By Yoav Hagler, Associate Planner, RPA
There is nothing like waking up in the morning, grabbing your lawn chair, the morning paper, and a cup of coffee and heading outdoors to enjoy the summer sun. This idyllic suburban scene is where? Manhattan, NY, USA.
This is no ordinary day, this is PARK(ing) day, where city dwellers reclaim street space for a day and transform it into a place for people, not simply a space to store cars. PARK(ing) day began in Brooklyn in 2005 when members of Transportation Alternatives occupied a single parking spot. It has grown in just a few years to include hundreds of spots in 50 cities around the world. This year it is Friday, September 19, and already people are planning to turn hundreds of parking spots into impromptu mini urban oases. You can find out more at http://parkingdaynyc.org/about.
I participated in PARK(ing) day last year and found myself in what was usually an on-street parking space, with a lawn chair and a newspaper and a few like-minded friends, ready to spread the gospel of the scourge of free parking, the importance of public space, and the evils of automobiles in the city. And the day went just as planned...sort of.
My particular site of reclamation was on Broadway and 116th Street near the main campus of Columbia University. The morning began with a sense of purpose, an air of enlightenment, as if we had been charged by some authority to put ourselves on display and explain to passers-by why in the world we would be sitting on a patch of artificial turf we laid down on the street.
Our commitment to our cause was tested early. As we laid out the turf in our designated parking spot, we encountered a salient reminder that we were no longer in the world of the pedestrian and had entered something entirely different, just six inches away from our designated safe zone; the sidewalk. A steady stream of, well, liquid that smelled vaguely of fish flowed next to the curb, reminding us that roadbeds, unlike sidewalks, are part of the city sewer system.
This minor setback would not, however, deter us from our mission nor dampen our moods, and soon we settled in and became part of the street life on Broadway that morning. The chess guy on the corner periodically checked in with us in between matches and provided us with music. The delivery men servicing the businesses along Broadway seemed more concerned for our safety than they were angry at our presence, a pleasant surprise. And of course there were the thousands of pedestrians walking by our selected plot, whose reactions ranged from total indifference to enthusiastic support to varying degrees of curiosity.
It was this last group of pedestrians and their inquiries that we came prepared to engage and educate that day - that parking on city streets isn't really free because it robs us of space that could be a productive part of the city's public realm. NYCDOT's reinvention of Broadway Boulevard was still nearly a year in the future, and so we asked passers-by to use their imagination on how such a space could more permanently be reclaimed. We talked about the idea of public space in general, and then more broadly about how we interact with the physical world around us.
And then a funny thing happened. We began talking to these strangers more generally about what was going on in our city, about what was in the newspaper, some even joined us and stayed for a while.
We embarked on our mission to create a model public space, put ourselves on display and educate people about the need for more open areas. In the end, we simply created a small place in the city to set up a lawn chair, read a newspaper, and talk to strangers.
There is nothing like waking up in the morning, grabbing your lawn chair, the morning paper, and a cup of coffee and heading outdoors to enjoy the summer sun. This idyllic suburban scene is where? Manhattan, NY, USA.
This is no ordinary day, this is PARK(ing) day, where city dwellers reclaim street space for a day and transform it into a place for people, not simply a space to store cars. PARK(ing) day began in Brooklyn in 2005 when members of Transportation Alternatives occupied a single parking spot. It has grown in just a few years to include hundreds of spots in 50 cities around the world. This year it is Friday, September 19, and already people are planning to turn hundreds of parking spots into impromptu mini urban oases. You can find out more at http://parkingdaynyc.org/about.
I participated in PARK(ing) day last year and found myself in what was usually an on-street parking space, with a lawn chair and a newspaper and a few like-minded friends, ready to spread the gospel of the scourge of free parking, the importance of public space, and the evils of automobiles in the city. And the day went just as planned...sort of.
My particular site of reclamation was on Broadway and 116th Street near the main campus of Columbia University. The morning began with a sense of purpose, an air of enlightenment, as if we had been charged by some authority to put ourselves on display and explain to passers-by why in the world we would be sitting on a patch of artificial turf we laid down on the street.
Our commitment to our cause was tested early. As we laid out the turf in our designated parking spot, we encountered a salient reminder that we were no longer in the world of the pedestrian and had entered something entirely different, just six inches away from our designated safe zone; the sidewalk. A steady stream of, well, liquid that smelled vaguely of fish flowed next to the curb, reminding us that roadbeds, unlike sidewalks, are part of the city sewer system.
This minor setback would not, however, deter us from our mission nor dampen our moods, and soon we settled in and became part of the street life on Broadway that morning. The chess guy on the corner periodically checked in with us in between matches and provided us with music. The delivery men servicing the businesses along Broadway seemed more concerned for our safety than they were angry at our presence, a pleasant surprise. And of course there were the thousands of pedestrians walking by our selected plot, whose reactions ranged from total indifference to enthusiastic support to varying degrees of curiosity.
It was this last group of pedestrians and their inquiries that we came prepared to engage and educate that day - that parking on city streets isn't really free because it robs us of space that could be a productive part of the city's public realm. NYCDOT's reinvention of Broadway Boulevard was still nearly a year in the future, and so we asked passers-by to use their imagination on how such a space could more permanently be reclaimed. We talked about the idea of public space in general, and then more broadly about how we interact with the physical world around us.
And then a funny thing happened. We began talking to these strangers more generally about what was going on in our city, about what was in the newspaper, some even joined us and stayed for a while.
We embarked on our mission to create a model public space, put ourselves on display and educate people about the need for more open areas. In the end, we simply created a small place in the city to set up a lawn chair, read a newspaper, and talk to strangers.
@RegionalPlan