PARK(ing) Day sprouts in Boise, Pocatello and Coeur d’Alene parking lots

Teya Vitu//September 25, 2018//

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American Heart Association government relations director Erin Bennett used her PARK(ing) day parklet on Eighth Street to promote heart awareness: “This is our chance to catch people we may not see on a normal basis.” Photo by Liz Harbauer.

The third Friday of September is circled on calendars around the world as PARK(ing) Day, an event that highlights “the need for new approaches to making the urban landscape.”

There’s nothing official about PARK(ing) Day, but since San Francisco art and design studio Rebar set up the first “parklet” in a metered parking space in 2005, other cities quickly latched onto the concept, and PARK(ing) Day became a very loose-knit annual event in hundreds of cities in mid-September.

PARK(ing) Day had spawned 975 converted parking spaces in 162 cities in 35 countries by 2011, the last year Rebar or anyone else released substantive statistics. The only larger count of PARK(ing) Day sites now available is from the American Society of Landscape Architects, which located 61 parklets in 19 states associated with member chapters, but acknowledges it is not a comprehensive list of all participants.

PARK(ing) Day is billed as an “open-source” global event with no organizational structure.

Parklets are usually temporary community spaces in parking spaces that typically incorporate seating, greenery and all sorts of other things that creativity produces. Participants are expected to pay parking meter fees and get appropriate government permitting.

Cynthia Gibson, executive director of Idaho Walk Bike Alliance and organizer of Boise’s first PARK(ing) Day in 2016, said she wants to “encourage people to think of streets differently, to see the street as a public place not just for cars.” Photo by Liz Harbauer.

Boise first took part in PARK(ing) Day in 2016 with three parklets on Eighth Street, spearheaded by the Idaho Walk Bike Alliance. This year, Idaho Smart Growth’s Deanna Smith coordinated the Sept. 21 event, which included eight parklets – five downtown and others at the parking lots at Vista Village and the Collister Shopping Center, as well as one on a front yard in the North End.

“This year it’s bigger than it has been,” Smith said.

A number of groups created parklets around Boise, including the Idaho Walk Bike Alliance, American Heart Association, Ada County Highway District’s Commuteride, D. L. Evans Bank, Stack Rock Group and Energize Our Neighborhoods.

“We want to grow it in neighborhoods and all over the place,” Smith said. “I’d love to grow it statewide. It’s just one more way to rethink our streets. It’s a kind of fun way.”

Carmen Weber and Kiley Gardiner of Stack Rock Group kick back at the D. L. Evans Bank parklet in a parking space on Ninth Street. Photo by Liz Harbauer.

Coeur D’Alene first staged PARK(ing) Day on Sherman in 2015 with the fourth iteration this year. From 2009 to 2012, the Kootenai Environmental Alliance in Coeur d’Alene staged PARK(ing) Day festivities with five to 10 parklets on a site that eventually became McEuen Park. University of Idaho students created four parklets on the Moscow campus.

The city of Pocatello made its PARK(ing) Day debut this year with seven parklets, six on six different blocks of Main Street and one on Center Street. Old Town Pocatello Inc., an entity that helps redevelop and revitalize downtown, recruited the parklets from The Yellowstone, Station Square, Orange and Black Store, The Elwen Cottage, Main Steam Coffee and Desserts, Molinelli’s Jewelers and the Bannock Transportation Planning Organization.

Pocatello set up seven parklets on city streets to celebrate PARK(ing) Day. Photo courtesy of city of Pocatello.

“Everybody in Old Town is excited about anything that brings people into Old Town,” said Maggie Clark, a city of Pocatello program manager and also public awareness officer for the Idaho/Montana chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, which fully embraces PARK(ing) Day among its chapters nationwide.

Boise’s Energize Our Neighborhoods set up its PARK(ing) Day parklet on three parking spaces outside City Hall. “Energize Our Neighborhoods is all about bringing people together and creating energy,” said Melinda McGoldrick, program manager. “Let’s start in our own backyard.” Photo by Liz Harbauer.

Pocatello got a head start on PARK(ing) Day with its Terry First Build a Better Block event on Aug. 25. The city created a temporary “anything non-car related” pathway on the street pavement of nine blocks of First Avenue and Terry Street.

The event tested pop-up shops, parklets, a stage with seating, landscaping and public art as the city seeks ways to increase walkability and improve the connection between Idaho State University and Old Town Pocatello, Clark said.

The Collister Neighborhood Association put a different twist on PARK(ing) Day. Instead of claiming a street parking spot, they set up camp next to Baskin Robbins in the Collister Center, using a National Street Service grant.

The Collister Neighborhood Association put its parklet in the Collister Center parking lot. Photo by Teya Vitu.

“I have often thought there are wonderful elements (at Collister Center) to make you want to come here, but there is a missing triangulation for people to just casually bump into each other,” said Sarah Taylor, the neighborhood association’s vice president.

Beyond PARK(ing) Day, a number of cities since the 2010s have established formal regulations for people to build parklets on city streets. Even the National Association of City Transportation Officials has adopted guildelines for setting up parklets.

PARK(ing) Day founder Rebar in the opening years prepared a PARK(ing) Day manual, which, in part, reads: “Urban inhabitants worldwide recognize the need for new approaches to making the urban landscape, and realize that converting small segments of the automobile infrastructure — even temporarily — can alter the character of the city. From public parks to free health clinics, from art galleries to demonstration gardens, PARK(ing) Day participants have claimed the metered parking space as a rich new territory for creative experimentation and activism.”

Stack Rock Group co-founder Krisjan Hiner and Kiley Gardner play pool golf at their PARK(ing) Day parklet. “We love promoting urban open space,” Hiner said. Photo by Liz Harbauer.

The city of Boise took part in PARK(ing) Day for the first time this year with its Energize the Neighborhoods program. The cities of Pocatello and Coeur d’Alene also coordinated the PARK(ing) day events in those cities.

“PARK(ing) Day helps us talk about rethinking our streets,” Smith said. “Our streets are a very important asset, and we’re not getting all we want out of our streets.”