The list: Reclaim public space lost to parking

A PARK near City Hall organized by the City Health Department and the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, today is International PARK(ing) Day, in which people turn street space normally used for car parking into mini parks or something else that gets people to stop and talk to each other. I am a super transportation policy geek thanks to my previous career, so I tend to like any stunt that provokes discussion about parking policy in cities. However, I'm mostly a fan of PARK(ing) Day now because it's a small way to get neighbors talking, even if only for one day. Seeing a PARK is so surprising to most people, that a lot of passers-by tend to stop and talk to the PARKers, or even do a double-back once they decide that they did really see what they thought they saw. Hence more neighborly interaction, and hence our Neighbor's Checklist item.

The longer term idea is to reclaim small pieces of the street infrastructure for some programmed space that gets neighbors talking on a day-to-day basis. This could be a garden, a play space, bike parking racks, a sculpture, a permanent hop scotch court, a bag toss set up, etc. Whatever makes sense for your neighborhood.

I toured around most of the PARK(ing) spots in San Francisco today. My favorite by far was the beauty school on Folsom. Extending local commerce onto the street is a highly practical way to boost the local economy while also making the street more pleasant and neighborly, especially for the deader areas with bloated driving lanes. In fact, small-scale street space reclamations are more often than not about improving the bottom line of the local economy rather than a reflection of wide-spread agreement that streets should be for people. So it was nice to see a number of commercial institutions participating in the event this year. In fact, my other favorite PARK (it was a tie) was not a PARK, but just an outdoor cafe. It looked like a PARK because it was across the street from a double PARK.

The one slightly negative thing I'll say is that a lot of the organizers seemed to miss the point that, if you want to engage people on the street, you should arrange the PARK to face the sidewalk, not the cars on the street. City government in many areas of this country often makes the same mistake when they place benches and bus stops to face car traffic, rather than the sidewalk. Most people, myself included, would much rather sit where we can watch other people, which is way more interesting than watching cars go by. The photos from NYC suggest that New Yorkers got it right. I'm curious to see photos from Chicago and L.A.

Doing hair and makeup at a PARK. Loved this one because it's practical and I'm weirdly fascinated by beauty school.


I thought this was a PARK when I first rode by because it was up the street from a PARK, but it's just a cafe in the street. This was my other favorite PARK, even though it's not actually a PARK. Again, it's practical and looks like a nice place to eat.


A theater company was handing out schedules of their performances for the year. Though they made the mistake of setting up to face the cars on a vast street (they're not going to slow down and have a conversation through the window), I liked the Christmas tree in the Holiday Inn planter. Again, a practical reason to reclaim street space.

See more photos in the Neighbors Project photo pool. Add your own.

Neighbor's Checklist.