The City of Portland recently announced that applications are open for the annual observance of Park(ing) Day on September 20th. An international holiday that began in San Francisco in 2005 and takes place on the third Friday of September, Park(ing) Day is an opportunity for anyone to show how our right-of-way can function as much more than private car storage.
In the past, Portlanders have done all types of cool stuff in parking spaces from performing live music, to creating cool lounges to setting up ping-pong tables, and much more. The event is a reminder that our car-centric curb spaces are a choice and that all we lack is the creativity and public will to re-imagine them.
After all, streets are for people, not cars.
Now is the time to get your idea together and apply. PBOT will accept applications for spaces until end of day on September 13th. There are some restrictions about where you can set up and there’s some legwork you/your team must perform to be considered, but as long as you meet the guidelines and the city’s engineers sign off on your design, you’re good to go.
Find out more about Park(ing) Day and fill out the application on the city’s website.
Thanks for reading.
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“…streets are for people, not cars.” Has to be the dumbest statement I’ve read this week.
Hi. What’s dumb about that statement?
Personally, I don’t think it’s a dumb statement, but it is awkwardly stated. Of course streets are “for people”, and many people choose to use them with a car. A car is only there because a person brought it.
A better phrasing would be “streets are for walking (or playing guitar or whatever), not for driving (or parking or whatever)”, centering the person.
With that, we could discuss the merits of the concept the way you intended it.
Watts,
“Streets are for people” is a very common mantra. It’s not meant to be perfectly phrased… It’s more of a slogan with a spirit. Thanks for the critique tho.
It’s easier to have a conversation when you just say what you mean, rather than relying on confusing or ambiguous slogans.
catchphrases, slogans, rallying cries, mantras — those are all essential parts of human communication IMO.
Streets are for people!
I agree. I also think that your phrase is especially apt and unambiguous for the subject of use of parking spaces, which are ONLY for cars (or other vehicles), and unoccupied ones at that–except on this one day.
And if anyone still finds that phrase imprecise or whatever, there’s an entire article providing context for it.
If you need it an entire article to provide context, is the slogan really that good?
I feel like we went through this recently with “defund the police”; one of the shortcomings of that slogan is that people meant (or claimed to mean) something different than what the words said.
I generally disagree with you and Jonathan that slogans are good for discussing ideas.
(None of this should be interpreted to think that I in any way believe that driving and parking are the only legitimate uses of a street.)
I’m not using a slogan to discuss an idea ffs. It’s just a slogan! A fun thing to say to imbue something with a certain spirit. Sheesh.
My bad; I thought the idea of Parking Day and this article was to promote discussion and spur thought about how our streets are used.
Hi Watts, I find it difficult to converse with you electronically because I have trouble helping understand where I’m coming from. Not sure why but it happens often.
To be clear: That little phrase you are focusing on was a few words in an article. The article is just an article: Information for people to do whatever they want with. Not everything I type on here is meant for some higher purpose of discussion or thought and it’s exhausting when people assume otherwise and dissect every single word I type. Thanks.
agree. Streets are for cars, sideWALKs are for people.
Tell that to this Water Bureau guy.
I could have chosen from dozens of similar photos I have of just City trucks with VISION ZERO stickers (like this one) on them. He’s a few feet away from an on-street space AND empty spaces in a parking lot, blocking the main pedestrian and bike entrance (see new giant blue sign) to a major park.