SkyscraperPage Forum - Park(ing) Day

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Today is international Park(ing) Day, which is a grassroots event in which people buy a parking space for a day (by feeding the meter), and then use it as a miniature "park," for people, instead of a place for cars. Sometimes city governments get in on the action and make it official. There are probably hundreds of both official and non-official events going on all over today.

Is it going on where you live? If so, post some pics.

Here are some pictures from a city-sponsored version in Arlington, VA, taken at lunch today:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8180/8...4c507987_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8037/8...c4485b9b_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8461/8...f7e52900_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8319/8...a1ef4104_c.jpg

Try that in Tampa and you're likely to get run over.

j/k

Park(ing) Day started six short years ago in San Francisco, and directly led to the creation of parklets. There is perhaps no better way to get people to look at public urban space in a different way, outside the car-storage paradigm, and it's really great to see the idea spread to cities across the country. I probably won't be able to get any pics today as I'm leaving town shortly, but it's definitely going strong here.

http://i.imgur.com/CxqYS.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/wmeiT.jpg

A few photos from one of the park(ing) spaces in Portland, Maine. This was the first year that my city was involved and there were several spots around town with different things going on. Overall it was a success, I think.

Wow, Dallas went hardcore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhays (Post 5841326)

Wow, Dallas went hardcore.

Of course, given it's history of parking lots it has a lot of demons to exorcise.

Great thread! Here's one I snapped on Cherokee Street in South St. Louis:
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...ps57d49f78.jpg

Dallas was a lot of fun this year; 57 "parks" in only the 2nd year and lots of excitement building around it. We had everything from yoga and dog parks to performance stages and homemade arcades. Another great thing to emerge from PARK(ing) Day is a permanent Parklet that will begin making its way around downtown Dallas.

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot..._6782512_o.jpg

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chicago103 (Post 5841331)

Of course, given it's history of parking lots it has a lot of demons to exorcise.

That's a good statement. It has taken some time to change perceptions in Dallas, but I think we're starting to make some progress. We've purposely had a little more organization with PARK(ing) Day and other street transformations (while keeping it grassroots-driven) to make a larger impact and get attention from city leaders, media, and visitors. We've come a long way, and at events like PARK(ing) Day the visitors commonly say they wish the streets of Dallas could be like this every day.

Dang, Dallas looked like it was all legit. I went to two different spots in Denver. One of the spots in Downtown might have had approval from the city, but the other on South Broadway definitely didn't. Anyways, I only snapped a picture of the one on Broadway, which was basically only 3 parking spots, one of which included a bike corral.

[img]http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...psae78a3c2.jpg[/img]

Do the cities waive the two hour maximum for the day? And if so, do they waive it uniformly for cars and for the folks setting up for the day? Just curious.

I didn't find many photos for this in Austin on Flickr. I know it was observed, though, because I did see some photos posted on Facebook from a friend. Anyway, Austin has a ton of parks around downtown anyway so it's not surprising that this hasn't caught on here. Sitting on asphalt next to the street isn't exactly what I'd call a "park".

This is Congress Avenue. You can see the Texas Capitol at the end of the street.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8306/8...f560b4c4_b.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pfrench...31949/sizes/l/

Quote:

Originally Posted by bunt_q (Post 5841638)

Do the cities waive the two hour maximum for the day? And if so, do they waive it uniformly for cars and for the folks setting up for the day? Just curious.

In Dallas we work with a community sponsor to permit the spaces from the city for the day (11am-7pm) and off-duty police also stand by to help with any issues. Then we turn these over to any group that wants to transform them. We found that this takes the worry away from groups wanting to join in for the first time and lets us concentrate efforts on certain streets that have a larger audience. Each city celebrates a little differently.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bunt_q (Post 5841638)

Do the cities waive the two hour maximum for the day? And if so, do they waive it uniformly for cars and for the folks setting up for the day? Just curious.

The photo from South Broadway that I posted right above your comment was completely guerrilla style. They kept the meters that were being occupied fed, but they did have the spaces from 4-7. I think the 15 or so spaces that were taken up on 16th & Champa must have been coordinated with the city, though.

I love this one, with the book shelves. What's in them?

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8460/8...d3318304_c.jpg