PARK(ing) Day

Overview

As a pavement-wandering, car-less pedestrian, I envy the thousands of city spaces hoarded by those four-wheel metal machines. They may soundly take you from A to B, but once you get there, valuable city space goes to waste. What if I paid for the parking space within the city walls — renting, as it were, a tiny patch of land — and then invited some friends to bring lemonade and a frisbee, a tiny dog and a picnic basket? Our 'parking space' would be the urban park of my dreams. This is the premise of PARK(ing) Day.

What started as an art installation has turned into a wordwide event. While the original Rebar project questioned how we use our urban spaces, PARK(ing) Day now also stands for creativity, unscripted social interactions, generosity and play. It acts as an 'open source' project that can been adapted to any variety of social issues in the world. Last year more than 700 parks were hosted in 140 cities across 21 countries on six continents with scenes from the wonderful to the wacky.

For more ideas on how to start your own park, check out the PARKing Day manual, or else simply join a park nearby.