Happy Park(ing) Day

A shout out to our colleague Philip Winn for this parking-to-park animation, starring the OpenPlans Park(ing) Day installation at Crosby and Howard Streets, near Streetsblog headquarters.

If you haven’t seen Angie’s Capitol Hill post from this afternoon — featuring curbside parks from Phoenix, Arizona, to Portland, Maine — don’t miss it. And all those photos don’t begin to convey the scope of today’s festivities. Looking at tweets and media coverage from around the world, it’s clear that Park(ing) Day, much like Summer Streets-style events, has hit the mainstream.

Nice job, everyone.

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More Park(ing) Day: San Fran Rolls Out the Parkcycle

By Aaron Naparstek |
  I was pretty sure that New York City had San Francisco beat for this year’s Park(ing) Day, what, with the children’s reading hour and the on-street gymnasium in Brooklyn; Staten Island and Queens getting in on the act; and German tourists frolicking on the sod in front of the MoMA (all captured by StreetFilms, […]

Why is There a Picnic in My Parking Spot?

By Aaron Naparstek |
Park(ing) in Park Slope, Brooklyn, May 6, 2006. The sign says, "Public space reclamation in progress." Today is International Park(ing) Day, the day when urban dwellers all around the world reclaim on-street parking spaces for purposes more creative and life-affirming than private motor vehicle storage. If you found a bunch of kids playing in an […]

Park(ing) Day is Coming

By Aaron Naparstek |
Depressed about the direction Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan is heading? Cheer yourself up by starting to plan for Park(ing) Day 2007. Friday, September 21 is the day when urban dwellers the world over pop quarters into parking meters and take over on-street spaces, temporarily transforming them into miniature parks, playgrounds, cafés and community spaces. […]

Parking it in Midtown

By Aaron Naparstek |
Today is International Park(ing) Day. Also known as a "parking squat," Park(ing) is a quasi-legal reclamation of urban street space in which a metered, curbside parking spaces are transformed into urban parkland complete with sod, benches, trees and human beings. Here is how Park(ing) Day is being celebrated this morning in Midtown Manhattan on 8th […]

CB 7 Parks Committee Votes for Hilly Greenway Detour in Riverside Park

By David Meyer |
Manhattan Community Board 7’s Parks and Environment Committee voted 4 to 1 last night in favor of the Parks Department’s proposal to route cyclists away from from Riverside Park’s waterfront greenway between 72nd Street and 83rd Street. The plan would direct cyclists inland at 72nd Street through a hilly wooded path passing through the 79th Street Rotunda, which has a particularly steep incline. […]