This is Buffalo, New York. In this city, parking is no longer mandatory. Many new buildings don't include parking. This makes condos more affordable.
Parking increases construction costs
Even a basic, stand-alone parking structure costs nearly $28,000 per spot on average, not including land.
Developers typically try to study the market for every aspect of a project — the apartment sizes, the targeted rents, the building amenities.
But they don’t do that basic exercise for something as costly as parking, because they have no choice in the matter. Most US cities force them to build parking.
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The idea that a regular ass apartment building is something special in the US boggles my European mind.
They have to start somewhere, although I imagine it's going to be a borderline impossible task to remove cars from American culture.
Eh, if they start to build places cheaper for non-carbrains, it's already a good start~
Are they still required to have separate fire escapes distinct from the main corridor and/or multiple stairwells per building, in the way that European building codes don’t require? Apparently those are the next factor after parking pushing up cost per square foot in the US, and statistics don’t show them yielding better fire safety than in Europe.
Would having a car even help in Buffalo for some parts of the year? They get legit apocalyptic levels of snow AFAIK. Good move all around.
It's usually cleaned up pretty quickly. The heavy snows are usually earlier in the winter.
The second half of winter is a nightmare for public transit users - high winds and crazy wind chills. Standing out in the elements (even bus shelters) when it's below zero Fahrenheit is not a good time.
That's my favorite time. It's much more exciting than the usual boring routine.
Biking at -25°C or lower is fun too, if it's humid enough, because the air is pretty when going faster.
Once I forgot my protective gear and I had nest looking eyelashes and my mustache turned into icecles. It was a pretty cool look.
Anyhow, I like the cold
Is that not a good thing, when you consider climate change?