PARKing Day: Next Year in NOPA

Why should the east side of town have all the fun on PARK(ing) Day?

Today was PARK(ing) Day in San Francisco and all over the world.

First launched in 2005 by Rebar, a local art and design collective, PARK(ing) Day is a one-day, once-a-year celebration of creating park spaces out of metered parking spots in the city. The temporary transformations dot city streets with mini-parks from Des Moines to Issaqua, Brighton to Lisbon, Canberra to Florence.

As the PARK(ing) Day 2009 site explains, "Anyone can participate ...though it is strictly a non-commercial project, intended to promote creativity, civic management, critical thinking, unscripted social interactions, generosity and play."

San Francisco's PARK(ing) Day 2009 included a solar-powered water fountain on Mission street (stand in front of the panel to block the sun and the fountain stops), a lush oasis on Valencia, an outdoor hangout including DJ in front of the urban planning institute SPUR, and NOPA neigbors Nathan Frankel and Dale Danley taking sun in the Mission.

So, next year, NOPA. Although the neighborhood is not as urban, not as dense as the east side locations, some of our streets could flourish for a day with some creative PARK(ing) Day attention.