News
By Sean Doyle, September 20, 2019
In 2005, three collaborators tested a new idea—they turned an underutilized and heavily subsidized piece of land (a parking spot) into a useful space with some grass, a bench, and a potted tree. People started using it almost immediately. Since posting the first picture of this DIY mini-park in San Francisco, this experiment in urban design has morphed into a global phenomenon. Now, hundreds of cities around the world hold PARK(ing) Day on the third Friday in September where dozens of parking spots that are usually reserved for stationary, empty cars are transformed into places for people.
According to John Bela, one of the brains behind the park that started it all, “it wasn’t necessarily about protest, but it was about demonstrating an alternative to storing cars in parking spaces.” It’s an important point. Cities—especially in North America—devote an insane amount of public space to storing empty, voluminous private vehicles. A recent study of parking shows that “car storage has become the primary land use in many city areas,” and at great expense.
Policies that require an excessive amount of parking for new development, based on unrealistic standards, can dramatically drive up the cost of housing or business space. And devoting 9-18 feet of street space for on-street parking takes up a lot of land that could otherwise be used for wider sidewalks, bike/scooter lanes, rain gardens, and—as PARK(ing) Day illustrates—many other public uses.
Below are a few of the “parklets” scattered around our office in Washington, DC and what their creators had to say about them.
Island Press
Walkable City Rules and Tactical Urbanism that inform the way people think about cities and urban life. This initiative demonstrates how streets and city life could be more safe, sustainable, and enjoyable.”
