Park(ing) Day

It's Park(ing) Day in downtown Memphis and in cities around the world. Twenty parking spaces on Peabody Place between Front and Second will be transformed from 11am - 6pm into a wide variety of interesting and fun spaces, such as a human library where you can "check out" a person for a chat, a dog pub (for friendly dogs only),  and a mini roller derby rink.

Here's the official info from the Memphis Park(ing) Day Facebook page:  PARK(ing) Day is a annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places. The project began in 2005 when Rebar, a San Francisco art and design studio, converted a single metered parking space into a temporary public park in downtown San Francisco. Since 2005, PARK(ing) Day h...as evolved into a global movement, with organizations and individuals (operating independently of Rebar but following an established set of guidelines) creating new forms of temporary public space in urban contexts around the world.

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 during the event.

As Memphis joins the ranks of over 800 cities who participate in this annual event, 20 parking spaces along Peabody Place between Front Street and 2nd Street will be transformed into playful and generous parks on September 16th from 11a.m to 6 p.m. Park(ing) Day Memphis 2011 is hosted by Memphis College of Art and sponsored by the Downtown Memphis Commission and the Memphis Flyer. Partners for this event are: AIA Memphis, Memphis Regional Design Center, and The City of Memphis.
 
Park(ing) Day website: http://parkingday.org/   Be sure to check out the Park(ing) Day photos HERE to see what other cities around the world have done with their spaces.