After ten years of hosting an annual PARK(ing) Day event, the City of Columbia Planning and Development Services Department is shifting its focus to longer-term tactical urbanism interventions and demonstration projects. While the City or other community partners may choose to revisit this beloved one-day celebration of public space in the future, this shift is a timely one that reflects a clear desire for longer-term change from the community – a desire reflected in feedback received during recent planning efforts.
What changed?
With the adoption of the Downtown Columbia Strategic Plan and its focus on the public realm, coupled with the development of strategies geared towards improving roadway safety for all users through the Sharing the Road planning process, the Department is rethinking how it can focus its efforts to create more lasting change.
This ongoing conversation about Columbia’s public realm is possible, in part, through the inspiration provided by countless PARK(ing) Day hosts and attendees. Lucinda Statler, Planning Administrator, noted her gratitude, stating:
“As an annual event, PARK(ing) Day helped expand the community conversation around public space. We are thankful to our many participants over the years – for the enthusiasm, creativity, and can-do attitudes each of them brought to the streets of Columbia. We look forward to working with the community as we explore how we can create meaningful change through longer-lasting demonstration projects.”
The Department is currently exploring opportunities to partner with neighborhoods, business districts, and others to rethink the City’s rights-of-way. The pop-up nature of PARK(ing) Day helped drive the conversation – but it did not provide planners and community partners the ability to study how each installation engaged passersby, and in turn how each installation might inform the design of longer-term interventions. Projects installed for weeks or months can be studied, adjusted, and re-tested before any permanent change is made to the right-of-way.
What will stay the same?
The shift from PARK(ing) Day to demonstration projects remains grounded in the practice of tactical urbanism. Tactical urbanism is an action-oriented approach to people-first urban design As an annual event, PARK(ing) Day focuses on a piece of the puzzle – rethinking the opportunities left dormant within the public right-of-way that are currently dedicated to parked cars. At its core, the movement focuses not just on addressing how public space is allocated, but also on testing out ideas in the short term to learn how they might be most successfully deployed in the long term. This iterative process results in physical and social infrastructure that is tailored to fit a community’s vision and needs while simultaneously accomplishing a desired shift in the urban environment.
Where did the concept of PARK(ing) Day come from?
PARK(ing) Day is an annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform on-street parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places. Organizers describe the mission as calling attention to the need for more urban open space, generating critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and improving the quality of urban human habitat … at least until the meter runs out! Find out more about past PARK(ing) Days in Columbia.
Stay Engaged
Neighborhoods, business districts, and community organizations with a location in mind for a demonstration project are invited to contact the Planning Division at [email protected]. The best way to stay abreast of planning-related activities and events is by signing up for the Planning Division’s Columbia Compass e-newsletter. Information about current planning efforts can also be found on the current projects page or in the Department’s robust reporting efforts.