[closeparen]

We have a middle class in this country because it's reasonable to participate in productive economic activity while living in housing whose price doesn't completely swallow your productivity. Parking is what makes that possible. It's a fucking great use of land.

(I say this as a carfree renter in an urban high-rise. This is fun, but in no way sustainable - I have no hope of owning an analogous condo, let alone one big enough for a family, and that's as a well-compensated professional. When it comes time for stability and child-raising, it will be imperative to chose a city with enough parking that I can commute from an outer suburb where prices are accessible to mere upper-income salary workers. Far as I can tell, cities with your view of land use only work for longtime incumbents, international oligarchs, and twentysomethings living together like they're still in college).

[icebraining]

Other countries have much less parking, yet they somehow manage to have a middle class.

Have you considered that one of reasons for the high condo prices may be that there's too few of them, in part because land that could be used to build a bunch more is taken up by parking lots?

Especially if we're talking about flat parking (not silos), a single spot is taking the place of multiple condos. So you can imagine how much each actually costs, even if you're not the one paying the price.

[closeparen]

>there's too few of them

Absolutely, yes! I'm just not holding my breath for public opinion to turn around on whether condo towers and the developers who build them are good or evil.

>in part because land that could be used to build a bunch more

In minuscule part. Mostly, land is taken up by buildings that are too short.

>a single spot is taking the place of multiple condos

This presumes a building height that I assure you would get laughed out of the Zoning Adjustments Board hearing room.

Each parking space enables timely access to much more square feet of land than any residential construction project would contemplate. (Up to the point where the road network breaks down due to congestion, which is why I think affordability in those cities is probably a lost cause).

> yet they somehow manage to have a middle class.

Probably because their electorates are able to distinguish between mid-rise apartment blocks and Satan, just like they distinguish between single-payer healthcare and the USSR.

[yardie]

There are other countries with similar or higher productivity. The need for a car and car parking is not a requirement for a strong middle class

[closeparen]

There are other countries without the need for a private health insurance market. Yet no one thinks shutting down the health insurance market would be good policy unless combined with a replacement like single-payer.

The same is true for parking. A replacement transportation system would be better, but that doesn't excuse moving us towards a world with no transportation system.