{"product_id":"paved-paradise-how-parking-explains-the-world-881137","title":"Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: bold;\"\u003eShortlisted for the Zócalo Book Prize\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNamed one of the best books of the year by \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe New Republic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn entertaining, enlightening, and utterly original investigation into one of the most quietly influential forces in modern American life—the humble parking spot\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eParking, 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 \u003ci\u003ereally\u003c\/i\u003e more important than everything else? \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn a beguiling and absurdly hilarious mix of history, politics, and reportage, \u003ci\u003eSlate \u003c\/i\u003estaff 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Royal Gift Land","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42925299826777,"sku":"9781984881137","price":14.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0611\/0206\/3705\/files\/9781984881137.jpg?v=1766072877","url":"https:\/\/royalgiftland.com\/products\/paved-paradise-how-parking-explains-the-world-881137","provider":"Royal Gift Land","version":"1.0","type":"link"}