Tulsa Advances To Championship In 'Parking Madness' Contest

Tulsa is in the finals of a national contest. It's T-Town vs. Milwaukee in a competition where the winner gets the "Golden Crater," and the designation as the city with the greatest downtown devastation, in favor of surface parking.

Sixteen not-so-sweet cities were on the initial bracket and, so far, Tulsa has defeated Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Houston, on the way to a title no one wants to win.

Stephen Lassiter grew up in Tulsa and now works downtown, and he nominated his hometown for the "Golden Crater" award.

4/5/2013 Related Story: Tulsa Enters Final Four In 'Parking Madness' Contest

"We need the parking downtown, but let's use less surface area to do it," Lassiter said.

He said he saw the contest on a website call DC.StreetsBlog.org, and he nominated Tulsa. He included some photos showing the southern half of downtown, comprised of almost all surface parking, as well as photos of Boston Avenue in 1978, as compared to in 2005.

We took a peek in our Video Vault and found some examples of our own, where buildings were replaced by surface parking.

In fairness, the city council acknowledges the problem and, for now, there is a moratorium on creating surface parking in this way.

"When most of our revenue comes from sales tax, this might not be the best use for the land," Lassiter said.

Over time, he said he hopes the city could reclaim some of this space for more attractive uses, which might include retail space of some kind, but in the meantime there's still time to vote. The contest ends at 11 a.m. Thursday.

Vote here.