San Francisco’s streets are filled with curb cuts for individual houses, sometimes to an absurd level. Each curb cut takes away a parking space (or, in the best case, about two-thirds of one) to create one off-street space, and along the way makes the street and the houses less inviting, less walkable, and less attractive. Here are some more examples:

Click any picture to enlarge.

Did you notice something not so San Francisco-like about these pictures? Yup, they’re actually not pictures of San Francsico. They’re pictures of Washington, DC. Clockwise from top left, they are: 900 block of W, NW; 2100 block of O, NW; Florida Ave, NW; and 9½th St, NW. All are reprinted with permission from the Coalition for Smarter Growth.

These people didn’t waste nine months fighting for a parking minimum variance as Alice and Jeff Speck did for their house (right nearby three of the above pictures, in fact). The two on the left (W St and 9½th St) sacrifice almost all the curb appeal of their buildings to devote the frontage to a garage. On the upper right (O St), not only do the garages take away almost as much street parking, but it makes the street wider, causing drivers to go faster and making the street less safe.

When some say that other cities haven’t (yet) reformed their parking rules citywide, remember that those cities look like this. Sure, these are small buildings, and the debate covers both small and large buildings. Unfortunately, while almost all opponents of parking reform also hate curb cuts, commenter Lance is the only opponent of removing minimums who I’ve heard agree with the idea of removing minimums even for small buildings. (I still support relaxing requirements on both types.)

DDOT officials say they are working on a new curb cut policy to prohibit front garage entrances like these. And the proposed parking zoning revisions will automatically give property owners an exemption from whatever minimums still exist when DDOT prohibits a curb cut and the property lacks an alley.