PARK(ing) Day

The concept of PARK(ing) Day is based on the idea that by putting money into a parking meter one is “renting” urban public space. The range of possibilities for the short-term lease of the metered parking space is limitless. Our thought was what if tomorrow, there were no more cars on the road; what would we imagine the street parking spaces to be? This sparked our imagination, and being avid cyclists and stewards of the environment we wanted to create a usable, temporary park, a park that bikers using the Southport Avenue bike lane could pull over at, refuel, and relax. Imagine the possibilities if streets served more than just a single automotive purpose. A place where, in addition to transportation, water was recharged, food was grown, and people were present. On Friday, September 18, 2009, moss transformed a surface street parking corral into public space, reclaiming the public realm for the use of all of the public.