

  • Further Reading: 
    • Emergent Tokyo: Designing the Spontaneous City by Jorge Almazán, Joe McReynolds
    • Saving America's Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age by Lizabeth Cohen
    • Shade: the Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource by Sam Bloch
  • To view the show transcripts, click on the episode at https://bookedonplanning.buzzsprout.com/

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Paved Paradise

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