Park(ing) Day highlights the value of green, public space

On September 18th, the region celebrated Park(ing) Day with 33 pop-up parklets in DC, plus more in Maryland and Virginia. The annual event showcases alternative, human-friendly uses for urban parking spaces and is a reminder of the value of public land, no matter how small.

Park(ing) Day creatively humanizes the concrete jungle for a day, converting single parking spaces into concepts of what could be. It is celebrated on the third Friday in September.

Organizers define Park(ing) Day as an “annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into ‘PARK(ing)’ spaces: temporary public places.

“The project began in 2005 when Rebar, a San Francisco art and design studio, converted a single metered parking space into a temporary public park in downtown San Francisco. Since 2005, Park(ing) Day has evolved into a global movement, with organizations and individuals (operating independently of Rebar but following an established set of guidelines) creating new forms of temporary public space in urban contexts around the world.”

According to the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), 2015 was DC’s “biggest #parkingday ever,” with 33 officially permitted parklets. DDOT even tweeted an advance warning to “start planning your route (and your excuse for calling in ‘sick’ on Friday).”

Here are our favorite shots from the parklets we visited in DC:

Making a tasteful political statement, activists blended bike-powered smoothies at the Project for Public Spaces parklet.

For an interactive version, see Jeff Miller’s “smoothie operator” Vine on Twitter.

Prime real estate in front of the John A. Wilson Building became populated with people, politicians, parks, plants, and pedal power. Councilmembers Charles Allen and Elissa Silverman held meetings in the parcel, and bikes replaced cars in the parking spaces.

Island Press built an urbanist library at M and 20th NW.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy envisioned a grassy trail parallel to the New Hampshire Avenue bike lane in Dupont Circle.

Visitors played chess at Baked&Wired in Georgetown…

…and learned about multimodal options at Metro Center.

Multitasking empowerment in the 600 block of I Street NW.

DoTankDC conducted a Vision Zero exercise with legos and sticky notes in NoMa.

The Mayor’s Office on Asian Pacific Islander Affairs created a multilingual classroom.

Washingtonian Rudi Riet chronicled his 28-parklet marathon on Instagram.

Parklets sprung up in Virginia and Maryland, too:

In Silver Spring, MNCPPC hosted a parklet on Fenton Street.