Game Time at Stay-cation Park

Linus Gelber

Sunshine comes and goes, but the good vibe never falters at today's one-day-only Staycation Park, located at the corner of Court Street and Atlantic Avenue.

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.

My take on the notion 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, just a 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 - you see part of an all-day Scrabble match happening here - 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.

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

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