This Friday is Park(ing) Day

Photo from Last Year’s Parking Day by Matthew Loranger  via the Trust for Public Land

Back in 2002, Park(ing) Day was founded in San Francisco by a group called Rebar.   Just as Critical Mass worked its way down the coast, Park(ing) Day has come to Los Angeles as well.  Basically, on Park(ing) Day, activists, architechts and other interested parties set up a small “public park” in a metered parking space, temporarily reclaiming the space for public use instead of private vehicle storage.  For a map with all of the sits, click here.

I’ll be visiting as many of the sites as I can on Friday, but if you are going to either sponsoring or visiting a spot and want to take some pictures that would be great.  Just drop me an email at damien@streetsblog.org

So, what does Park(ing) Day LA’s organizers think they’re going to accomplish with this event?  According to organizer Stephen Box, “The great thing is that throughout the day you end up talking about parks, parking, and urban design.  In this city, just talking about these things is a victory.”

To that end, tomorrow night the Center Scene Public Program will sponsor a forum about the impacts of a planning policy that places a premium on creating inexpensive public parking in a country where two-thirds of our children don’t live within walking distance of a public park.