Skip to content

Parking Madness Competition: Which Former Denver Parking Lots Improved the Most?

This year's tournament will match up reformed parking craters: Former surface lots that are now filled with city. Send us entries!
Parking Madness Competition: Which Former Denver Parking Lots Improved the Most?
Downtown Denver in the 1970s vs. today. Before photo: Nick DeWolf via Flickr
2016-07-28_parking-lots-tilted-800x481
This 2016 visualization shows the roughly 237 acres of space in Downtown Denver devoted to surface lots and parking structures. Image: Denver Infill Blog

As basketball fans gear up for tournament season, Streetsblog USA is looking for parking lots around the country that went from blight to beautiful — including in the Denver area.

Our sixth-annual Parking Madness competition, we normally ask readers to help us compare some of the worst spaces in cities, surface parking lots, also known as parking craters.

But this year, the contest is taking an upbeat tone: We’re looking for former car storage areas that transformed from dead, ugly places into “awesome city spaces,” as Streetsblog USA writer Angie Schmitt put it.

“The above aerial [photo shows] downtown Denver in the 1970s vs. today is a great example of the kind of improvements cities can make with the right mix of attention, policy and investment,” she wrote.

To enter, send photos and a short description to Angie Schmitt at Streetsblog Just click the link or email angie@Streetsblog.org by Monday March 18.

Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.

Comments are closed.

More from Streetsblog Denver

Farewell to Streetsblog Denver in five commentaries

January 31, 2022

Commentary: Death of the perfect bike lane

January 31, 2022

Commentary: Sidewalks will carry you wherever I go

January 31, 2022

Commentary: In Streetsblog Denver’s absence, local news has a responsibility to get out from behind the windshield

January 31, 2022

Commentary: Becoming a bike advocate and how Streetsblog Denver helped me find community

January 31, 2022
See all posts