Michael Green looks at PARKing Day – a small movement devoted to converting carparking spaces into small parks.
Today is PARKing Day, where across the world devoted park enthusiasts wake before dawn and go about taking the ‘car’ out of ‘carpark’ by transforming a carpark space into a mini-park. PARK(ing) Day is an annual, worldwide event that invites citizens everywhere to transform metered parking spots into temporary parks for the public good. It was born in San Francisco in 2005 and has since grown into a global urban beautification movement. Its manifesto is subtitled, ‘User-generated urbanism and temporary tactics for improving the public realm’.
In Melbourne, PARKing Day volunteers were out at 7am working on a metered parking space on Little Lonsdale, between Russell and Exhibition (closer to Exhibition). The little plot was decked out with chairs, pot plants, a mini picket fence, Scrabble, a beach brolly, hula hoops, picnic lunch and nice company. The space was metered until lunchtime.