If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed.
National (Park)ing Day: September 21st, 2007
In the last 24 hours, I got two e-mails — one from an photographer and one from a landscape designer, neither of whom know each other — pointing me to the fun, eco-urban efforts behind REBAR’s National (Park)ing Day.
You gotta check this out.
From the Site: National (Park)ing Day is…
a one-day, global event centered in San Francisco where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks.
The mission is to rethink the way streets are used, call attention to the need for urban parks, and improve the quality of urban human habitat… at least until the meter runs out!
Cities participating this year include: New York City, Boston, Minneapolis, Washington DC, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and others.
On National Park(ing) Day - Friday, September 21, 2007 - metered public parking spots nationwide will become public parks. The goals, organizers say, are to celebrate parks and promote the need for more parks in America’s cities.
Fun with Parking
I think this is, hands down, one of the coolest ideas I’ve come across in awhile. Parking lots are abysmal concrete monstrosities and, the idea of transforming them, even for a day, into a park is a hilarious bit of ironic activism.
It’s also a visual pun. Double-take stuff.
And I just like saying, “Parking parks.”
“What is it?,” you ask.
“Its a place for a park to park.”
Very Dr. Seuss. My 8-year-old daughter, who just this morning described herself as “wordy”, will love it.
Note: they target metered public parking. So for those of you who have gotten ticket after ticket (ahem, yours truly), this is a lovely bit of payback…
Making it Happen Here in Sacramento
Anyways, there’s a group of people coming together to organize one here in downtown Sacramento (possibly on 16th Street). If anyone is interested in jumping in, let me know– jason at ljurban dot com.
And spread the word…
Jason
3 responses so far ↓
1 wburg // Aug 20, 2007 at 5:53 pm
Kind of looks like the sort of thing you’d see tooling around the playa at Burning Man. Heck, I’d talk to the local burners/art-car aficionados at the Horse Cow Gallery (now exiled to West Sacramento) about helping with such a project: by getting several such vehicles together, you could create quite an expanse of park!
Sacramento has its own little bit of guerrilla park at 21st and N, where adjacent residents have turned a disused lot into a tiny pocket park. Apparently landowners really dislike this–if you start putting improvements on someone’s vacant lot, technically the legal standing of their ownership of the land starts coming into question. Sounds like a good way to spur some guerrilla neighborhood improvement–and what better “abandoned car” to leave on a disused vacant lot than a parked park?
2 Linsey Payne // Aug 21, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Thanks for putting the word out about this event Jason!
An introductory meeting will be held in the evening on Tuesday, August 28th by the Sacramento PARKing Day Team to organize Sacarmento’s first-ever Parking Park! (That IS fun to say :o) ) We’ll be provding information about the event and brainstorming potential park designs, locations, materials and logistics. Even if you can’t make the meeting we would love to hear your ideas!
During the event on September 21st we’ll need volunteers to help set up and take down the park and/or take shifts hanging out in it relaxing and educating the public on the benefits of urban open space and pedestrian oriented design. Even if you can only take a half-hour break from work drop on by! We’re hoping to make it a fun, interactive and thought provoking event. AND depending on how many people get involved we can have more than one park, a park on wheels or move the park through out the city! The possibilities are endless!! Please let Jason know if you’d like to be involved.
Linsey and Nancy
Coordinators
Sacramento PARKing Day Team
3 jms // Aug 22, 2007 at 1:47 pm
This sounds so cool! What time and where on the 28th for the organizational meeting?
Leave a Comment