Today was PARK(ing) Day and Spokane kept quiet unlike last year however Terry Harris, the executive director of the Kootenai Environmental Alliance, had some fun in Coeur d’Alene. 
 

Photo Courtesy Of KEA.

In roughly 140 cities around the planet, citizens will take back some of the parking spaces and use them to create mini parks, where they play games, do art projects, or just hang out. PARK(ing) Day started in 2005, when an organization called Rebar took it upon themselves to put down some sod, a bench, and a tree in one space in San Francisco for two hours - as long as the meter would allow. The mission was to "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 ... at least until the meter runs out!"

I'm thrilled we had some local representation and I dug Terry thoughts on what happened in Coeur d’Alene earlier today:

But what exactly is the point of all this? Basically, that inexpensive parking is not really all that inexpensive. There are significant costs throughout our car culture, but today we focus particularly on costs associated with our insistence on being able to park our cars wherever we want.

Photo courtesy of KEA.

From a purely environmental perspective, vast expanses of asphalt are problematic for a number of reasons, but most critically problematic because of stormwater runoff. Rather than water slowly infiltrating back into the soils, stormwater runs off into our streams and rivers and lakes, quickly, warmly, and filled with pollutants.

Artificially inexpensive parking is indirectly problematic because it encourages us to use our cars in ways that are inefficient and unnecessary. We’ll drive further and more often because the leapfrog of parking lots makes walking less efficient, and because even well-designed mass transit can’t compete.

Amen brother.

A few downtown businees owners were perplexed but the City Of Coeur d'Alene helped too, even waiving permit fees. Check Terry's blogpost called Acting Globally, Thinking Locally  - About Parking and KEA’s facebook photo album of PARK(ing) Day.

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