There are good and bad ways to bring awareness to your cause, and I think the Trust for Public Land has found a creative and positive way to draw people’s attention to the importance of urban parks. They’ve declared Friday, September 19th National Park(ing) Day, and they’re encouraging you to turn a parking space into a temporary urban park. The Trust for Public Land has done quite a bit of great work in Chattanooga’s renaissance as a city. They’ve been behind the Chattanooga Greenways Program, working hard with local authorities and land owners to fund land acquisition, city planning, and maintenance of parks. The key feature of the program: Chattanooga’s Riverwalk, a 12-mile urban trail linking Coolidge & Renaissance Parks on North Chattanooga to the Bluff View Art District, UT Chattanooga, and Amnicola Highway all the way to the Chickamauga Dam. The Riverwalk links our new Two North Shore store as well as our Down Under store on River Street, and is also how I bike to and from work.
Get involved, check out the Trust for Public Land National Park(ing) Day Web site >
SAN FRANCISCO, 9/15/2008: On National Park(ing) Day – Friday, September 19 – volunteers in more than seventy cities across the U.S. will create more than four hundred temporary parks in public parking spaces. The goals of the event, according to organizers, are to celebrate parks and promote the need for parks in America’s cities.
National Park(ing) Day is sponsored by The Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national conservation nonprofit, based on an idea conceived by REBAR, a San Francisco art collective. Friday’s second annual National Park(ing) Day will see the creation of single park destinations in such cities as Kenosha, Wis., and Ardmore, Penn., while volunteers will create dozens of parks in several cities, including Tucson, Lake Worth, Fla., and San Francisco, which will feature the first Wedd(ing) Park.
For a full list of cities, maps, and descriptions, visit tpl.org/parkingday.
“By turning parking spaces into instant parks, National Park(ing) Day creatively demonstrates how much our cities need parks,” said Will Rogers, TPL president. “Across America, cities are renewing their investments in parks, because civic leaders have come to recognize that close-to-home parks, gardens, and playgrounds are essential if we are to have cities that aren’t just livable, but lovable.”
In 2007, National Park(ing) Day spawned more than 200 new parks in more than fifty cities nationwide and around the world.
Photos from last year’s event, as well as a full list of cities with maps and details is available online at tpl.org/parkingday.
National Park(ing) Day 2008 is a concept created by San Francisco art collective Rebar in 2005 to re-imagine the potential of the metered parking space. In 2006, in collaboration with TPL, REBAR founded “PARK(ing) Day”: a global exploration of the creative potential of streets.
The Trust for Public Land (TPL) is a national, nonprofit, land conservation organization that conserves land for people to enjoy as parks, community gardens, historic sites, rural lands, and other natural places, ensuring livable communities for generations to come. Since 1972, TPL has protected more than two million acres nationwide. TPL depends on the support of individuals, corporations, and foundations.
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