You know, bands of parking bandits take over a couple of spaces, put down some grass, add a bench and a tree, and turn them into parks. Its sort of the opposite of the “Paving Paradise.”
From the web site:
Anyone can create a PARK anywhere at anytime but once a year is Park(ing) Day where people from around the world coordinate to create them on the same day. In 2007, there were more than 200 PARKs in over 50 cities worldwide, including: – 58 PARKs in San Francisco, including 5 Sidewalk Plazas by Public Architecture. – 45 PARKs in Los Angeles. – 25 PARKs in NYC (one of which is pictured at right). There were also PARKs in major cities, including Washington DC, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, St. Paul, Boston, Austin, Salt Lake City, Tampa, Miami, London, Bremen, Utrecht, Barcelona, Valencia, Munich, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Toronto, Melbourne, Brisbane (Australia) and Vilnius (Lithuania).
Being the resident curmudgeon, I suppose I’m supposed to should Bah Humbug and come out “against” this anti parking mob. But somehow I can’t bring myself to do it. Frankly its kind of neat. Sure — they should feed the meters, and not get carried away, but why not?
It serves as a reminder that we are stewards of our planet. Nothing wrong with that. People look at the spots and smile, or sit for a while, and think about…parking…not a bad thing. Dogs have a place to …well… not a bad thing either.
Of course this can be taken to the extreme — in some cities the ‘parks’ have become permanent. You know which city that is, I won’t beat them up again, this week.
So install your parks, enjoy the moment. Smile, relax, and pick up the grass when its over. Parking folks live on the planet, too.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
JVH
