on park(ing) in sydney

park(ing) sydney

Passing on an interesting project happening in sydney, from their mail-out:

SYDNEY URBAN PARK(ING)
1st of April 2008
King St, Newtown
Somewhere between Church St and Enmore road

Greetings,

As most of you may be aware, this coming Tuesday (April 1) is Fossil Fools Day! This is a day being taken up by all kinds of different groups in the community to highlight the continuing reliance in our society on fossil fuels. We’re using this day to promote positive change in our cities to lead away from a car-dominated Sydney and towards a cycle and pedestrian-friendly Sydney, where the streetscape is used in more vibrant and creative ways, by the local people who live there!

So… we decided to create a park. In the streetscape. In a metered car parking space, to be precise – an urban ‘car-free oasis’ of lush green turf, plants, colour, … and best of all, people! Creatively using and engaging with the public open space that is ours, and raising awareness of these issues by welcoming passers-by to share and enjoy the space, and come to appreciate just how different the streetscape could be.

With the release of the Gehl report for Sydney last year, City of Sydney’s exciting new plans to improve the public open space of our urban environment, and with the ongoing imperative need for action on climate change we think the time is perfect to tap into this positive energy and continue to generate public interest and support for these issues. Hey, it IS our city, right??!

So if you’re interested, please read the attached flyer, and come along to enjoy the day! If you want, you could bring: your bike, musical instruments, smiles, creative spirit, picnic rug, or anything else you feel would brighten up the street 🙂

We look forward to seeing you!

All the best,

James, on behalf of Sydney Urban Park(ing).

This guys are following a global campaign conceived by REBAR, a San Francisco-based art collective, PARK(ing) Day is a one-day, global event centered in San Francisco where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks. Call to action is September 19, 2008

Also have a look at two similar (in ways) actions happened in Melbourne in 1995 here, Kathryn Miller
and this one in Los Angeles, California, by Fritz Haeg.

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