Park(ing) Day 2009


[ Park(ing) Day 2008, on Pine St. ]

There have been several happenings and changes at the 500 block of East Pine since my last post.  In chronological order: the Capitol Hill Garage Sale had a great turnout that included free vegan tacos, an appearance by Mike McGinn, and an interactive outreach effort soliciting ideas for future events.  A guerilla dance party erupted during Pride weekend and construction crews have mostly completed bus bulbs and sidewalk improvements.  Local bloggers Cap to the Hill won $10,000 to fund a corporate photo shoot and party with their idea to resurrect the former block for a night; the plan was foiled, but the private party is still happening elsewhere.  Marination Mobile recently came to an agreement with the property owner to sell their Hawaiian and Korean fusion nosh from the site on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings.

On September 18th, another community event will take place, this time in the form of an agglomeration of small parks coming together to create the Park(ing) Day Central Park.  As you may know, Park(ing) Day is an event created by Rebar, a Bay Area art and design collective, in response to a dearth of public open space.  Typically, parking spaces are transformed into temporary parks; in this case, we are transforming a former parking lot into a large park, replete with music, awards for the best parks, a presentation and perhaps a design charette for Seattle’s HUB, hopefully some street food, and who knows what else?

There are already more than a dozen parks planned for the lot and enough room for quite a few more.  Whether you’re part of a community group, an architecture/design firm, an artist, a small business proprietor, or just the type to hang around a park on a Friday, you’re qualified to participate, either on the lot or in a regular parking space.

The deadline for acquiring a street space is August 20th.  Contact Elaine Boyd at Feet First if you’re interested (elaine [at] feetfirst [dot] info).  If you’d prefer to set up on the lot, you can get in touch with us here.