This image shows a group of people gathered in what appears to be a government building or a public meeting hall. In the foreground, a man stands at a podium with a sign reading "PEOPLE OVER PARKING ACT". He is flanked by others holding signs, such as "Neighbors for More Neighbors" with additional text that is not fully legible. To the right, there is a tall stack of red-colored binders or documents, labeled as the "Impact Report 2023". This suggests that the event is related to urban planning or housing policy, possibly advocating for prioritizing community and living space over car parking areas. There are U.S. flags in the background, indicating this may be in the United States. The atmosphere suggests a formal announcement or advocacy effort with media presence, as the event seems organized for a significant announcement or report release.

Impact Report 2023

1. Letter From The President

2023
Was a watershed year for parking reform.
We saw:

  • 18 U.S. municipalities repealed parking mandates, including Austin, Texas; Duluth, Minnesota; and Richmond, Virginia.
  • Parking policy reached mainstream audiences via flagship sources like NPR, The New York Times, and CNN.
  • The success of Henry Grabar’s book, Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World.
  • Real impact from prior reforms, such as 68% of new housing in Buffalo having less parking than required before reform.

Across the U.S. and abroad, people are discovering that parking reform is a common-sense way to unlock safer streets, create more liveable and walkable communities, and address the housing and climate crises.

2023 was also a watershed year for the Parking Reform Network. We tripled our fundraising and were able to hire our first staff members. We launched the viral Parking Lot Map. We hosted more than 10 in-person events and sent 50 weekly newsletters. All of this was made possible thanks to 550 individual donors and over 60 volunteers and interns.

The most important word in “Parking Reform Network” is “network.” We are member-powered and exist to connect and support the folks making parking reform happen. Thank you for investing in this movement!

headshot of president Tony Jordan. He is wearing a suit with a pink stripped coloured tie.

Tony Jordan – President

2. Legislative Wins

18 U.S. municipalities repealed parking mandates in 2023:

The image is a chart titled u0022Abolished Mandates in 2023u0022 against a blurred background of a parking lot. The chart is a continuation of a list and shows cities ranked from number 1 to number 9 by some unspecified criteria related to the abolition of mandates in the year 2023. The columns display the rank, city, and population as follows:  #1 Austin, TX - 974k #2 Portland, OR - 654k #3 Durham, NC - 278k #4 Richmond, VA - 230k #5 Salem, OR - 174k #6 Eugene, OR - 172k #7 Bend, OR - 100k #8 Beaverton, OR - 99k #9 Duluth, MN - 86k At the bottom right corner of the chart is the logo u0022PRNu0022 within a square bracket. This image appears to be part of a report or analysis document regarding policy changes in various cities.
 The image features a graphic with a list of cities and their corresponding population figures, under the heading u0022Abolished Mandates in 2023.u0022 The background of the graphic is superimposed over a parking lot. The table is arranged in three columns labeled u0022Rank,u0022 u0022City,u0022 and u0022Population.u0022 It lists cities ranked from number 10 to number 18. The cities and populations are as follows:  #10 Springfield, OR with a population of 62k #11 Albany, OR with 56k #12 Charlottesville, VA with 47k #13 Burlington, VT with 43k #14 Ashland, OR with 21k #15 Central Point, OR with 19k #16 Portsmouth, OH with 18k #17 Taylor, TX with 16k #18 Gold Hill, OR with 1k In the bottom right corner, there is a logo or icon with the letters u0022P R Nu0022 inside a bracket. This image appears to be from a report or presentation related to urban planning or policy changes, specifically focusing on the abolition of certain mandates, possibly those related to parking or urban development, in the year 2023. The use of the term u0022Abolished Mandatesu0022 suggests that the cities listed have removed or revoked certain regulations or requirements.

While we were not directly involved with every city, our members and partner organizations often were.

Our partner organization Austin Parking Reform Coalition made headlines in November when Austin, Texas became the largest city in the U.S. to repeal parking mandates. We’re proud to have supported the work that led to this historic change by helping fund an on-the-ground organizer in 2022 and continuing our support throughout 2023 by funding social and organizing events and sharing our expertise with the main organizers.

The image is a graphic profile featuring a man with the name "Adam Greenfield," identified as an organizer from the Austin Parking Reform Coalition. The man is smiling and appears to be in an outdoor setting with blurred background elements that could be trees or decorations. The design includes a circular cutout for the man’s portrait and graphic elements with shades of teal and pink. The text and the photo are positioned on a soft gray background. This profile graphic likely serves to introduce or highlight the individual's role within a certain context, possibly related to the content from previous images about parking reform or urban policy changes.

The Austin Parking Reform Coalition is so grateful to the Parking Reform Network, whose support and guidance was central to eliminating parking mandates in Austin. This reform will lead to profoundly positive impacts in our city for decades to come. We encourage advocates in other cities across the country to join and support PRN. This is one of the best steps you can take in bringing parking reform to your city.

We anticipate that Austin’s parking mandates repeal will contribute to the progress they’ve already made in lowering housing prices thanks to other pro-housing reforms.

Duluth, Minnesota, also offers a compelling case study for our impact. Since being crowned “climate-proof Duluth” in 2019, the city has seen population growth and increasing housing unaffordability. In spring 2023, we consulted with a city council member who was interested in repealing their parking mandates. In August 2023, our president, Tony Jordan, consulted with city planning staff, followed by a presentation to the Duluth Planning Commission. Two months later, the city council repealed all parking minimums. In early 2024, building off of the momentum from Duluth, PRN co-presented at the press conference for the Minnesota People Over Parking Act alongside the bill’s sponsor State Senator Omar Fateh, Strong Towns’ Chuck Marohn, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, and other Minnesota lawmakers.

Finally, the 10 reforms passed in Oregon also show a promising trend in parking reform: how to reach a tipping point through statewide action. As reported by Catie Gould from our partner Sightline Institute, changes in state rules prompted many cities to take the simplest route of repealing their parking mandates citywide.

3. Parking Reform Goes Mainstream

2023 saw an unprecedented leap in media recognition for the parking reform movement. We’ve transitioned from seeking media attention to being proactively sought out as a credible authority. Prominent publications, such as The New York Times, Scientific American, The Washington Post, Slate, Big Think, NPR, and CNN now routinely discuss parking reform and cite us as a trusted source of expertise.

Scientific American
The New York Times
CNN

Henry Grabar’s book, Paved Paradise, also made waves in 2023, bringing parking reform to mainstream audiences. Its popularity was further cemented by a nationwide book tour, which included our well-attended members-only Q&A gathering with Henry Grabar. In addition to shining a spotlight on parking reform at large, we’re grateful to Henry for including a chapter about the Parking Reform Network.

As the growth of the parking reform movement has taken off in traditional and social media, we’re thankful for all of our friends across the internet who help share our message to new audiences.  We were thrilled when popular YouTuber Ray Delahanty, known as City Nerd mentioned us in a video. Ray is a PRN member, a strong supporter of parking reform, and graciously contributed to our fundraising campaign by sharing a personal message with our membership about why he supports us.

4. Prior Reforms are Working

New data in 2023 continue to show that parking reforms passed in prior years are working. In both Buffalo and Seattle, 60-70% of the housing built since their reforms passed would have been illegal to build before, as reported by our partner Catie Gould at Sightline.

Notably, 70% of all new buildings in Seattle continue to include off-street parking, and 83% in Buffalo, showing that the sky doesn’t fall after removing parking mandates. Builders are taking advantage of the flexibility that parking reform has restored in these cities. While most new buildings continue to include off-street parking, the removal of arbitrary minimums has lifted a major barrier to affordable housing and more walkable and sustainable communities. 

New data from Portland, Oregon, shows parking reform is also crucial to unlocking missing middle housing, such as accessory dwelling units (ADUs), aka “granny flats”. 79% of new homes permitted through Portland’s middle housing legalization did not include off-street parking, which was previously required.

imagine showing what looks to be a new 6 story building near a busy intersection
A former gas station in Buffalo, NY, converted in 2021 into a 32-unit apartment, gym and flower shop. Image from u003ca href=u0022https://www.buffalorising.com/2021/07/mission-accomplished-1585-hertel-avenue/u0022u003eBuffalo Risingu003c/au003e.

5. Building Community

The image displays an infographic with the title "OUR 2023 NUMBERS". It details three key performance indicators with corresponding percentage growth figures, each within its own card-like design. The first card shows a "454%" increase labeled as "Growth in total website views," with an upward arrow indicating positive growth. The second card indicates a "245%" "Growth in Newsletter subscriptions," also accompanied by an upward arrow. The third card, highlighted in a contrasting teal color, shows a "120%" "Membership growth rate," again with an upward arrow. The overall design is modern and clean, with a dark background featuring subtle white line patterns. The infographic is likely part of a report summarizing the annual performance metrics of an organization or company.

Our commitment to bringing people together was the driving force behind why our membership grew more than 120% in 2023. Throughout the year, we’ve hosted and attended a variety of events, from panel discussions to casual happy hours for networking. These events have provided platforms for ideas to flourish and relationships to be built.

To further foster a sense of community and keep our members informed and engaged, we significantly expanded our communication efforts. In 2023, we published 50 of our newsletters, a key tool in our outreach strategy. Thanks to compelling content that resonates with our audience, we successfully doubled our newsletter readership, connecting more effectively with both new and existing supporters.

Our approach to building community has been multifaceted, embracing a diversity of formats to ensure broad and inclusive engagement. We hosted several organizing roundtables, which brought together partners and advocates alike leading to successful campaigns, such as our Hour of Action letter-writing campaigns with our partners at Climate Changemakers. Additionally, our presence was felt nationwide through multiple in-person appearances, from panel discussions at major conferences to socials and happy hours. These gatherings have not only bolstered our network but have also strengthened our collective resolve to drive change.


The image is a high-angle group selfie featuring a large group of people gathered inside what appears to be a casual, social setting, possibly a bar or pub. Most of the individuals are standing and facing the camera with a variety of happy expressions; many are smiling, waving, or holding up their drinks in a toasting gesture. Everyone seems to be enjoying the occasion. The person taking the selfie is at the bottom left of the image, holding the camera with one hand and smiling broadly. The attendees are dressed in a mix of casual and business casual attire, suggesting a relaxed but possibly professional gathering. The environment has a rustic vibe with a wood-paneled wall in the background, enhancing the informal atmosphere of the event.
A full house of parking reformers gathered at our Sustainable Streets Happy Hour in Portland ahead of the ITE Conference in the summer of 2023
5 different heashots of new staff and volunteers

We hired our first two staff members in 2023! Paula Acero joined us in May as our first full-time employee. Paula is an organizer focused on providing value to our members by hosting things like our new member orientations and our organizing events. Etienne Lefebvre joined part-time at the beginning of the year and has led our communications work, including our newsletters, and he has taken on many other roles.

These hires were made possible entirely by member-driven donations, rather than grants. Thank you!

We expanded our volunteer Board of Directors from three to seven by adding Ann Cheng, Evan Manvel, Laura Fingal-Surma, Raynell Cooper, and Eric Arellano. The board has been focused on helping to shift the organization into its next phase of professionalization and scaling our impact.

Finally, an amazing group of over 60 volunteers and interns made our work possible. You can read about them in our newsletter here. We remain primarily a volunteer-driven and member-driven organization, and we are incredibly grateful to each of you who made this watershed year possible.

6 headshots showing new staff and new volunteers

7. Viral Map Projects

This year, we launched the Parking Lot Map, showing how the U.S.’s 103 largest cities waste their most valuable real estate on surface parking.

The Parking Lot Map and its analysis sparked dozens of friendly media articles, including in car-dominated cities. The map was a hit on social media, and was even the focus of a CityNerd video at the start of 2024!

This map was entirely proposed, developed, and managed by volunteers, led by Thomas Carpenito. Thomas reached out in January 2023 to share the project. Throughout the year, Thomas and a volunteer team—including David Hunt, Ellen Schwartz, and Tung Lin—rapidly added new cities.


We also improved and scaled up our Reform Map, which tracks where parking reforms have happened globally. Thanks to a team of volunteers, including the prolific Samuel Deetz, we added over 1,500 entries. We rewrote the underlying technology for the map, allowing us to improve the mobile experience and to lay a foundation for improvements in 2024.

All of our technology is open source and volunteer-driven.

8. Finances

Fundraising

We are incredibly grateful to have tripled our fundraising in 2023. This allowed us to dramatically scale up our impact, including by hiring our first staff. 

Aside from a few large donations, the majority of our fundraising continues to come from grassroots donors and members. Thank you!

202120222023
Total donations$17,800$43,000$159,800
Total # donors~200~400~550
Total # donations2404861619
Avg. donation$74$88$99

Expenses

Total$96,600
Operations, e.g. website,
professional services, supplies
$15,200
Payroll and intern/volunteer stipends$48,200
Outreach, e.g. literature, art$9,500
Events and travel$22,300
Grants to local groups$1,300
The image features a pie chart breaking down expenditures or allocations into five categories, each with an associated percentage:

"Payroll" is the largest section at 49.9%, shaded in orange.
"Events" make up 23.1%, in blue.
"Operations" are 15.8%, in pink.
"Outreach" accounts for 9.9%, in green.
"Grants" are the smallest at 1.3%, in red.
The chart is likely used to represent the budgetary distribution of an organization, indicating where its funds are being allocated. Payroll is the predominant expense, while grants are the least.

Room For More Funding

While our organization has seen impressive growth in 2023, we have even bigger dreams and we remain funding constrained in 2024.

Our bare-bones budget in 2024 is around $250,000 per year to continue the organization as-is. This includes a $150,000 grant of restricted funds from Arnold Ventures to hire a policy director and start a paid internship. We hope to raise at least $100,000 in 2024 from other sources, including membership, to sustain the organization.

However, we are aiming to grow our annual budget in the next one to two years to around $700,000. That would mean raising around $550,000 per year from sources outside of the Arnold Ventures grant. We are hoping to raise around $160,000 per year through membership and donations. This would allow us to:

  • Say yes to more travel opportunities that will spread the message of parking reform
  • Give more substantial grants to partner organizations on the ground
  • Better retain staff through improved compensation and benefits
  • Attract a more diverse internship pool by offering paid internships
  • Properly hire Tony Jordan with a modest salary (he currently receives only a small stipend)
  • Hire an administrative assistant to allow staff to focus on higher-leveraged tasks like presentations

All donations help us reach this goal. Member donations of all sizes are particularly useful because they are unrestricted, unlike most grants, so they give us flexibility. Beyond the impact of the money itself, donations also help show the movement’s size, which better positions us to win grants.

This budget goal is not binary: we are able to partially implement most of the above changes if we only fundraise a fraction of the $700,000 target. For example, $350,000 per year would accelerate our impact much more than the current budget of $250,000 per year.

We encourage you to reach out if you have questions about giving.

Every year, we plan to share our major mistakes and lessons learned in the spirit of continual improvement.

Since our early days, interns have played a key role in developing the organization, such as contributing research for the Parking Mandates Map. We also want to invest in the next generation of parking reformers, and we want the internship to give valuable experience to interns.

However, in 2023, we grew the internship program too quickly. We had unprecedented interest in the program, and we took on 31 part-time interns throughout the year. However, we did not have enough bandwidth to give a compelling internship to every intern, and we got feedback from interns that some were confused or frustrated with lack of direction. Having such a large intern class was also demanding for our 11 volunteer mentors and our staff. There were some very compelling internships in 2023, but overall, the program was not as successful as we would have liked.

One key lesson learned is that pursuing an opportunity requires more than enthusiasm. The organization needs to also have the capacity to pursue the opportunity. Further, anything we do has an opportunity cost of alternatives we could have prioritized. Even though many students were excited to help us, we did not have the resources to set them up for success.

In 2024, we are revising our internship program to focus on better recognizing our bandwidth, ensuring that we have enough mentors for each intern. Our new policy director will also help us revamp and lead a more focused internship program.

More generally, we are trying to be strategic in 2024 about what we say yes and no to, as we grow from the initial stage of rapid prototyping and experimentation to a more mature organization.

Support our work with a donation.