On May 20, 2010, The Daily City® took over a parking space in downtown Orlando as part of our monthly event, TheDailyCity.com Mobile Art Show. It was at the corner of Orange and Pine and included a roll of green astro turf, 8 lawn chairs, 20 touch lights, 20 safety cones, three end tables and over 200 prints we were giving away for free by local artists. Folks got out of their cars while stopped at the red light to sit down and experience it. See for yourself in the video below.
Three years later, some downtown design firms, the City of Orlando's Transportation Planning Division and the Families, Parks and Recreation Department put on the parking space event called One Less Car, One More Park on Friday, January 11, 2013 from 9:30 a.m.- 2:30 p.m. in front of City Hall. Downtown design firms re-imagined parking spaces into active green spaces.
On Friday September 20, 2013, 10am-2pm, Audubon Park Garden District is getting into the game by participating in PARK(ing) Day (Facebook Event). It is a annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places.
Expect the following fun events at the Audubon Park Garden District's iteration:
- Pop Up Bakery by Blue Bird Bake Shop: pipe your own mini cupcakes for FREE and try some
- urban food forest by East End Market
- mango sampling by the Mango Board
- Italian herb garden by O Strombolis
- wildlife gardening info by Audubon Park Garden District
- free Yoga in the Park by Warrior Power Yoga
- participation by Palmer's Garden and Goods, Bob O'Bryant, Corrine Calming Coalition, IDEASforUs
The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat . . . one parking space at a time.