Come Down to Main Street for Park(ing) Day

In cities around the globe tomorrow, artists, activists and citizens will transform metered parking spaces into temporary public parks and other social spaces, as part of an annual event called PARK(ing) Day.

For the first time ever, Nashua will be a part of this experiment, with three parking spaces in front of 88 Main Street reserved for public enjoyment.

James Vayo of Renaissance Downtowns wanted to give the event a try as a way of showing how the city might benefit from thinking outside the box in planning how to use its public space.

Between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Friday one parking spot is going to be dedicated to showing how community gardens would enhance life for downtown residents; another will promote the importance of a bicycle-friendly infrastructure; and the third will be dedicated to public enjoyment, with places for the Park(ing) Day curious to join in, read, each lunch, sip coffee, listen to music and relax.

The idea began in 2005 by Rebar, a San Francisco-based art and design studio, as a way for people to rethink the way streets are used while promoting discussion around the need for broad-based changes to urban infrastructure.

As Nashua looks ahead, to the completion of the Broad Street Parkway and a shift in development focus to the area around the Millyard and Bronstein Park, how the existing space is used will be key, said Vayo.

He wholeheartedly believes in the need to take a new approach to making cities liveable and sustainable. Park(ing) Day raises these issues and demonstrates that even temporary projects can improve the character and quality of a city like Nashua, Vayo said.

Last year on Park(ing) Day there were 975 “PARK” installations in more than 160 cities on six continents. From Iran to Madagascar, Venezuela to South Korea, the project continues to expand to urban centers across the globe, and participants have broadened the scope of PARK installations to fulfill a range of unmet social needs.

[You can click through a slide show of past Park(ing) Day installations here.]

“From public parks to free health clinics, from art galleries to demonstration gardens, PARK(ing) Day participants have claimed the metered parking space as a rich new territory for creative experimentation, activism, socializing and play,” says John Bela, a Rebar principal.

“While PARK(ing) Day may be temporary, the image of possibility it offers has lasting effects and is shifting the way streets are perceived and utilized,” Bela says.

So how does PARK(ing) Day translate into change?

“What has been really gratifying,” says Rebar principal Blaine Merker, “is that PARK(ing) Day, which began as a guerrilla art project, has been adopted by cities and integrated into their official planning strategies. A relatively modest art intervention has changed the way cities conceive, organize and use public space.”

For more information, visit the PARK(ing) Day project website at www.parkingday.org.