Park(ing) Day celebration in Cleveland, as part of Spaces Street Repairs

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 09/21/2006 - 04:08.

I got an email today from Cleveland Public Art (CPA) that Thursday, September 21st is National PARK(ing) Day and Cleveland will join teams in New York City, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Seattle that will concurrently create PARK(ing) spaces in their cities, created by transforming metered parking spots into parks, complete with sod, a bench and a tree, reclaiming the street for parks and people, at least until the meter runs out! LOCATIONS: West Side Market, E 9th and Huron, & Warehouse District.  Very cool to see Cleveland participating in this. I ran across another example of creating awareness for reclaiming the streets for green space, in Toronto, last week, where the "Community Vehicular Reclamation Project" have parked a really cool green car on Kensington. All good

 

The local initiative is conceived as part of SPACES' Street Repairs, curated by Don Harvey, the PARK(ing) project will call attention to the need for more parks and public spaces in urban neighborhoods. Materials used for the installations will be donated to Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity. SPACES' Street Repairs is made possible through the generous support of Donna and Stewart Kohl. The Parking spaces will be created by Cleveland Public Art (CPA), in partnership with the lead organization SPACES as well as Hotel Bruce and Green City Blue Lake.

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Garden Car in Kensington Market

Submitted by Yvonne on Thu, 09/21/2006 - 13:02.

Glad to see our PARKed car on the site - thanks for posting it.

Our Toronto based collective Streets are for People! created this community garden at the end of June 06 and she's been in this spot on Augusta Ave. ever since - minus a three hour adventure when she was towed... 
Follow this link to the story-http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2006-09-14/news_story5.php

It took 7 of us an afternoon to get the junker (delivered without an engine) cut, filled with gravel and soil, and planted - the artwork was completed over the next three weeks by a couple of local artists.  The painting became a performance piece of sorts.

We liaised with our local councillor and the supervisor of our city's police parking enforcement unit and were granted a consideration to allow her to stay until the end of the growing season.

We knew she'd attract a fair bit of attention, but none of us could have predicted the overwhelmingly positive response that we've witnessed daily over the past two and a half months!!  There is a constant buzz around the garden - and not just from the bumble bees on the flowers. 

This must now be the most talked about and photographed car in Canada.  It is something most have never even considered, let alone come across while strolling down the street.  Not everyone 'gets' it - there is no sign to explain who or why...  We wanted to leave it to the imaginations of passersby to draw their own conclusions.

What do you think?

I love the Garden Car - great work

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 09/21/2006 - 15:43.

Thanks for the details and links... you folks are doing some really cool stuff.

I saw the article in Now about your green car being towed and that made me think poorly of Toronto government - and then I happened upon it walking down Augusta and was thrilled to see it back. Is there a way global citizens, even 300 miles away from Toronto, can reinforce support for your action by contacting your community leaders - I'd love to send City Hall an email and link to our coverage of you, from way down here in Cleveland - letting them know you are appreciated around the world, and good for Toronto! Let me know if we can help... I'd love to see these green cars pop up all over my community, too.

And, to your artists, great paint job!

Disrupt IT

city repair, too

Submitted by Susan Miller on Thu, 09/21/2006 - 14:44.

This is way cool and I am glad, too, that Spaces and Don Harvey http://www.spacesgallery.org/0914_MembersMail/MembersMail_Sep14_06.html are involved in this sort of activity here in Cleveland.

In Portland, citizens have gathered to repair city streets especially intersections. http://www.cityrepair.org/wiki.php/about Not only that, but this year City Repair is teaming up with the City of Portland to engage Portlanders in creative dialogue about the future of our city through visionPDX. visionPDX is a city-supported, community initiative to create a vision for Portland for the next 30 years and beyond. The project provides an opportunity for all Portlanders to share their hopes and ideas for the future. And the idea has spread like a benevolent franchise to Seattle, WA, Los Angeles, CA, Olympia, WA, Eugene, OR, Ottawa, Ontario, East Bay, Oakland, CA, Santa Rosa, CA, State College, PA, San Diego, CA, Asheville, NC, Ithaca, NY, Toronto, Canada, and Whitesboro, NY.