Parking Madness 2015 Elite Eight: Newport News vs. Syracuse

Yesterday, Camden knocked off Detroit in Parking Madness, giving the Garden State the first spot in our Final Four.

Today’s match pairs up dreadful parking expanses in Newport News and Syracuse, and it’s up to you to tell us which is the worst.

Syracuse

That right there is the picture that put Syracuse over the top in its first-round matchup with Asheville. Marshall Allen sent us this entry. He wrote:

This image is of downtown Syracuse just south of the I-690/I-81 interchange. This elevated highway goes through the heart of the city and since its inception, the land immediately adjacent to the highway, has suffered the consequences of low property values for 50 plus years. Additionally, Syracuse’s economy is well past it’s prime. These two things have combined to create this horrific parking crater in the heart of New York State’s Central City.

Let’s compare it to a a historical photo, graciously provided by the University of Oklahoma Institute for Quality Communities‘ Shane Hampton:

This shows the same area as it looked in 1956. There were some grade-separated roads and parking lots already, but not nearly as bad as today’s situation.

Now for the competition.

Newport News

Newport News beat Los Angeles in round one. Submitter Sam Sink said of this area:

This is beautiful downtown Newport News, Virginia. The sea of surface parking belongs to the shipyard and creates a dead zone of about 20 city blocks separating the rest of downtown from a residential area to the North (and the CSX tracks cut the area off from the neighborhood to the east). I weep for any pedestrian that has to hoof it through this asphalt wasteland.

Okay. Let’s take a look back in time:

This is how the area looked in 1963, before the parking blight had spread quite so much. Interestingly, both Newport News and Camden are waterfront sites near rail yards.

Which one of these two is Final Four worthy? Vote below.