Features

“Park(ing) Day” came to Berkeley on September 16, 2011. The annual worldwide event originated in San Francisco in 2005 when the Rebar design studio temporarily turned a parking space into a mini-park, with turf, seating, and a boxed tree. It was a statement about creating “temporary public spaces” where the car is dominant, and/or urban outdoor space is scarce. 

The idea caught fire and now it’s repeated annually around the world, with groups encouraged to come up with their own installations. In 2011 there were hundreds of installations, most concentrated in North America and Western Europe, but others scattered far and wide from New Zealand to South Africa to China. 

According to the Park(ing) day website, “the mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat … at least until the meter runs out!” 

There were several temporary parklets locally on Friday the 16th. I visited two, after work, in Downtown Berkeley. 

One was on Center Street, sponsored by the UC Berkeley student ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) chapter. It followed something of the model of the original Park(ing) Day—a couple of meter spaces were partially surrounded by salvaged white picket fencing, and some couches were set out. 

The installation was the north side of Center Street below Oxford, adjacent to the old UC Printing Plant—the future Berkeley Art Museum site. Although there were a number of students there, it all looked a bit forlorn. 

That side of Center doesn’t get much foot traffic, and several of the adjacent parking spaces were vacant when I went by, lessening the contrast of a tiny “people space” in the midst of automobiles. It actually looked not so much like a special project, but a more commonplace scene around parts of Berkeley—some old furniture dragged out by the curb, and people hanging out. 

(I was sympathetic to this installation, though, having an alumnus of the UC landscape architecture program in the family. Efforts like these are projects above and beyond the demanding student workload, and I don’t doubt that several students worked long and hard—and late at night—to plan and organize their parklet). 

A few blocks south on Shattuck Avenue at Allston, Nina Haft & Company—an “Oakland based contemporary dance group known for their cultural commentary and site specific works”, according to their website—turned three parking spaces into a dance stage. 

During the day several groups, including Berkeley High students, were scheduled to perform. When I passed by, two woman were dancing, and there were others waiting to perform—at least I assumed the bagpiper in the kilt was a performer, not just a guy wandering Downtown Berkeley. 

A green sheet had been laid down on the asphalt as a dance floor, flanked by grey plastic garbage cans were filled with abstract flower arrangements, clusters of blown up white plastic bags tied to the end of white sticks. 

Sounds odd, but it was actually rather effective, especially with the early evening sun making the bag-blossoms glow. A crowd had gathered to watch the performance, as buses rumbled by behind. 

The Downtown temporary spaces were an interesting diversion from the standard street scene, and might be viewed in various ways. On the one hand, they provided something of an informal foretaste of opportunities to create people spaces along Downtown streets. 

The City’s as-yet-unfunded SOSIP (Streetscape and Open Space Improvement Program) for the Downtown might produce some tangible permanent improvements along these lines. 

On the other hand, if the Downtown “vision” of the City Council majority is carried out to its fullest extent, there will be several thousand more residents in the Downtown, but nothing much in the way of substantial, useable, park areas. 

In that case, sidewalk interventions and parklets will be an attractive garnish, but not a substitute for real, adequately sized, active open spaces. 

There was at least one more parklet in Berkeley that I didn’t see, near Dwight and San Pablo (organized by Alta Planning + Design), and others in Emeryville and Oakland. 

The Park(ing) Day website is at http://parkingday.org/