Here's another good quote: "Single-car garages, hidden in backyards and alleyways in the early 20th century, doubled in size by the 1970s and moved onto the fr

Here's another good quote: "Single-car garages, hidden in backyards and alleyways in the early 20th century, doubled in size by the 1970s and moved onto the front lawn once cities began to require two residential spaces for every house." The LA city requirement that new houses must have parking for two cars, side-by-side, has pretty much made the only possible home layout like this: http://image.americanhomeguides.com/cgi-bin/imagemgr/get_image?image=832bed1e1f4626ee5de7cee343be8dfe http://image.americanhomeguides.com/cgi-bin/imagemgr/get_ima... i.e., driveway straight up to garage, which is in front of house. This means the front yard is half concrete, and every (new) house front is dominated by the garage. Even relaxing the requirement to allow tandem parking would be an improvement.