PARK(ing) Week in Oakland

If you’re interested in parking or PARK(ing), there’s plenty for you to do in Oakland this week. You might have heard that this Friday, September 16th is PARK(ing) Day, “an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens independently but simultaneously temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks.” Oaklanders have participated in PARK(ing) day for the past several years, and I’ve heard about some awesome plans for this year.

PARK(ing) Day is all about re-appropriating on-street parking, but off-street parking is also important to our city. On Thursday night the City is holding a workshop on off-street parking. From the email:

Happy Park(ing) Day & welcome back!

I’ve been meaning to end my blogging hiatus for the past month. Every week I’d tell myself that this would be the week that I would start blogging again. I’d figure out all the blog posts that I wanted to write and decide on one to start off with. But then the days would start to go by, and I would be as busy as ever, and each day I’d find a new excuse not to write.

I could have never imagined how hard it would be to return to blogging after a long hiatus!

But luckily today is Park(ing) Day, and I couldn’t let this day go by without writing about it. Park(ing) Day is “an annual, worldwide event that inspires city dwellers everywhere to transform metered parking spots into temporary parks for the public good.”

Last year’s Oakland celebration of Park(ing) Day was quite awesome. Here’s one of my favorite parks from last year, and you can see many more on last year’s post.

Here’s a list of the Oakland parklets planned for today (or tomorrow), from the Park(ing) Day map, roughly listed from North to South:

• Actual Cafe Parklet – 6334 San Pablo Ave – Relax right on San Pablo at Actual Cafe’s parklet.
• Tip Top Bike Shop – 4800 Telegraph Ave – Temporary park in parking spaces (parklet) in front of store on PARK(ing) Day.
• Sub Rosa Coffee/ Manifesto Bikes/ 1-2-3-4 Go! Records – 421 40th Street – Come check out 40th Street’s Parklet! It’ll be up and running at 11. Sip Sub Rosa coffee, admire Manifesto’s bikes, and discover new records at 1-2-3-4 Go!
• Montano Velo – 4266 Piedmont Ave – Temporary park in parking spaces (parklet) in front of store on PARK(ing) Day.
• Good Chemistry Baking – 3249 Grand Avenue – In partnership with Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO) and the East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC), Good Chemistry Baking will be putting up a temporary parklet on PARK(ing) Day.
• Arizmendi Bakery (SATURDAY ONLY) – 3265 Lakeshore Ave – In partnership with Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO) and the East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC), Penelope will be putting up a temporary parklet on on Saturday, Sept. 18th.
• Bay Area Bikes – 2424 Webster Street
• Farley’s East Parklet – 33 Grand Ave – Relax on Grand Avenue, right in front of Farley’s East.
• Penelope – 555 12th Street – In partnership with Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO) and the East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC), Penelope will be hosting a temporary parklet on PARK(ing) Day.
• Oaksterdam Tattoo – 815 Washington Street – In partnership with Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO) and the East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC), Oaksterdam Tattoo will be hosting a parklet on PARK(ing) Day.

I’ll definitely stop by the downtown locations and will post some photos here later today or tomorrow. You should check these parklets out, and if you do, feel free to send me photos at oaklandbecks at gmail dot com and I’ll post them here.

UPDATE: Here are photos of the Bay Area Bikes and then the Farley’s East parklet. Both are worth checking out.

UPDATED w/photos: Happy PARK(ing) Day!

Today is PARK(ing) Day, “an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens independently but simultaneously temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks.”

And on my way to work I was able to snap a photo of the PARKing spot outside of Pizzaiola on Telegraph near 51st:

According to the PARK(ing) Day map, there are three other PARK(ing) spots in Oakland:

• 1611 Telegraph (at 16th Street)
• 444 17th Street (between Broadway & Franklin)
• 421 40th Street (at Webster Street)

I’ll stop by the two downtown locations later today to snap some photos, hopefully closer up than the one above. I encourage you to get out and enjoy PARK(ing) Day today.

UPDATE: And here are the photos…

A lemonade stand on 17th Street:

A PARK(ing) spot on Telegraph in front of Van Cleef:

And another bus picture, closer up, of the spot in front of Pizzaiola:

Park[ing] Day in Oakland & More Carfree Fun

So tomorrow’s Park[ing] Day, “a one-day, global event centered in San Francisco where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks.” San Francisco’s not the only place to celebrate though, as Oakland’s Nomad Cafe will be participating. Via their blog:

There will be grass to lay on, hay to sit on, bike parking, face painting, great music, a kid zone, and much more!  If you can’t join us during the daylight hours on Friday, stop by on Saturday or Sunday — we are extending the motif and the celebration throughout the weekend to maximize the community benefit.

Sounds like fun to me! I probably won’t be able to make it out tomorrow so I’m glad they’ll be continuing the celebration during the weekend.

Also, Eric at Transbay Blog reminded me that next Monday, September 22nd is World Carfree Day. Most days are carfree for me, but I hope some of you car drivers will take this opportunity to hop on a bus, BART, a bike, or just use your legs for the day.