FYI: Today is PARK(ing) Day
What started out in the wacky left-coast in the U.S. of A. appears to be going international. Today is PARK(ing) day! If you miss out this year, maybe you should mark you calendar for next year. I was not familiar with this particular movement myself, so for the rest of the uninitiated, here is their mission:
To rethink the way streets are used, call attention to the need for urban parks, and improve the quality of urban human habitat....at least until the meter runs out!
Basically, the premise of this movement is to convert an urban metered parking spot into a very small (10' X 20') public park. You can do this following the directions on their site, which can be found here. If you are seriously considering setting up your very own urban park, remember that you are on your own. You can get plans from REBAR, The Trust for Public Land and Public Architecture, but they are not liable for your actions and neither are we. Up next: the movable human-powered "Parkcycle". Click past the break for a picture!
[Source: PARK(ing) Day via Treehugger]
Just how cool is this!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tim Russell 5:33PM (9/21/2007)
What a wonderful way to cause driver rage. This just marginalizes greens. Dumb move IMHO
Reply
MarkR 5:57PM (9/21/2007)
I agree with Tim. It does the green movement more harm than good. They did it here in Austin Texas this year. And I would have been pissed if I needed to go down town and found the only available parking space was taken up by someone trying to grow grass on asphalt for a day. Hell I bet it isn't even carbon neutral, but instead worse for the environment. Displace one car that has to search longer for a parking space, have a big stinky delivery truck deliver a pallet of grass that had to be grown, cut and shipped to the location that will have to get rid of it in less than 12 hrs and now the grass roots are contaminated. If you are lucky you might be able to reuse the grass but my guess it will die because it sat on HOT pavement all day. WHAT A BUNCH of BONE HEADS! Thank God I live and Work in the burbs.
Reply
BillF 2:13PM (9/23/2007)
If you watch their video you see that they put tarps under the sod to protect it from the asphalt. When they finished they rolled it up, took it and installed it in a childrens center that needed grass. It was delivered and removed by bicycle powered carts.
Their prime intent is demonstrating the need for public green spaces, not the "green movement" per se, but they did their best to cover that base too.
Of course some people will be torqued off at a few parking spaces being occupied for a few hours on this day, but I think overall it's a creative demonstration about public space.
Reply