By now you’ve probably heard about Park(ing) Day. A national event started 2 years ago in San Francisco which has quickly spread to dozens of other cities including Columbus. The original event was designed to turn parking spaces into public parks for a day to raise awareness about the lack of greenspace in cities like San Francisco.
I plan on participating in the inaugural Columbus edition on Friday, September 19th, but I do have a few concerns.
Mainly… we have some great urban parks and an even better metro park system extending way out into all corners of the county. Granted, we could always use a little more greenspace, but I think the original point of the event gets lost on cities that don’t suffer quite as much as San Francisco. We need some other angle to really make this our own.
I’m also a little skittish on buying sod for this event. Are we just supposed to pitch it after we’re done with it? I guess I could take it home and use it in my patchy front yard if it holds up well enough to people sitting and standing on it all day long. Alternatively, I could roll out some Astroturf, but I really wouldn’t have any use for it after I’m done with it either.
There’s a couple other minor things being discussed on Columbus Underground that have my attention, but I think most of those issues will get worked out in the weeks leading up to the event.
Anyway, what’s your take on this whole thing?
You have a point that we should use the event to celebrate the green spaces our city already enjoys. We should also try to demonstrate new ways people can take to the streets to create and engage public spaces. As Columbus continues its ascent as “cool” city (both green and cultured) we have to work to get folks out of their houses and apartments and into the public domain more often to connect and create community.
Sod is relatively easy to grow and doesn’t require a ton of resources to do so. I think Astroturf would be worse for the environment than sod which could be composted fairly easily after the event.
my 2 cents