About Park(ing) Day NYC
The Idea
Park(ing) Day is an international event that reclaims parking spots and transforms them into engaging, people-friendly public spaces for one day a year.
Park(ing) Day NYC is a New York City Streets Renaissance collaboration which supports the conversion of parking spots throughout New York City's 5 boroughs into human-friendly places for a single day. These small, temporary public spaces provide a breath of relief from the auto-clogged reality of New York City, and aim to spark dialogue about our valuable public space and how we choose to use it.
In 2009, the POP.Park Competition will transform Park(ing) Day NYC from a once-a-year act of reclamation to an everyday statement. The winning submission -- transportable, affordable and easy to use--will add the immediate potential of public space to every block, every day of the year.
The History
On October 29th, 2005, Transportation Alternatives took over a parking spot on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Using basic materials, they created their first "parking spot squat", offering free bike parking and a place to sit and talk to friends and strangers alike. It was an immediate success, drawing crowds and attention from the press. Most importantly, it got people thinking about whether $.50 an hour was a fair price for such a useful piece of public space, and whether that space should be occupied by cars at all.
As it turned out, people on the West Coast were wondering the same thing. A few weeks after the Brooklyn squat, the San Francisco-based arts collective REBAR launched PARK(ing) Day as a national event in which people in cities all over the country reclaim parking spots as vibrant, public spaces for one day. In the years since its debut, the annual event has expanded globally and is now celebrated in 50 cities.
In 2007 Transportation Alternatives (T.A.), in partnership with the Trust for Public Land, launched Park(ing) Day NYC, bringing the internationally successful public space intervention to New York. It featured 25 high-visibility parking spots, located throughout New York City. Each space was individually organized and executed by partners and allies that included elected officials, artists, architects and planners, advocates and engaged citizens (check out the great Streetfilm about the 2007 event, or visit the Park(ing) Day project on LivableStreets for more details).
In 2008, Park(ing) Day NYC doubled the number of Park(ing) spots to 57! Park builders placed special emphasis on site-specific designs that reflected the social, cultural and architectural contexts in which they were situated, as well as generated innovative proof-of-concept designs for permanent public space reclamation. Seating areas, art installations, and community engagement made the case for a more sensible and human-friendly distribution of available urban public space.
At 12pm on October 18th, Park(ing) Day REDUX debuted on 21st Street, in front of the Eyebeam Art + Technology Center. Selected 2008 Park(ing) Spots were re-installed on the closed street, along with art and video from the 2008 event. Hosted in partnership with the great folks at Eyebeam, REDUX was an opportunity to see some of the best parts of Park(ing) Day NYC in one place.
The People
Transportation Alternatives (T.A.) is a non-profit organization working to reclaim New York City's Streets from the automobile, and to advocate for cycling, walking, and mass transit as the most sensible alternatives to automobile dependency. Founded in 1973 during the explosion of environmental consciousness that also produced the Clean Air and Clean Water Act and the Environmental Protection Agency, T.A. has grown into a membership-based organization with over 7,000 members in the New York metro area and beyond. It has helped win numerous improvements for cyclists and pedestrians and has been the leading voice for reducing car use in the city. In addition to its advocacy work, T.A. produces a number of popular annual events, including the New York City Century, and the Tour de Brooklyn, Tour de Queens, and Tour de Bronx bicycle rides.
OpenPlans is a non-profit incubator for projects and technology to catalyze large scale social change. OpenPlans identifies opportunities where great improvements to the world can be brought about by small, focused, concerted action. OpenPlans's expertise in software development gives it the ability to leverage information technology to help solve these problems. OpenPlans also works closely with other advocacy groups and government to build collaborative solutions for these societal issues.
Founded in 1997, Eyebeam is an art and technology center that provides a fertile context and state-of-the-art tools for digital experimentation. It is a lively incubator of creativity and thought, where artists and technologists actively engage with the larger culture, addressing the issues and concerns of our time. Eyebeam challenges convention, celebrates the hack, educates the next generation, encourages collaboration, freely offers its output to the community, and invites the public to share in a spirit of openness: open source, open content and open distribution.
