Providing temporary public open space . . . one parking spot at at time.
September 15, 2017 9:14 AM   Subscribe

Happy PARK(ing) Day, everybody! Every third Friday in September, people around the world reclaim metered parking spaces and transform them into public space. Why? To "call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat." Check out the #parkingday and #parkingday2017 hashtags for more!
posted by showbiz_liz (14 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
how does Donald Shoup feel about this
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:59 AM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


But... what if I want to park there?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 10:10 AM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


Some hipster did this in Missoula, Montana last year.

Which is kind of like standing in downtown Las Vegas and saying you can't find anywhere to get a drink.
posted by ITravelMontana at 10:38 AM on September 15, 2017


I mean this is cool and all but my disabled ass has enough trouble finding parking close enough to my destination that I am not at imminent risk of fainting and having a seizure on the way there, so.
posted by brook horse at 10:51 AM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


Looking through the hashtags, it looks like a lot of things are sponsored or run by local governments. If they like their little pop-up parks or games or whatever so much, why don't they just make 'em permanent?

I love this. Calls attention to how much we accept giving priority to empty machines over people - I've almost gone blind to it, and I'm not even a car owner. Actually, when I rent a car, that's the only time I realize how many freaking parking spaces there are all around my urban neighborhood.
posted by mosst at 11:04 AM on September 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


If they like their little pop-up parks or games or whatever so much, why don't they just make 'em permanent?

City governments follow whoever's loudest. They float ideas like this only after people demand it, and then they do a little pilot and evaluate the larger public response, and then rinse and repeat.

brook horse - moving cities away from completely car-centric models is something I've seen lots of disability advocates getting on board with recently. In a city where it was just as easy to take a bus as to take a car, people at all levels of disability (including those who can't drive at all) would have much greater access. This isn't about sticking it to car owners, it's about taking steps toward less actively human-hostile public spaces.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:17 AM on September 15, 2017 [8 favorites]


I've been thinking about the accessibility thing, too, thanks to brook horse and a chat with my dad (who parks in front of his office in a dense part of Seattle every day because he can't safely/comfortably walk any farther than that). Since I have a bigger problem with subsidized car storage on streets than I do with vehicles in general (although I have a problem with that too), I wonder about the efficiency of having plenty of convenient spaces that are only open to shared car services like car2go to maximize efficiency while maintaining accessibility.
posted by mosst at 11:18 AM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


I wonder about the efficiency of having plenty of convenient spaces that are only open to shared car services like car2go to maximize efficiency while maintaining accessibility.

It's happening right now! This fall, NYC will launch a two-year citywide pilot program that will promote car sharing by designating about 300 street parking spaces for exclusive use by participating carshare companies. The program seeks to mimic other pilots that have proven successful in cities like Baltimore, San Francisco, and Seattle.
posted by showbiz_liz at 11:23 AM on September 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


Calls attention to how much we accept giving priority to empty machines over people

Yep. I stopped by a parking lot near my office that was transformed with hammocks, a food truck, cornhole games, a fountain, and picnic tables. At lunch time there were probably 50 people milling about, instead of maybe 15 parked cars.

I think about the sheer space of cars a lot while riding my bike too. Like, there's a line of cars backed up all the way down a block because of a stop sign, if we were all on bikes we'd fit in a 20 ft square. Like this classic example. Obviously cycling and walking aren't viable options for everyone or every trip, but the personal automobile as the default is a blight that is literally crowding out everything else.
posted by ghharr at 11:28 AM on September 15, 2017 [5 favorites]


oh parking day, oh parking day
how lovely are thy bollards
oh parking day, oh parking day
on Sundays you don't have to pay

your double lines delineate
the space in which our car will wait
oh parking day, oh parking day
always display your placard
posted by prize bull octorok at 11:53 AM on September 15, 2017


This is an incredible twitter thread showing the amount of paved land dedicated to cars, bike lanes, and public transit in San Francisco. The land mass dedicated to vehicles is a staggering amount of square footage.
My walk to work today in SoMa in SF was so much fun; there were lots of crazy inventive spaces being created!
posted by missmary6 at 1:20 PM on September 15, 2017 [1 favorite]


moving cities away from completely car-centric models is something I've seen lots of disability advocates getting on board with recently. In a city where it was just as easy to take a bus as to take a car, people at all levels of disability (including those who can't drive at all) would have much greater access.

'Kay, but this will literally never be true in my city, or many others like it. Literally. It is not possible for it to be just as easy to take a bus as to take a car in my city, not at all levels of disability. I cannot wait in extreme heat in the summer, and there are many disabled people who can't wait in the extreme cold that also exists in my city. Nor can many people get through the snow to the bus stop (if I were still in my power wheelchair, I'd be fucked).

I am one of those people who can't drive at all. I rely on my partner and others to drive me places. Even having to work around their schedules and sometimes wait around a lot (which I can at least do inside in the AC/heat, not outside at a bus stop), it's infinitely more accessible than public transportation. I am lucky to have access to that, so yes, increased public transportation would be great for people who don't have that, but it will literally never be more accessible for me to take public transportation, and if I didn't have access to a car, I'd probably have died in the summer heat by now.

I mean I guess in a utopia future where all the sidewalks are heated and every bus station is enclosed with AC and heat and there's one on every single street and the buses run exactly on time and don't take two hours to get somewhere that's a 20 minute drive, then maybe? But I don't think that's something we're going to achieve.

Again, cool, I'm not bashing the point or the concept. It's great to try and make cities less people-hostile. But doing so in a way that is quite blatantly in opposition to car owners (even if that's not the intent) annoys me, because it's a very common and tired trope--eco green liberal environmental consciousness is regularly presented in an anti-car, and anti-disabled way (everybody needs to bike or walk! take public transportation to show how conscientious you are! don't buy into the capitalist machine!).

That said I acknowledge that I am probably more bitter right now than I normally would be at this because construction a street away from me = a bunch of bargoers parking on my street = no street parking spaces available = I literally can't park and return to my home until they leave.
posted by brook horse at 2:10 PM on September 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


People who can walk should walk (or bike or bus or whatever) and leave all that extra space for people who can't walk (or bike or bus or whatever).
posted by pracowity at 2:41 PM on September 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


Our city effectively shut down PARK(ing) Day by requiring that you apply for a permit and pay $25. From what I've heard, it's mostly businesses who are paying that fee. This is in Portland, Oregon.
posted by aniola at 10:38 AM on September 16, 2017


« Older "Nobody else has come to check on me."   |   Muskoka mystery Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments