Paved Paradise

How Parking Explains the World

By: Henry Grabar

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

Shortlisted for the Zócalo Book Prize

Named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker and The New Republic

“Consistently entertaining and often downright funny.”—The New Yorker

“Wry and revelatory.” —The New York Times
"A romp, packed with tales of anger, violence, theft, lust, greed, political chicanery and transportation policy gone wrong . . . highly entertaining." —The Los Angeles Times

An entertaining, enlightening, and utterly original investigation into one of the most quietly influential forces in modern American life—the humble parking spot

Parking, quite literally, has a death grip on America: each year a shocking number of Americans kill one another over parking spots, and we routinely do ri­diculous things for parking, contorting our professional, social, and financial lives to get a spot. Since the advent of the car, we have deformed our cities in a Sisyphean quest for car storage, and as a result, much of the nation’s most valuable real estate is now devoted to empty vehicles. Parking determines the design of new buildings and the fate of old ones, traffic patterns and the viability of transit, neighborhood politics and municipal finance, and the overall quality of public space. Is this really the best use of our finite resources? Is parking really more important than everything else?

In a beguiling and absurdly hilarious mix of history, politics, and reportage, Slate staff writer Henry Grabar brilliantly surveys the nation’s parking crisis, revealing how the compulsion for car storage has exacerbated some of our most acute problems— from housing affordability to the accelerating global climate disaster—and, ultimately, how we can free our cities from park­ing’s cruel yoke.

Inspiring in its unique perspective on the problem of parking.

What an amazing book. I learned more about parking than I ever thought possible. And yet it was entertaining, meaningful and inspiring. It makes me want to go lobby our village our state and our country to start making changes for the better. America doesn’t have to be suburban squalor forever. It just needs to rethink parking.

Cracked my mind wide open

Vital information and perspective shifting for anyone who values affordable housing and walkable cities. Tons of enlightening data and statistics but never dry or dull. Engaging anecdotes to really drive home (npi) the author’s thesis.

Places to live or places to park?

This is a brilliant analysis of how 20th century culture traded off affordable housing in exchange for free parking, and how 21st century urban planners and technology are slowly, but surely changing the landscape. 

Fascinating, thoughtful analysis

Forever transformed how I view our cities and transportation and even the role autonomous vehicles will play in our post Covid transportation policies. A must read for anyone interested in the built environment.

Parking is important. And here's why...

I would have never thought that I would be reading a book about parking, but here I am. This book changed my mind and my entire philosophy of urban planning by its sound argument on the concerns and limitation of parking. Must read.