Cars are a fundamental requirement for living in most of America. The problems which arise from lack of parking is that cars become a nuisance fast. I lived i

Cars are a fundamental requirement for living in most of America. The problems which arise from lack of parking is that cars become a nuisance fast. I lived in an apartment complex where the parking minimum requirements were...bent... by the developer and it was by far the worst place I ever lived. Basically, what happened was the complex was under development, and the soil couldn't support a parking lot where one was planned due to drainage. So parking was added to another section of the development, around 1.0mi or so down the road. Meaning one complex had 4 spots per unit, with the other had like 0.5 spots per unit, but it worked out to 2.25 or something spots per unit on average. (I know this because I was friends with the complex manager, and she gave me the details) The end result was people would park on sidewalks, in the middle of the road, in front of garages, double park, etc. It was a nightmare of epic proportions. People blocked in by assholes would blare their horns at 6AM. Others would intentionally "move" cars out of the way, which led to fights. There was a shooting. The fire marshal stepped in and started fining the complex, but they couldn't get people to stop, short of evictions. The people who paid ridiculous amounts of money for their town homes next door were so pissed off about people parking in their private community that the cops were constantly harassing people for trespassing. I faced this myself just by going for a walk. Why didn't people just get cars towed? Because tow trucks won't come out on someone's word. You actually have to go and tell the main office, then they have to call the tow company. But the thing is, the tow company doesn't tell you that, they just say they are "on their way," so you wait an hour or two for them to tow the car blocking you in and they never come. So yeah, minimum parking is bad. But no minimum parking when everyone ones a car is worse. You need space for cars somewhere. I say this as a person who absolutely loves walkable cities, and lives in a decently walkable one myself. We need to get rid of parking minimums, but we need to be smart about it. Maybe have the developers build parking in lots in designated areas on the perimeter of the development (kind of like those outdoor malls have)?