blog action day - my strip of green

Last month, an initiative called Park(ing) Day took place across the United States. The idea - supported by the Open Planning Project - was to reclaim parking spaces in major cities and turn them into parks in order to:

"Encourage New Yorkers to imagine rebalanced public streets in favor of increasing community interaction, renewal and the facilitation of safe and sustainable transportation."

I set out with my camera and headed for the densest collection of these mini park(ing) spaces that I could find on their map. Stuyvesant Street seemed to have about five parks on it so off I went.

Sadly, upon arrival, I found only one park(ing) space. It was being preened and prepared by this English lady whose name I forget.


I was immediately disappointed - not only that I wouldn't get the great picture I was hoping for (ahem) but that such a smart idea designed to 'create visibility' was almost entirely invisible. I even had to ask them if this was part of the Park(ing) Space project and that they weren't just arranging some plants outside their house.


When I decided to join Blog Action Day today, the first thing I thought was: Is there much point? I have a pretty small readership.

In many ways, this entry is like that small strip of green on Stuyvesant Street. A nice gesture but pretty insignificant on its own. The power of good ideas though, is in spreading them and not always in their execution. Currency is king.

This post has elevated the Park(ing) Space above by documenting it and sharing it with a few more people. No one walking past it would have looked twice. And I think that even for bloggers with the smallest audiences, the point in Blog Action Day is volume by participation.

My 'strip of green' is nothing much, but add it to a few more thousand and - like a city jam-packed with mini parks would have been - it becomes quite the spectacle.

If you should come across this and think of relevant links or thoughts to add, please do.