Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Asheville’s “parklet” downtown by Izzy’s
OPEN (Outreach Projects Engaging Neighborhoods) Asheville is part of a movement to turn a select few ordinary parking spaces into a “parklet,” a tiny park-like spot for pedestrians to chill in. The movement is PARK(ing) Day, an annual event where people transform metered parking spots into temporary public parks.
PARK(ing) day is Sept. 21.
OPEN’s proposed design for downtown Asheville.
From the OPEN Asheville blog:
The Parklet will inhabit two parallel parking spaces downtown, in front of Hip Replacements and Izzy’s Cafe on Lexington Avenue. This medium of reinforcing economic vitality and alleviating sidewalk crowding isn’t a new solution for our friends on the West Coast. San Francisco based firm Rebar creates objects, spaces and ideas that inspire people to re-imagine our environment and our place in it.
As you all may know, OPEN’s mission is to bring to fruition welcoming and highly utilized public spaces. Although Parklets have been successful in San Francisco, New York and other major cities, will the culture in Asheville gravitate towards these sidewalk expansions? A Parklet is basically that…by taking over parking spaces and creating an open public realm the streescape is activated by pedestrian activity and not just utilized for automobile congestion. A Parklet is one form of “user-genreated urbanism” that helps inform OPEN, and the City, of what kind of public spaces are needed in our growing downtown. By conducting a ”Trial Parklet Period”, these small scale installation around town can set the stage for more substantial public space investments, and not just in the downtown area.
This Friday, July 20th from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., OPEN Asheville presents its design for the Lexington location. A “Mock Parklet” will be installed for the public to give feedback. Material donations for the parklet will also be accepted.
Parklet in another city
PARK(ing) Day Asheville Facebook page
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Charlie, you are a true visionary.
Great. A comfortable place for pan handlers to hang out and beg for money.