On Friday, plant a park in a parking space.
National Park(ing) Day encourages people to reclaim pavement for green space. Instead of feeding the meter for your car, you “lease” the space to create a temporary park, with grass, benches, or whatever you fancy. Here in Austin, the local green art organization is designing a 5 hour long park in the style of Enchanted Rock.
It’s both public art and a commentary on how we use our urban space. The founders of Park(ing) Day say that 70% of outdoor space in cities is dedicated to the private vehicle. The unexpected conversion of the parking space challenges people to rethink what streets are for.
There’s also a new study out which poses that maybe we’ve been over-shooting our need for parking lots. Purdue University researchers counted 355,000 parking spaces in Indiana’s Tippecanoe County, outnumbering residents 3 to 1. The abundance of parking might seem like a dream to a driver who laments hours lost circling the streets for parking, but the researchers concluded that oversized parking lots typical for big-box stores contribute to environmental problems. Pollutants from cars accumulate on the pavement and then are washed into waterways by stormwater drains. The heat reflected by parking lots also contributes to the urban heat island effect, which raise temperatures 2 to 3 degrees.
Most Park(ing) Day events are planned for cities, but hopefully the idea will spread into suburban areas. Just think what it would look like if your local Walmart parking lot suddenly turned into a park. You could still camp there for free, you might just have to step out of your vehicle for a night and sleep underneath the stars.
What a wonderful idea!
Wow, maybe they should take away the 2/3 extra parking spaces in Indiana and give us 1/3 of them, because it is terrible finding spots downtown and on campus. I’m all for conservation, take away the unnecessary spots like those in Indiana, but parking is a huge hassle, especially on campuses like UT here in Austin.
As a former student, even when I had a parking permit, I had to wait outside for up to 15 minutes sometimes just to find someone leaving and take their spot. It gets so ridiculous that people are used to walking back to their cars to be greeted by waiting drivers asking where their car is parked so the waiting person can go claim the soon-to-be vacated spot. And that’s for people like me who PAY for their spot! And they’re even taking AWAY parking on campus. There used to be a lot just south of Jester dormitory, but now it’s the Blanton Museum. They took away parking to put in something that will require MORE parking. It gets kind of ridiculous.
On the other hand, I do believe that it’s even more ridiculous that a county in Indiana would have 3 times as much parking as it has residents. That’s just a slap in the face of conservation.
Wouldn’t it be great to live in a time when, instead of adding more concrete to the world, we used some resources to take some unneeded concrete away?
astonding an actual good idea and an intelligent posting. i was going to ask why a sandwich made by someone for you tastes better than one you made yourself. but i really love this idea.
What a cute project name! There’s some pretty gigantic abandoned parking lots out in the suburbs near me that I wish would be permanently turned into parks…