What started as a few grassy plots of sod occupying metered parking spots in San Francisco has blossomed into a world-wide event scheduled to take place September 21st, 2007. Rebar’s Park(ing) Day is back for its third year and is bigger and better than ever, this time partnering with both Public Architecture and The Trust for Public Land. ReBar hopes to expand this year’s event beyond the 13 participating cities from 2006 including New York, London, and Rio de Janeiro; and they’re inviting everyone to get involved- that means YOU!
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept behind Park(ing) Day, it’s a national one-day global event, centered in the city of San Francisco, calling all artists, activist, and citizens together to temporarily take over parking spots, turning them into “Park(ing)” spaces, or temporary public parks.
As the mission states, the purpose of Park(ing) Day “is to rethink the way streets are used, call attention to the need for urban parks, and improve the quality of urban human habitats… at least until the meter runs out.”
How can you contribute? Check with The Trust for Public Land organization to see if there is anything going on in a city near you. If not, ReBar’s Park(ing) Day site provides everything you need to know to create your own Park(ing) spot, including several environmentally suggestions on where to donate the green materials used to create your temporary park.
Lucky local San Franciscans can join a Park(ing) team, thanks to two community workshops held by ReBar on August 16th and September 11th. So what are you waiting for? Get involved, get your green-thumb in gear, and build yourself a temporary park for Park(ing) Day. See you there!
+ Park(ing)
+ Rebar
+ Public Architecture
+ The Trust for Public Land
This is so exicting! I am thrilled to see the partnership and collaborative efforts between these fantastic groups.
Rebar has always struck me as having a great sense of humor, too! On a somewhat separate note, check out The Trust for Public Land’s City Spaces Program, where kids themselves redesign and repopulate virtually unusable school playgorunds. Another great example of asphalt going green: http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cdl.cfm?content_item_id=21059&folder_id=2929
I’m really conflicted over this whole thing. It’s cool that people are out there showing off gardening, and raising questions about green spaces in urban environments. However, it would annoy the piss out of me if I were looking for a parking spot somewhere and they had taken a few of them near my destination.
Playtime for the kids.
Bryce
thats part of the point.
[...] Terrell of Inhabitat reminds us of global park(ing) day Sept 21– take back the parking [...]
WOW! check out this website : http://www.ofamode.net/socialparking/
An art experamental project in New York in 2002 entitled “Social Parking”.
After 5 years…this concept became a national global event!
They should give credit to the person that started this…