“The cities will be part of the country; I shall live 30 miles from my office in one direction, under a pine tree; my secretary will live 30 miles away from it too, in the other direction, under another pine tree. We shall both have our own car. We shall use up tires, wear out road surfaces and gears, consume oil and gasoline. All of which will necessitate a great deal of work ... enough for all.” —Le Corbusier, The Radiant City (1967)
The third annual Park[ing] Day LA, which will be on Friday, September 18th, will bring together a diverse constituency of community groups, neighborhood councils, design & architecture firms, professional organizations, non-profits, cyclists & pedestrian advocates as they work together to transform numerous parking spaces & parking lots located throughout LA into ephemeral parks for the day. By occupying a parking spot and feeding the meter, volunteers will enhance the street with a sustainably designed pocket-park.
Too often, when people think of Los Angeles they envision a maze of asphalt, smog and traffic congestion. The automobile reigns supreme and as a result one’s ability to navigate through the City becomes compromised with the burden of too many vehicles clogging the road. Sidewalks have been narrowed and opportunities for open space, parks, civic plazas and public places have been sequestered into the hills, which unfortunately are often inaccessible to anyone without an automobile. Despite being home to one of the largest urban parks in North America (Griffith Park), Los Angeles significantly lacks adequate & accessible open space, urban parks, plazas and civic centers.
‘Historically, civic leaders had the mind set that Los Angeles was a city of single-family homes each with their own private backyard and there was no need for public open space, parks and recreation. This oversight, coupled with an increased population growth has left the City of Los Angeles with only 10% of the recommended 8-10 acres of parks and open space for every 1000 residents.’
While the recent development of such parks as the LA Historic State Park, Rio de Los Angeles State Park, Baldwin Hills Conservancy & Audubon Center at Debs Park are enthusiastically applauded, Park[ing] Day LA hopes to further celebrate the momentum of providing additional parks & open space throughout Los Angeles – especially as it relates to smaller, more infill opportunities to enhance the public realm with the benefit of recreation, landscape, habitat and opportunities to cool the City with increased canopy coverage. Additional parks will help reduce the heat-island effect of the City by converting our over-abundance of concrete and asphalt into green spaces that will inevitably promote the civility of the City by offering more spaces for the public to converge.
In 2005, the Rebar group, a small group out of San Francisco, opened eyes worldwide by transforming a metered parking spot into a park-for-a-day in an effort to make a public comment on the lack of quality open space in American cities. Their goal was to reprogram the urban surface by reclaiming streets for people to rest, relax and play and to:
A diverse group of committed people were inspired by this idea and came together to bring this idea to the Southland. That’s how Park[ing] Day LA was born. The mission is to make participation in this global event as easy, enjoyable and as accessible as possible. The goal is to bring as many people together as we can in the creation of numerous Park[ing] Day LA spots located throughout the City. Park[ing] Day LA trusts the efforts will help educate a greater audience in the problems and opportunities facing open space in this city.
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