2024 Impact Report
Letter From The President
In 2024 we saw continued growth and momentum for the parking reform movement, even as a contentious election in the United States consumed much of the political attention in the Summer and Fall. The Parking Reform Network took significant steps to build capacity and we saw numerous victories and even more attention.
Highlights of this year include:
- Parking mandates fully repealed in 20 U.S. and Canadian cities, including major metropolitan areas and smaller communities alike.
- The passage of Colorado HB24-1304 and NYC’s City of Yes, critical pieces of legislation advancing parking reform.
- Further mainstream recognition of parking reform (and our role in the movement), including mentions in multiple New York Times articles, appearances on NPR, and my honor of being named one of this year’s Grist 50 Fixers.
None of this would be possible without you, our members, donors, and supporters. Thank you for believing in our mission and helping us shape more sustainable, livable communities.
This year also marked significant growth for PRN as an organization. We hired a policy director and an executive administrative assistant, grew our ranks of members and donors, and secured our first major grant, from Arnold Ventures. We continued to expand and improve our public datasets, refining the interface to the parking reform map, adding cities to the parking lot map, and releasing a map of statewide legislative efforts. We’re better positioned than ever to support the movement and amplify our impact.
Warm regards,
Tony Jordan
President, Parking Reform Network
Moving the Needle
Spokane made history by fully repealing parking mandates this year. City Councilor Zack Zappone played a key role in leading this effort, organizing closely with his community to build support for reform. In reflecting on this process, Zack highlighted that PRN’s work and research, along with the contributions of our partners at Sightline Institute, helped persuade other city councilors of the importance of parking reform in tackling the housing crisis. Zack’s leadership highlights how local advocates, armed with PRN resources and knowledge, can drive significant policy change.
Spokane, Washington
Spokane made history by fully repealing parking mandates this year. City Councilor Zack Zappone played a key role in leading this effort, organizing closely with his community to build support for reform. In reflecting on this process, Zack highlighted that PRN’s work and research, along with the contributions of our partners at Sightline Institute, helped persuade other city councilors of the importance of parking reform in tackling the housing crisis. Zack’s leadership highlights how local advocates, armed with PRN resources and knowledge, can drive significant policy change.
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham’s success was led by PRN member Daniel Christiansen, who built a coalition of advocates, used PRN’s Slack network to connect and strategize, and drafted a petition calling for a full repeal of mandates. His grassroots effort culminated in a citywide repeal, a major win for housing affordability and urban livability.
New York City, New York
While NYC did not fully abolish parking mandates citywide, it expanded its no-mandate zone to cover an area home to nearly 3 million residents—three times the population of Austin, the largest US city to fully repeal mandates. Michael Sutherland of Open Plans praised PRN’s role in this success:
“PRN’s resources have been essential in advocating for lifting parking mandates in New York City. With the mandates map, we’ve been able to show that cities of all types and sizes have lifted mandates citywide, and it gave us a starting place to put together case studies. PRN was important in the development of our white paper on lifting parking mandates, providing knowledge and insights throughout the process. PRN has served as an important partner, co-hosting events in New York City and helping bring more folks into the fight for more livable cities.”
La Crosse, Wisconsin
La Crosse’s repeal of parking mandates is a particularly meaningful win. PRN member and volunteer Samuel Deetz, who maintains PRN’s Mandates Map database, is from La Crosse and played a key role in the process. Earlier this year, Samuel asked PRN President Tony Jordan to present to the Neighborhood Revitalization Commission as they considered incremental reforms, which he did in May. In September, the commission voted 6-1 to recommend a repeal of all mandates citywide. On December 12th, the City Council officially passed the reform.
This victory in La Crosse underscores the power of PRN’s network and the dedication of volunteers like Samuel, whose local passion drives national change.
St Petersburg, Florida
In September, St. Pete successfully removed parking mandates along its 22nd Street corridor. Local advocate and PRN member Max Oliver McCann shared how PRN tools and expertise were instrumental in the campaign:
“With the help of resources from PRN, myself and other local activists here in St Petersburg, FL, were able to convince the City Council to remove parking mandates from a new zoning overlay that supports our bus rapid transit line. One public comment cited PRN’s parking map, and I used PRN’s list of other cities that have removed parking mandates during my public comments. PRN also provided resources on how to counter common arguments, which was helpful during our one-on-one meetings with City Council Members. Thank you, PRN!”
Colorado HB24-1304
A major legislative victory came with the passage of Colorado HB24-1304, which eliminates parking mandates near transit. PRN member Matt Frommer of SWEEP, who worked tirelessly on the ground to rally an expansive grassroots coalition in support of the bill, shared:
“As Colorado aims to pass one of the most ambitious parking reform bills in the country, our profound gratitude goes to the Parking Reform Network for their thought leadership and advocacy expertise, from which we have greatly benefited.”
From Spokane to New York City to statewide reforms in Colorado, 2024 has demonstrated that parking reform is gaining momentum as a proven, common-sense solution to housing affordability, urban sustainability, and climate resilience.
Spreading The Word
2024 started with a major boost in January when popular PRN member and YouTuber CityNerd featured PRN’s Parking Lot Map in his video, “10 Cities That Destroy Their Downtowns With Parking.” The video, which garnered over 150,000 views, brought significant attention to our work and introduced PRN to a broad new audience. This surge of interest also helped us welcome a wave of new members, an excellent way to kick off 2024.
This year, PRN President Tony Jordan was recognized for his leadership and selected for the prestigious Grist 50 list of climate leaders. The Grist 50 highlights individuals driving meaningful climate solutions on the local level, and Tony’s inclusion underscores the impact of parking reform and PRN more broadly in the climate advocacy space. The Grist bio beautifully captures Tony’s work and is well worth reading. Read it here.
At the federal level, the 2024 Economic Report of the President featured parking reform as a key policy solution to address the housing crisis and directly cited our Mandates Map. This acknowledgment really helps to highlight the growing influence of our advocacy and underscores how parking reform is now seen as a central part of federal policy conversations.
Noteworthy Media Mentions
2024 saw PRN prominently featured in respected media outlets including the following:
Tony Jordan, chief executive of PRN, credits the power of community activists as well as urbanist content on social media channels for the success. “The parking reform movement is no longer the domain of wonky academics, it really is a broad group of people who recognize this issue impacts so many other things,” he said.
“People just assume these numbers are right because they’re in the zoning code,” said Tony Jordan, who runs the Parking Reform Network, which advocates ending minimums. “No, they’re just made up.”
The real problem, says Jordan, is what doesn’t get built: “The housing that could have gone in that space or the housing that wasn’t built because the developer couldn’t put enough parking. … So we just lose housing in exchange for having convenient places to store cars.”
Travel and Events
In 2024, PRN presented our work at conferences including South by Southwest, YIMBYTown, the Strong Towns National Gathering, and the Congress for New Urbanism. We traveled to present in person to key policy makers and advocates alike in places such as College Park, Georgia; Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Missoula, Montana; and more, building local understanding, conversation, and momentum for reform. The addition of Daniel Herriges as Policy Director increased our capacity to do these impactful engagements with communities actively working on reforms.
Building Capacity
2024 marked a major milestone for PRN as we hired two key staff members: Daniel Herriges as our first Policy Director and Alaena Young as our Executive Administrative Assistant. Their skills, expertise, and passion for people-centered places have greatly increased our capacity as an organization.
Daniel Herriges joined PRN as Policy Director after a competitive application process yielded a large and talented pool of candidates. A lifelong urbanist and advocate for livable cities, Daniel previously served as Editor-in-Chief at Strong Towns, where he helped direct their campaign to end parking mandates. Daniel’s work combines sharp analysis, clear communication, and deep policy knowledge, all qualities that are crucial as PRN expands.
Daniel worked in 2024 to broaden and deepen PRN’s strategic partnerships. This included mapping our partner network (with the help of summer research intern Aniket Sangwan) to identify gaps and conduct outreach to a broad range of mission-aligned organizations across all 50 states and all major U.S. and Canadian metro areas. We re-launched our monthly Organizing Roundtable to regularly bring PRN partners and key advocates across many geographies and issue areas together to build coalition, share information and tactics. With Daniel on board, we enhanced PRN’s thought leadership through collaboration with dozens of influential advocacy organizations at the federal, state, and local levels, including helping to pass state bills and draft model parking legislation, identifying and advising on emerging policy priorities, and lending our expertise to the development of new tools for analyzing and communicating the stakes of parking policy.
Alaena Young joined us in December as PRN’s Executive Administrative Assistant. She will provide critical support to President Tony Jordan and the entire PRN team. Alaena brings more than 20 years of experience. A lifelong Oregonian, Alaena recently left the suburbs for a more connected lifestyle in Portland, where she loves exploring the city on foot, hiking, and trying new restaurants. Alaena’s contributions are already having an impact on our improved internal operations, improving PRN’s capacity to deliver resources to advocates and partners.
“I find it very rewarding to prop up excellence. I love to work back-stage to put rock stars into the spotlight, and I feel PRN is a very worthy place for me to be!”
Expanding our Community Offerings
A strong underlying goal we had this year was to expand the events and services we offer to our members. We significantly increased the number of both online and in-person opportunities for connection, learning, and advocacy.
Highlights include:
8 Q&A webinars featuring prominent authors and experts on parking reform and related issues, including Wes Marshall, Danniel Herriges, Henry Grabar, Sara Bronin and Anna Zivarts. These events helped members gain insights from thought leaders and engage directly with their work.
Regular, casual events like our Lunch and Learn series, Brown Bag discussions, and our Park and Read book series, provided opportunities for members to network and exchange ideas in a relaxed setting. We brought in knowledgeable guests like Mark Merwitzer from Transit Alliance Miami, Taylor Reich from ITDP, and Eric Kronberg and Alli Quinlan from the Incremental Development Alliance. These events highlight for our members and audience the links between parking reform and other areas of interest, like climate action, environmentalism, and architecture.
16 Member Orientations, welcoming new advocates and ensuring they have the tools and knowledge needed to join the parking reform movement effectively.
Park(ing) Day Collaboration
For the second year, PRN officially partnered with Park(ing) Day to amplify its reach and message, marking a significant milestone in our community-building efforts. The collaboration began in July and continued through to October as the event concluded. Park(ing) Day provides a unique platform to reimagine urban spaces, and PRN’s involvement was key to connecting with a broader community of advocates, many of whom were introduced to our work for the first time.
Our contributions helped achieve impressive outcomes:
- 179 projects registered on the Park(ing) Day map, showcasing creative ways to reclaim urban space.
- 82 Park(ing) Day packages sent to participants, equipping advocates with resources to organize impactful parklet installations.
- 122 attendees joined the masterclasses and workshops hosted by PRN, gaining hands-on guidance on how to reimagine parking spaces and advocate for change in their own communities.
Expanded Map Product
We continued to build on our popular mapping tools. PRN expanded the Parking Lot Map to include 16 new cities, incorporating valuable community-submitted maps. Both the Parking Lot Map and Mandates Map received a redesign to improve usability, with a cleaner look and feel. We also introduced new features, including a table view for the Parking Reform Map and a brand-new State-Level Legislation Map, spearheaded by our volunteer research fellow Griffin Stotland, which tracks parking reform bills across the U.S.
Room for Improvement
We are extremely proud of our accomplishments and impacts in 2024, but we are always looking for ways to improve. This includes identifying missed opportunities and challenges that PRN must face as we continue to grow.
Staying Organized
As our team has grown, so has demand for our participation in council chambers and conferences around the country. When staff are on the road or preparing for events, it can be difficult to maintain the communication and coordination needed to keep projects on track and running smoothly.
Seizing Opportunities
PRN has members and partners all over the country and we have a record of giving great presentations and throwing good parties. Too often this year we have been unable to maximize our opportunities to meet with—both current and potential—members, donors, and partners when we’re on the road.
Help Is On The Way
These areas of concern were the motivation for PRN to dig into our financial reserves to hire Alaena as our Executive Administrative Assistant. We are confident that her steady presence “in the office” will improve our team communication and cohesiveness. Her experience with travel and event planning will allow us to spread the word to more cities, and maximize our impact when we are there.
Finances
Revenue
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
| Total donations | $17,800 | $43,000 | $159,800 | $345,700 |
| Total # donors | ~200 | ~400 | ~550 | ~625 |
Expenses
| Total | $229,000 |
| Operations, e.g. website, professional services, supplies | $19,000 |
| Payroll and intern/volunteer stipends | $174,000 |
| Outreach, e.g. literature, art | $7,000 |
| Events and travel | $23,000 |
| Fundraising | $6,000 |
In our 5th year, PRN’s revenue more than doubled from the previous year. The most significant development was the reception of our first grant award, from Arnold Ventures. This grant provided $150,000 this year to hire our policy director and cover additional research and travel costs. With the addition of new staff, expanded member offerings, and new advocacy initiatives, we maintained a steady focus on building a stronger foundation for our organization.
Without the aid of any significant campaigns, our total revenue from individual donors showed limited growth, with new donors matching churn. We have an active, but small, fundraising committee, chaired by Advisory Board member Kevin Hardman, and we will continue to build relationships with existing and potential mid-level and major donors in the coming year.
Our primary financial goal for 2025 is to secure new funding sources to help fully support and appropriately compensate our existing staff and operations, ensuring long-term stability for PRN’s core mandate. Maintaining our existing programs and staff requires an annual budget of approximately $550,000. We are committed to identifying opportunities to secure funding and diversify our revenue streams.
To achieve this, we are prioritizing the following:
- Maintain high-quality core operations: Ensure that PRN can continue to deliver impactful programs, events, and tools that empower our advocates.
- Explore new funding opportunities: Identify grants, foundations, partnerships, and individual donors that can provide stability for the years ahead.
- Focus on long-term sustainability: Streamline internal operations, ensure institutional knowledge is preserved, implement better financial record keeping and transparency.
Room for additional funding remains. With increased resources, PRN would be able to:
- Expand support for local and state level parking reform advocacy campaigns through direct grants and training programs.
- Reach wider audiences with increased presence at key conferences and through events with local and regional partners.
- Develop additional resources for the movement, including new playbooks and fact sheets.
- Improve our existing datasets and materials – including our parking reform map and statewide legislation trackers – through surveys and research fellowships.
Member donations, no matter the size, are particularly impactful because they provide unrestricted funding that allows us to remain flexible and responsive to new opportunities. Your support not only enables PRN to deliver on its mandate but also demonstrates the strength and size of the movement, positioning us to secure funding from larger institutions like governments and foundations.
If you would like to learn more about supporting PRN’s mission, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Looking Ahead
We enter 2025 prepared to build on our existing efforts and further boost the momentum of the parking reform movement. Here are a few of our priorities for the year to come:
- Support reformers by continuing and expanding our Organizing Roundtable, connecting partner organizations with each other to share expertise and coalition-build.
- Champion sound parking reform proposals at the local and state levels. In particular, advise and provide messaging and outreach support to our state-level advocacy partners to help make 2025 a banner year for state parking legislation.
- Spread the word by producing even more quality webinars and workshops, and transfer that success into more in-person meetups and events.
- Diversify the movement by sharing the parking reform message broadly within the climate, environmental, and public health communities. Raise awareness of land-use issues in venues such as NYC Climate Week.
- Stabilize our funding and diversify our revenue streams with grants, sponsorships and earned income (from presentations, consulting, and sub-grants).
- Engage and empower our members, building on our existing momentum and capacity to flesh out our membership services and benefits.
- Expand our data and research products, including our map tools, state legislation database, fact sheets, and model policy recommendations. Build upon our status as the preeminent hub for parking reform and parking policy.
