With the 10-year benefit for Streetsblog and Streetfilms coming up on November 14 (get your tickets here!), we are counting down the 12 most influential Streetfilms of all time, as determined by Clarence Eckerson Jr.
Park(ing) Day San Francisco
Number of plays: 144,000
Publish date: November 2, 2006
Why is it here? It's hard to remember now that parklets and bike corrals are well-established street elements in many cities, but not that long ago, repurposing curb space for anything other than parking or deliveries was unheard of. The annual observation of Park(ing) Day helped people imagine different uses for our streets. Many official city initiatives to turn the curb over to pedestrians ("Pavement to Parks," "Street Seats") were inspired by the early work of Rebar, the collaborative that popularized Park(ing) Day.
Fun Fact: I was visiting my girlfriend in Oakland and out shooting some video of bicycle boulevards in Berkeley when I got word that Park(ing) Day was happening the next day. I was familiar with ReBar’s awesome previous installations and figured I’d better show up and start filming. An exhausting day, but I shot a ton of footage and put this up just a few days later.
The Streetfilms Countdown so far:
#12: Lakewood, Ohio: The Suburb Where Everyone Can Walk to School
#11: Mark Gorton Interviews Enrique Peñalosa
#10: Zurich: Where People Are Welcome and Cars Are Not
#9: Sneckdowns
