PARKing-day, San Francisco 2005

Six weeks from now, greenspace will resurface the city streets across the world.  September 17th is PARK(ing) day, the moment when both socially concerned and more simple fun-seeking citizens will unroll sod and set up benches in metered parking spots.

Originating in San Fransisco in 2005, PARK(ing) day was initiated to draw municipal and media attention to the lack of green space in a particularly gritty part of the urban core.  It lasted just two hours, the maximum amount of time cars are legally allowed to occupy a parking meter.  A single photo was taken, circulated online, and five years later the movement has spread across the continent.

PARK(ing) day in five sentences:

  • choose a nice bit of street that has a parking meter
  • feed the meter up to the allowable maximum time (generally 2hrs in Vancouver)
  • unroll your sod, put up your tent, fill-up your wading pool, fire up the bbq, hang your hammock, do your greenspace thing
  • be prepared to explain your presence to passers-by and by-law enforcement officers
  • when your meter expires, calmly and carefully remove your chattels, sweep the curb and move on with your day

The idea of feeding a meter, legally occupying a space typically reserved for the automobile, and having a little greenspace goodtimes is captivating.  If on average, concrete and pavement occupy fully half the area of most urban cores, why not playfully suggest a little change to this ratio?

Originally PARK(ing) day was a political statement.  Personally, I think the City of Vancouver is doing a pretty good job of promoting mixed-use streets in the pursuit of the woonerf ideal, so I’m not sure that a Gumboot PARK(ing) need be politically active.  However, it can be fun.

A lunch bench with a lush little patch of grass at the corner of Granville and Robson (comes with free copies of the Potentiality)?

A wading pool filled with gumboot-clad bathers at Main and Hastings?

How about a micro-soccer tournament for the Portland FC?  Two minutes in a fenced-off parking spot, the ball cannot leave the ground and the highest score wins?  Passer-bys can enter, ‘feed the meter’ by donating a little change.

So, to all readers, where would you park yourself?  And what would your intervention be? Does your city have space that needs a little PARK(ing)? And most importantly — what are we doing on September 17th?

PS — Perhaps it is time to hook-up with the Vancouver Public Space Network?

PARK(ing) day can be weird and cow-filled

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