Park(ing) Day at Stay-cation Park

Linus Gelber

Today is Park(ing) Day, and 50 parking spots in New York City are taken over and turned into Park Spots instead. The sponsoring groups - this is all legal, with police permits and everything - come rolling out and provide sod and overhead organizing, and beyond that each park is left pretty much to the people who put it together.

I start at Stay-cation Park, and come back later on to see how things are going. From across Court Street - there's heavy traffic all day on Court, and I wait a bit before there's an unobstructed view - it's clear that the park is attracting plenty of attention. The Scrabble game is still in session at right, with a few seats swapped out for new players; at left a busy group has finished with Boggle and is playing something else under the umbrella; in middle ground, Paco is getting athletic as he wins a round of Twister.

My take on the Park(ing) Day is pretty much this: on an ordinary day, this parking space would serve a couple of cars for a couple of hours each. It would be invisible, one small part of the river of cars that flows through the city day and night. Today it serves 50 or so people who lounge on the grass, take off their shoes, grab some snacks, play a game or two of this or that, and meet and talk and pass a pleasant minute or hour or two. Hundreds more stop as they pass and ask what on earth is happening; most are intrigued, some just shake their heads and move on.

This is a great way to start us all thinking about how we use our public space, and maybe how we could use it better.

Bigger? Aye, matey, arrr. (It's also Talk Like A Pirate Day today.)

---

View Project: