Park(ing) Day: Davisites Take Over E Street

Being new to the Davis area as well as a brand new bicyclist (and trust me, learning to ride a two-wheeler as an adult is no easy or painless feat), I shamefully admit to touting the bicycle-forward, earth-friendly, laid-back attitude of our “Platinum Bicycle Friendly Community,” while still allowing my primary mode of transportation to be my brand new Hyundai Elantra.  While I’m careful to keep the gas pedal steady and am so pleased with myself when the “eco” light stays on continuously, I must also admit that the Davis biking community has begun to rub off on me.

"Play" installation at Park(ing) Day

Enter Davis’ newest event to encourage bicycling, Park(ing) Day.  A global event, Park(ing) Day began in San Francisco in 2005, and encourages communities to take over public parking spots for conversion into temporary public parks.  Davis’ first foray into the event was organized by the UC Davis Landscape Architecture Program.  On Sunday, October 23rd, Professor Patsy Eubanks Owens asked her senior students in “Social Factors in Landscape Architecture” to take part in Park(ing) Day.

"Harvest" display by Jessamyn Lett

Interspersed throughout E Street in Downtown Davis, installations ranged from abstractions on the usage of space and artistic methods of enhancing community, to concrete illustrations of how we might just be wasting valuable public areas.  Jessamyn Lett’s project entitled Harvest took an effectively literal approach to the question of “what could you do in a parking spot besides park?”  Appropriately for Davis, Lett asked questions such as “how many ears of corn could you grow?” and “how much rain could you collect?” in order to show just how useful even one parking space could be.  (And in case you’re curious, the respective answers are a whopping 185 ears of corn per season and 550,080 cubic inches of rain annually.)  Other installations included a life-size floor game, an outdoor “organic interactions” café, a croquet yard, and several hands-on art projects that encouraged passers-by to participate.

Not simply a political statement, it’s important to remember that this was indeed a school project.  Professor Eubanks Owens explained that the Park(ing) Day project introduced the class to real-life design.  “This project allowed students to get a sense of scale – many of them even needed to tweak their designs this morning,” she explained.  Many spectators expressed a desire for this to become an annual event, to which Eubanks Owens quickly offered an invitation for the community to join in next year.

A musical installation made from reused materials.

While the message of Park(ing) Day varied depending upon who you spoke with, including the need for a stronger community or the “evils of waste,” as one onlooker described, the event’s potential impact was easily seen.  As Davis’ bicycle usage has dropped in past years (and car usage has risen), it’s time to step outside the box and see the creative ways in which we could use our public space differently if we all relied upon our bikes more and our cars less.  As I grab my car keys for a grocery store run, perhaps I’ll keep Park(ing) Day in mind, encouraging me to strap on my helmet and hop on my bike instead.  After all, for every parking spot I don’t use, perhaps I’ll help a public garden or a musical playground someday come to fruition.