It’s PARK(ing) Day in Toronto and around the world- a day when we take back the streets and make space for people, not cars.
“Park(ing) Day is a global, public, participatory art project that takes place annually on the third weekend of September. Around the world, people temporarily repurpose on-street, boulevard or lot parking spaces and convert them into tiny parks and places for art, play, and activism.”
It started as a one-off in 2005 when Matt Passmore and his team at Rebar, a San Francisco design studio, bought two hours of time from a parking meter, rolled out some sod, installed a bench and a tree, and wrote:
The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat ... at least until the meter runs out!
The image went viral, as these things do, and Rebar got numerous requests for information from people in cities worldwide. Rebar produced an open-source manual, and in 2006, twenty years ago, there were PARK(ing) Day installations all over the world. As the U of T School of Cities notes,
The ethos of Park(ing) Day is to celebrate the use of urban public space for people and challenge the dominance of the automobile in cities. The event draws attention to the need for improving access and quantity of public open spaces in densely populated urban areas as well as the need for these spaces to provide social and environmental engagement.”
I should note a Canadian precedent from Hamilton, Ontario, in 2001, celebrated on Car-Free Day in July. The call to action:
“Bring some grass (the kind you sit on), a lawnchair, food, drums, soap bubbles, boombox ,sidewalk chalk, and your sense of adventure as we reclaim some prime downtown street space in smoggy, noisy, car-infested Hamilton. We will supply the quarters for parking spaces, which will magically transform into liberated car-free spaces.”
Their goal was promoting “a breathable, liveable future of sustainable transportation.” But Hamilton isn’t San Francisco, and it didn’t catch on the way PARK(ing) Day did a few years later.
In some ways, PARK(ing) Day is a bit of a relic of an earlier time. Twenty years ago, it was an act of what Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia described as “tactical urbanism, -an approach to neighbourhood building and activation using short-term, low-cost, scalable interventions and policies.” Over time, these activities that began as guerrilla interventions become sanctioned.
So what was once radical has become accepted, particularly since the Pandemic, when giving up parking spaces for people became common. What used to be considered tactical urbanism is now institutionalized, bureaucratized and commercialized, and now you have to pay to play.
That’s why PARK(ing) Day is so wonderful; it is still free. It’s an exercise in creativity, not commerce. I thought it had almost disappeared, but in Toronto it is still going strong, coordinated by Dubbeldam Architecture + Design. With partners Arup, KPMB, Gow Hastings, and Fast+Epp, they have a grant programme to help activate PARK(ing) spaces. Kevin McIntosh and Heather Dubbeldam, co-founders of Park(ing) Day Toronto, have rustled up fifteen installations for this year’s event. That’s remarkable, given that the Global Parking Day map shows only ten sites in the entire United States.
Many of the installations offer much more than just seating- last year there were books, beaches, and art installations. This year I am looking forward to “Strangers Calling” with a “bright pink vintage telephone that rings intermittently. Passersby are invited to pick up the phone and discover who—or what—is on the other end.” I might pass on “Meter Rex” with “an inflatable dinosaur, a cardboard parking meter and a 30-second invitation to dance into one on-street parking space.”
You don’t have to buy a coffee to use the space, because, as Enrique Peñalosa has noted,
"Public space is for living, doing business, kissing, and playing. Its value can't be measured with economics or mathematics; it must be felt with the soul."
You can see all of the Toronto locations at Parking Day Toronto. I am going to be on my bike doing the rounds today. Jan Gehl wrote: “A good city is like a good party — people stay longer than really necessary because they are enjoying themselves." Let’s all get out and party this PARK(ing) Day and weekend.
“tactical urbanism, -an approach to neighbourhood building and activation using short-term, low-cost, scalable interventions and policies.”
I have a great alternative and no meter-feeding, permit pulling, or hauling lots of gear around. It is the opposite of the above - and does wonder for one's blood pressure and a workout for the smiling muscles. So, let me rewrite that quote:
“tactical ruralism, -an approach to character building and activation using long-term, no-cost, and NO interventions or policies needed.”
One just pulls out a lawn chair, sits under the shade of a tree at the boundary of one's lawn and woods, and watching Nature's calming interplay of the sun and clouds, the faint flapping of wings (except bees and hornets - take note of those), the scurrying of squirrels in the trees (and occasional flop-miss onto the ground, the turkeys crossing the yard, the deer aleaping all around, the possums / racoons / skunks lumbering anywhere they wish (especially the latter).
A time for contemplation without disturbance.
Well, except for the bears.
Hopefully it is a VERY short run to your back door. Don't forget to bring your slab of tactical steak to distract it by throwing in another direction. And never forget your backup steak, too!
Fantastic. I knew nothing about it. Thanks!