February 2, 2026
Death by a thousand parking spots
Stop incentivizing surface parking lots
Asphalt is eating downtown—readers say price parking or pave with solar
TLDR: Urban economist Greg Miller says Syracuse’s downtown parking lots drain city value and block homes and jobs. Comments erupted: some want land-value taxes to punish empty lots, others demand priced street parking, and one wild card wants solar canopies—all agreeing prime land should serve people, not sit empty.
Greg Miller’s plea to stop incentivizing surface parking lots hit Syracuse like a horn blaring at 3 a.m. He argues downtown asphalt doesn’t just sit there—it drains value, blocking homes, jobs, and cafés from ever existing. His model shows buildings add to a city’s “net contribution,” while a parking lot sinks below the surface in red. Syracuse’s data? Parking lots sitting on $44 million worth of land. The community didn’t hold back: one reader thundered that “cars—and parking—kill cities,” name-dropping the classic [The High Cost of Free Parking] book, while others posted memes of “asphalt vampires” sucking downtown’s soul.
Then came the policy brawl. A commenter hyped a New York bill to let cities try a land-value tax—tax the land, not the building—to make dead lots financially painful, linking a local article. Another warned that ditching parking minimums alone just pushes drivers onto free street spots and demanded cities simply price the curb. A side debate roasted highways as the real land hogs. And the wildcard take? Cover lots with solar panels so people stay dry and the grid gets juice. The vibe: stop coddling “free” parking and make prime land pay its way. Right now, it’s not.
Key Points
- •The author visited Syracuse, New York to discuss land policies and observed extensive surface parking in downtown.
- •He models U.S. urban areas using property tax data and GIS tools (including Google Earth).
- •Parcels are evaluated by net economic contribution defined as Economic Output minus Land Value.
- •Surface parking lots are presented as negative-value uses that consume valuable downtown land without sufficient economic output.
- •In Syracuse, solely parking-use parcels account for $44 million in non-exempt land value, about 6% of the city’s total land value.