Parking places

An excellent article on parking, which sounds like a contradiction in terms but isn't. It speaks from an American viewpoint, obviously, but the difference between their problems and ours is only one of scale, from what I can see. The provision of parking places is a major problem for city planners, increases our dependence on the ghastly motor car, contributes to everything from pollution to obesity, and has real environmental effects on heavy metal pollution, the disposition of water-table resources and even the weather.

It's always a pleasure to finish reading an article feeling smarter than you were at the beginning, which is not often the case with Salon. Although it's nice to read about George Clooney too, from time to time.