This is where you can find 71 surface parking lots uptown

Uptown Charlotte is a paradox: Sometimes when you’re walking around it feels like an endless sea of parking lots, yet if you’re an office worker searching for a place to park, the options seem to evaporate like mirages.

So, how many surface parking lots are there inside the I-277 loop? I got to 71 in this map below, in which I tried to outline all of the surface parking in uptown. (You can click the icon in the map’s upper right corner to see a larger version).

As you can see, there’s still a lot of surface parking in uptown, much of it clustered in Second Ward. This isn’t a comprehensive map, and includes both lots that are public and those that aren’t, such as those at schools and businesses.

The map also includes some surface parking lots that are slated for development, such as the Marshal Park and former Board of Education building in Second Ward. And lots that are already being redeveloped – such as the former Charlotte Observer site, the AvidXchange Music Factory and the Crescent Stonewall Station site – aren’t included, even though they still look like surface parking on the Google satellite imagery.

So, what do you think? Do you see any lots missing? And which do you think will be redeveloped next?

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This story originally appeared at CharlotteObserver.com.

Photo: John D. Simmons

This story was originally published August 2, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is where you can find 71 surface parking lots uptown."