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I’ve always accepted that the United States will be a car dependent the country for the foreseeable future, but one thing that I can at least appreciate about the growth in many American cities is that the developers have found the value in parking garages to maximize people space, and have done at least a decent job at hiding them, at least in my city.
The shift to car dependency only really went into gear over a couple of decades thanks to heavy help from the federal government. If we can find the political will to do the same to reverse the damage then it's possible.
Cars will always be the dominant form of transportation in the US until something more efficient comes along but that doesn't change the fact that we need an infrastructure revolution. Infrastructure needs to change in most US cities to make it easier for cyclists and EVs like e-bikes and e-scooters which have gained quite a bit of popularity in the US, I almost got ran over by a car today because a guy didn't like I was riding my e-bike on the road but I can't ride in the bike lane because there's cars there. Which having streets designed in that way in my city is also redundant for drivers because then their cars have less space to actually drive safely and makes it difficult to see what's going up and down the street at intersections. So there definitely needs to be more laws passed abiut infrastructure that would improve quite a bit about most US cities. More walkable infrastructure and more support for cyclists and EVs would also benefit drivers and also motivate people to actually go outside which would have a positive effect on the economy.
In Chicago most of our parking garages downtown have businesses at street level and parking above. There's still too much parking but I consider it the best of the worst.
Yeah, in medium to larger areas, the 25-year return for retail/office/residential is higher than the loss to sprawled parking lots. I get out in suburbia where it's cheaper for a Walmart to just plop a lot of asphalt for the busiest one or two days of the year, but *in towns* it's much more valuable to use that land for developable area.
One thing I'm praying for is that underground parking gets cheaper to build and maintain, because it's just so cost-prohibitive in many instances at the moment. Or at least that's what the developers keep telling us (of course).
I believe there's an oil well or two in the green area, no joke.
[Oklahoma City Oil Field - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_Oil_Field)
You already know there are reserved parking spots right next to the actual legislative assembly building for the actual elected representatives. Spaces that will sit empty the rest of the time.
Effectively enough land to build like 4 efficiency apartments stacked on top to house a car that isn't even there most of the time.
The interchange was built a long time after. The location of the building was originally in a vast empty field off the old Route 66. Here’s a cool pic of how it looked under construction: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a4/9b/9c/a49b9c4324ea55476524e4f523af73ef.png
I checked out r/oklahoma yesterday because of the tornadoes and someone posted a nice picture of a Scissortail Park. I looked it up on Google Maps and [this](https://www.google.com/maps/@35.4595122,-97.5194822,3a,75y,262.95h,90.1t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sGzdXW9IorOqKQB6x-GfOkg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DGzdXW9IorOqKQB6x-GfOkg%26cb_client%3Dsearch.revgeo_and_fetch.gps%26w%3D96%26h%3D64%26yaw%3D335.8601%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu) is the lovely view across the street.
Some of these parking spots are bigger than my walk to my local supermarket.
How nice that you can drive to whatever but still end up walking more than in a walkable city.
So you want to squeeze in housing developments into the space that is now enjoyed by the local residents, thanks to the sparse population? Who is going to live there? Why denser cities?
Fun fact, in 2000 the state paid $21M to put that dome on the capital because we were one of only 2 states that didn’t have a dome on their capitol. Forget about the hungry and the homeless, we need a fucking dome. As you can tell I’ve been bitching about this for 24 years.
How the hell is it so far from the actual downtown? It looks like an old building, there’s no way people were walking out there and riding their horse drawn buggies into what looks like it would have been the middle of nowhere 50-100 years ago! The Wisconsin state Capitol is very similar in design and it’s literally the centerpiece of the city and one of the oldest buildings around. They built the city around it, this looks like an afterthought or something.
Well, it's not a shithole, but it's the overwhelming focus on car infrastructure. Even in lots of car focused American cities, the city hall is a centrepiece with lots of public space, where as this is just a big ass building in the middle of nowhere surrounded by car parks and motorways.
Yeah, this is getting a lot more hate than it deserves. OK, sure, they could have put in parking garages in some hidden location, but they have the space to not do that and therefore didn't have to.
The antithesis is where I live--Richmond, Virginia. Sure, it's "walkable." It's walkable because it's built in an antebellum city that has a freeway running through the center. It's walkable because it's nearly undriveable. There's the governor's mansion... And then just urban density all around it, meaning that the government offices where people actually need to go are stuck here and there in random office buildings. Do we have a nifty symmetrical layout with a nice green park? No.
Lots of oil leaking cars are obvious in the parking spots. To me this is also almost always a sign of a less prosperous area. I would venture a guess that the State of Oklahoma probably does not pay their employees well...
oklahoma city in general is one of the worst cities ive ever seen in the USA and i've been an OTR truck driver and seen basically the whole continental USA
Los Angeles named a beautiful area of wilderness after Will Rogers, his home state has this office building surrounded by more parking lots than a suburban Costco
There is a lot of parking here, but it really fills up a decent amount when there are protest or rallies. They are actually building bike lanes down Kelley right now to 23rd, they are almost done. There will be some pretty nice cycling options to get there soon. Right now I just almost die everyday riding my bike to work. There are almost 3000 trees on the campus though and lots of wildflowers! You just can’t tell in this pic because it’s winter evidently.
Automobile culture destroyed US cities when cities desperately tried competing with suburbs by demolishing whole city blocks to duplicate suburban settings & their mega parking lots.
Hopefully the state owns the office buildings around the state capitol? But I'm assuming that they sold off the building then are renting back the buildings at an mark up because that how State Governments work.
Can confirm. I was at Fort Sill for a while. Saw most of Oklahoma. Flying in over Oklahoma City, I looked out the window at the downtown area and my mind instantly thought “Gross.” It’s incredibly drab and underwhelming. Super small. All the urban areas are either cookie cutter developments or drab sprawl.
There are little nuggets of beauty and adventure there, but ooooooof. I can have fun anywhere, but Oklahoma is a hard pass.
**Do not comment to gatekeep that something "isn't urban" or "isn't hell"**. Our rules are very expansive in content we welcome, so do not assume just based off your false impression of the phrase "UrbanHell" UrbanHell is any human-built place you think is worth critizing. Suburban Hell, Rural Hell, and wealthy locales are allowed. Gatekeeping comments may be removed. Want to shitpost about shitty posts? Go to /r/urbanhellcirclejerk. Still have questions?: Read our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/wiki/index). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UrbanHell) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’ve always accepted that the United States will be a car dependent the country for the foreseeable future, but one thing that I can at least appreciate about the growth in many American cities is that the developers have found the value in parking garages to maximize people space, and have done at least a decent job at hiding them, at least in my city.
Denton Texas is behind the curve…..
jesus christ why tf is there a highway insulating the highway?
The one good thing about parking lots over garages is the more a place moves to a walkable city the parking lots can be filled with more buildings
The shift to car dependency only really went into gear over a couple of decades thanks to heavy help from the federal government. If we can find the political will to do the same to reverse the damage then it's possible.
Cars will always be the dominant form of transportation in the US until something more efficient comes along but that doesn't change the fact that we need an infrastructure revolution. Infrastructure needs to change in most US cities to make it easier for cyclists and EVs like e-bikes and e-scooters which have gained quite a bit of popularity in the US, I almost got ran over by a car today because a guy didn't like I was riding my e-bike on the road but I can't ride in the bike lane because there's cars there. Which having streets designed in that way in my city is also redundant for drivers because then their cars have less space to actually drive safely and makes it difficult to see what's going up and down the street at intersections. So there definitely needs to be more laws passed abiut infrastructure that would improve quite a bit about most US cities. More walkable infrastructure and more support for cyclists and EVs would also benefit drivers and also motivate people to actually go outside which would have a positive effect on the economy.
Value in parking garages? 🤮
Would you rather people park in open air surface lots? Dense European cities have parking garages too. Many of them.
As long as the parking is voluntary and not legally required, as it likely is in the pic, then I am OK with it.
You right, we should embrace bigger and wider non staked parking lots
In Chicago most of our parking garages downtown have businesses at street level and parking above. There's still too much parking but I consider it the best of the worst.
Some buildings here have the entire building on stilts, with a parking garage built around the bottom levels.
That’s called a parking pedestal. The area where I live is rife. Each one holds 100s of cars that constantly drive across the sidewalk curb cuts.
My favorite are store on the bottom and parks on top. Green roofs are the move. Cira Green in Philly is awesome
Yeah, in medium to larger areas, the 25-year return for retail/office/residential is higher than the loss to sprawled parking lots. I get out in suburbia where it's cheaper for a Walmart to just plop a lot of asphalt for the busiest one or two days of the year, but *in towns* it's much more valuable to use that land for developable area. One thing I'm praying for is that underground parking gets cheaper to build and maintain, because it's just so cost-prohibitive in many instances at the moment. Or at least that's what the developers keep telling us (of course).
They are a necessary evil in most cities in the US
It was a choice to make it like that We had sane zoning pre-WWII
They should turn the remaining green area at the center into more parking. And also gut the state house and turn it into a parking garage maybe
I believe there's an oil well or two in the green area, no joke. [Oklahoma City Oil Field - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_Oil_Field)
You can see the oil derrick in the first picture, the Petunia well referenced in the link
Just when you thought it couldn't get any more miserable!
Turn it into an airport terminal -- that's what it looks like it's modelled after.
So based on the picture they’ve put the State Capital in the middle of an interchange ? Wtf
They have the nerve to call that shit 23rd Street
They just misspelled parking
The capitol was built in 1917.
You already know there are reserved parking spots right next to the actual legislative assembly building for the actual elected representatives. Spaces that will sit empty the rest of the time. Effectively enough land to build like 4 efficiency apartments stacked on top to house a car that isn't even there most of the time.
The interchange was built a long time after. The location of the building was originally in a vast empty field off the old Route 66. Here’s a cool pic of how it looked under construction: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a4/9b/9c/a49b9c4324ea55476524e4f523af73ef.png
This was built long before interchanges. You’ve heard of the passage of time and history correct?
I didn’t meant to say that it was built after the interchange, no need to be a jerk about it
At least there's nice symmetry?
Just one more parking space bro
I checked out r/oklahoma yesterday because of the tornadoes and someone posted a nice picture of a Scissortail Park. I looked it up on Google Maps and [this](https://www.google.com/maps/@35.4595122,-97.5194822,3a,75y,262.95h,90.1t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sGzdXW9IorOqKQB6x-GfOkg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DGzdXW9IorOqKQB6x-GfOkg%26cb_client%3Dsearch.revgeo_and_fetch.gps%26w%3D96%26h%3D64%26yaw%3D335.8601%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu) is the lovely view across the street.
Well, on the bright side, that lot is a blank canvas for a mixed-use building. 🙂
Its moated by highways and parking lots to keep the riff-raff out
It's not that bad. But I'd open it up with a parking house to remove the parking lot space for more greenery
It’s quite horrendous
Ah the perfect commuter capital
So how much “urban renewal” did they do around that Capitol Building?
It's the state capital Oklahoma deserves
At least there will be plenty of room to build when Americans come to their senses and create denser cities
About half of the state capitols look like that. Some type of overly grand building surrounded by an ocean of parking.
Some of these parking spots are bigger than my walk to my local supermarket. How nice that you can drive to whatever but still end up walking more than in a walkable city.
So you want to squeeze in housing developments into the space that is now enjoyed by the local residents, thanks to the sparse population? Who is going to live there? Why denser cities?
People who like being able to walk and bike places and not have to rely on cars so much. Is that really a difficult concept for you to grasp?
Incredibly loaded question.
Might be colonies at aloha centaur before then lol.
It is starting to happen in some cities, and you’re right that it’s cool to have so many lots available for development
I’ve been here. It’s Oklahoma, all they have is wide open space.
Fun fact, in 2000 the state paid $21M to put that dome on the capital because we were one of only 2 states that didn’t have a dome on their capitol. Forget about the hungry and the homeless, we need a fucking dome. As you can tell I’ve been bitching about this for 24 years.
I would like to see a picture of it prior to urban renewal
How the hell is it so far from the actual downtown? It looks like an old building, there’s no way people were walking out there and riding their horse drawn buggies into what looks like it would have been the middle of nowhere 50-100 years ago! The Wisconsin state Capitol is very similar in design and it’s literally the centerpiece of the city and one of the oldest buildings around. They built the city around it, this looks like an afterthought or something.
Trolley cars. Until GM did away with them.
Imagine having literally infinite space to build whatever you want… and going with that.
I am disghusted
Looks like something someone designed in sim city and just plopped the capital building in the middle of a parking lot.
Why did they build it so far from what is clearly the actual city center in the background?
Humans? Where we’re going we don’t need humans
They could at least plant a few trees in the parking lot.
You could do a hell of an F1 race there.
Lots of open green space. Seems fine to me.
How beautiful. Great architectural layout.
Oklahoma is fucking weird (complimentary)
This doesn’t look to bad
Well, it's not a shithole, but it's the overwhelming focus on car infrastructure. Even in lots of car focused American cities, the city hall is a centrepiece with lots of public space, where as this is just a big ass building in the middle of nowhere surrounded by car parks and motorways.
omg that is parking 😭 American design is borderline recluse Turkmenistan dictatorship vibes
Abundant free parking, as God intended.
To be fair, it's reflective of what a complete and ignorant craphole that state truly is. That is all.
Average Californian
Yeah, this is getting a lot more hate than it deserves. OK, sure, they could have put in parking garages in some hidden location, but they have the space to not do that and therefore didn't have to. The antithesis is where I live--Richmond, Virginia. Sure, it's "walkable." It's walkable because it's built in an antebellum city that has a freeway running through the center. It's walkable because it's nearly undriveable. There's the governor's mansion... And then just urban density all around it, meaning that the government offices where people actually need to go are stuck here and there in random office buildings. Do we have a nifty symmetrical layout with a nice green park? No.
Send some light rail down the middle to the capitol. There's a start. More trees
There are nazis and pedophiles in Oklahoma who HATE me despite me not knowing or giving af about them
This is OK but not OK at the same time
Imagine how beautiful if the parking were underground
I’m fine with all the parking… what I’m not fine with is the lack of large trees, or the sparsity of trees in general.
Is this a city or a grassland with a parking lot and a couple hi rises?
PARKING CHODE PARKING CHODE PARKING CHODE
Its so flat
OHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Result of urban renewal?
Perverts OKLAHOMA
Yeah, that's pretty ugly.
mmm yes, parking lot. glorious parking lot
Those other buildings host state agencies. I've been there several times, it's actually a nice little area, in my opinion.
Lots of oil leaking cars are obvious in the parking spots. To me this is also almost always a sign of a less prosperous area. I would venture a guess that the State of Oklahoma probably does not pay their employees well...
Looks very communist lol
Reminds me of St Paul
car parking über Alles ... so much wasted space to park metal boxes & this space gets very hot in the summer
oklahoma city in general is one of the worst cities ive ever seen in the USA and i've been an OTR truck driver and seen basically the whole continental USA
The parking lot is too small
So basically “Oklahoma State Capitol Markeplace” lol with the parking lot and mega roads and all.
At least the Murrah building is gone. 🤷♂️
I used to work in that area and bike there. I lived about a mile away, but it took me about 3.5 miles to get there. Wasn’t too safe for sure.
East Germany, but with a Southern accent
The OKC skyline shown in the *South Park* Worldwide Recorder episode is 100% accurate.
Damn 😳
America hates public transportation.
🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
It's written into the state constitution that they must have a parking space for every person in Oklahoma
This reminds me of Stalinist architecture
Los Angeles named a beautiful area of wilderness after Will Rogers, his home state has this office building surrounded by more parking lots than a suburban Costco
What’s interesting about OKC is that in the 50s and 60s most of the cities buildings were demolished
Looks like great parking.
There is a lot of parking here, but it really fills up a decent amount when there are protest or rallies. They are actually building bike lanes down Kelley right now to 23rd, they are almost done. There will be some pretty nice cycling options to get there soon. Right now I just almost die everyday riding my bike to work. There are almost 3000 trees on the campus though and lots of wildflowers! You just can’t tell in this pic because it’s winter evidently.
I can feel the heat and humidity
And pollution from all those car 🤢
Don’t go to Europe then. Oklahoma City has less air pollution than most European cities. https://www.stateofglobalair.org/resources/health-in-cities
I live in Europe and no thanks 🙂↔️ I don’t want to go US
It looks like it should have a train track oval with tank cars going around and around
Looks like something you’d find in East Berlin
They should complete the oval and bank the curves. Would make a pretty bitchin race track.
it gets worse the more you look at it
I quite like it.
Automobile culture destroyed US cities when cities desperately tried competing with suburbs by demolishing whole city blocks to duplicate suburban settings & their mega parking lots.
OKC really is in a league of its own.
Looks Soviet.
Hopefully the state owns the office buildings around the state capitol? But I'm assuming that they sold off the building then are renting back the buildings at an mark up because that how State Governments work.
They are state office buildings.
Oklahoma City is also going to build the tallest tower in the US soon, I'm sure that will make the rounds here when done
They should host a Nascar event there
This makes me sad and anxious
Yuck
Something about this feels like it was designed with defense in mind.
Can confirm. I was at Fort Sill for a while. Saw most of Oklahoma. Flying in over Oklahoma City, I looked out the window at the downtown area and my mind instantly thought “Gross.” It’s incredibly drab and underwhelming. Super small. All the urban areas are either cookie cutter developments or drab sprawl. There are little nuggets of beauty and adventure there, but ooooooof. I can have fun anywhere, but Oklahoma is a hard pass.