Blog » park(ing) day
- September 22, 2010
PARK(ing) Day 2010
PARK(ing) Day 2010 was a resounding success -- at SPUR, in San Francisco and around the world. SPUR's PARK(ing) spot used milk crates, giant wooden spools, house plants and a colorful painted canvas to transform two parking spaces in front of the Urban Center into a delightful urban park. Friends of the Urban Forest kindly donated trees; Rebar lent us Bushwaffle and a section of their Walklet (both featured in our current exhibit, DIY Urbanism: Testing the grounds for social change). Stay tuned for our time-lapse video of the event.
All photos by Colleen McHugh.
Tags: PARK(ing) Day - September 21, 2010
Parklet Request for Proposals Announced by SF Planning Department
BY KIT HODGE
The Divisadero Street parklet in front of Mojo Cafe.
Last Friday at a noontime forum at SPUR, the San Francisco Planning Department announced the release of a Request For Proposals for parklets, due October 18. Anyone interested in installing a parklet in front of your business or institution should download the application and program overview here. Pass along the information to businesses and other institutions that you think could be good parklet hosts. October 18th is right around the corner!
Spearheaded by the Planning Department's Pavement to Parks Program, parklets offer a unique opportunity to widen a sidewalk, providing public space for people to sit and relax. The SPUR forum was designed to help business owners and other potential applicants learn more about the parklet RFP.- To learn more about existing parklets, click here.
- To learn more about the impact of parklets, click here.
For any questions or information, e-mail Kit Hodge at kit AT sfgreatstreets DOT org. The SF Great Streets Project is a collaboration between SPUR and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.
If a parklet isn't the right fit for you, consider a bike parking corral, which provides on-street bike parking in front of businesses and organizations that expect significant bike traffic. The City installs corrals at no cost to the applicant, but you are expected to provide ongoing maintenance. Download the simple application here. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency accepts applications on a rolling basis.
- September 16, 2010
PARK(ing) Day is Tomorrow! Print out our Map of Participating Sites
PARK(ing) Day is a yearly, worldwide event that encourages urban residents to transform parking spots into temporary public spaces.
SPUR's PARK(ing) Day map includes particpating PARK(ing) sites, as well as a detailed list of spots. Download the pdf here to print out your own copy.
Be sure to stop by SPUR's PARK(ing) spot in front of 654 Mission Street for music, activities and conversation tomorrow, 11a.m. - 2:30p.m.
Tags: PARK(ing) Day - September 3, 2010
Bring Park(ing) Day to Your Favorite Neighborhood Café!
BY LIZA PRATT
SPUR's Park(ing) Day 2009 installation [Photo Credit: Colleen McHugh]
Park(ing) Day 2010 is just two weeks away. First celebrated in San Francisco in 2005, PARK(ing) Day has since become a global phenomenon. The annual event celebrates public space and street life by temporarily transforming parking spaces into public parks (or performance spaces, reading lounges—whatever you like!). It is also a great opportunity to test what a parklet on your street can do for your neighborhood or business.
Wish there was more outdoor seating in front of your favorite cafe?
Is there a place in your neighborhood you'd love to see a parklet?
Help spread the word about parklets by printing the Great Streets Project's easy How To Guide and encouraging your favorite business or institution to participate in Park(ing) Day.
Click here to watch Streetfilms' video from Park(ing) Day 2008 in New York City.Tags: DIY Urbanism, PARK(ing) Day - March 19, 2010
PARK(ing) Day, Everyday
BY COLLEEN MCHUGH
Mayor Gavin Newsom, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, DPW Director Ed Reiskin and a crowd of supporters gathered yesterday in front of Mojo Bicycle Café on Divisadero at Hayes to celebrate the opening of the city’s first of many new “parklets.” These parklets—parking spaces repurposed as lively sidewalk extensions—are part of the city’s Pavement to Parks initiative.
The new Divisadero Street parklet consists of a wooden platform elevated to sidewalk height and extended across two former parking spaces. Benches, tables and chairs, planters, and bike parking fill the transformed public space.
These parklets can be attributed in some respects to several years of creative PARK(ing) Day activism. PARK(ing) Day was conceived by REBAR in a single San Francisco parking space in 2005. Since then, it has been celebrated in parking spaces across San Francisco and around the world. Opening exactly six months after PARK(ing) Day 2009, the Divisadero parklet shares many of the design aspects first experimented with in the Urban Center’s most recent PARK(ing) Day project—a collaborative effort between SPUR and the Great Streets Project. Architect Riyad Ghannam, who volunteered his time and skills to design the Divisadero parklet, also designed the temporary mobile platforms we used in front of the Urban Center. PARK(ing) Day 2009 was a great day at SPUR—a street-side celebration of sun, friends, neighbors, music, and public space. And it is exciting to see that the hours of construction by Riyad and other volunteers and interns in the depths of the SPUR basement may have had an impact beyond just one perfect day in September.
Left: PARK(ing) Day 2009 at the Urban Center. Right: Divisadero St. parklet. [Images: Colleen McHugh]
To see more photos of the Divisadero parklet opening, check out SPUR’s Flickr site.
And to read more about yesterday’s celebration and future parklets, check out coverage from Streetsblog. - September 23, 2009
NY Times Columnist Allison Arieff Blogs about P2P (and Land-Lending in a Soft Economy)
BY JULIE KIMNew York Times columnist Allison Arieff penned a piece yesterday on the temporary parks and open spaces sprouting up in San Francisco and New York City--and the opportunity for land owners (in this soft economy) to lend their empty lots to grassroots greeners.
This image, from Arieff's column, shows the site of one of San Francisco's newest temporary plaza at the intersection of San Jose Avenue and Guerrero Streets:
The San Jose/Guerrero parks use simple materials--many of them recycled--to create instant atmosphere.
Arieff's column also featured many great images from PARK(ing) Day last week, as well as a link to a Streetsfilms segment featuring PARKS by SPUR and other members of the San Francisco Great Streets Coalition. - September 23, 2009
Music, Dancing, Urbanists at 2009 PARK(ing) Day
BY JULIE KIMLast Friday, we teamed up with the San Francisco Great Streets Project and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition to participate in 2009 PARK(ing) Day, an event-cum-social movement started by Rebar in 2005.
Before the big day, architect and SFBC volunteer Riyad Ghannam spent countless hours in the Urban Center's basement designing and building wooden platforms to create a seamless transition between the sidewalk and PARK:
We're hoping the installation can be a model for restaurants and other small businesses to create temporary outdoor eating and sitting spaces as an extension of their storefronts. The model was a hit among North Beach restaurant owners, for whom PARK(ing) Day turned into a PARK(ing) Weekend! (See Streetsfilm's clip below for the whole story.)
Finally, what would PARK(ing) Day be without a little bellydancing by Calamity Sam, who literally stopped Mission Street traffic.
Thank you to plant-provider Flora Grubb, furniture-maker Miles Epstein, belly-dancer Calamity Sam and cellist Leo Suarez-Peringer for making 2009 PARK(ing) Day a raging success! And we're thrilled that Dwell, Streetsblog and Streetsfilms all had a chance to stop by.
Blog RSS Feed