Park It

On Park(ing) Day, nondrivers seized control of the streets.

by Holly Otterbein

It's lunchtime on Friday, and Mindy Watts isn't budging from her curbside parking spot across from the Reading Terminal Market. But she's not driving a car. She's riding a stationary maroon bike, which is rigged up to a projector. As she pedals, honky-tonk music plays and images of butterflies and rainbows flash onto a screen in front of her.

"This is what you would see and hear if there weren't any cars on 12th Street," Stacey Chen, her co-worker, says.

Today, Watts, Chen and their colleagues from Interface Studio, an urban design company, are occupying this spot from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. without ever parking a car on it; throughout the city, 30 other architecture students, nonprofit workers and urban planners hunker down in parking spots of their own. And the Philadelphia Parking Authority won't even ticket them. They're not rogue activists. They're law-abiding participants in Park(ing) Day, a nationwide event.

The first Park(ing) Day took place in San Francisco three years ago. People were encouraged to claim a parking space, and cover it with bikes, grass or anything that wasn't a car, and pay the meter. The point was to legally demonstrate that automobiles dominate too much public land, and that it should be redistributed to parks, bike lanes and vegetation.

"In most cities, 70 percent of outdoor space is devoted to cars. But what makes a city great — culture, diversity, walkability — has nothing to do with a car," says Pam Zimmerman, the organizer of Park(ing) Day in Philly.

Zimmerman is a middle-aged architect who walks to work every day. She wouldn't call herself an activist, but when she read about Park(ing) Day this past winter, she immediately wanted to get Philly involved. It wasn't because she was infuriated by the number of city parks. And it wasn't because she was distraught by how the city government deals with the lack of green space. No, quite the opposite. Zimmerman thought that "with Mayor Nutter coming in," it was the perfect time for Park(ing) Day.

She applauds Nutter because he appointed a director of sustainability and recognizes the importance of city planning, she says. This much is for sure: When Zimmerman told the infamously vigilant Parking Authority about Park(ing) Day, the event was granted approval immediately. "We knew that the mayor wanted to make this the greenest city in America, so the Parking Authority said yes," says Linda Miller, PPA's spokesperson and deputy executive director. The PPA even footed the bill for the group's parking meters. That's $240 on the house.

Even if the city government is hip to parks, though, Nutter's recent announcement of a $450 million gap in the budget may curb his green visions. Throughout the day, no one mentions this possibility. When asked about its implications, Zimmerman is split. "I know this administration cares about green space, but I don't know what they'll do," she says. "I hope they implement some of their ideas now, and save the others for when they have more money."

This optimism pervades the event. One day prior, a resolution to officially make Sept. 19 Park(ing) Day in Philly was proposed in City Council but not acted on. "There's always next year," Zimmerman says. By then, we'll have a better idea of whether or not she was right about the city's green intentions.

(editorial@citypaper.net)