PARK(ing) Day: Want fifty shades of green, not fifty shades of grey?
On Friday 21st September, Manchester Friends of the Earth is inviting people to join with citizens in cities around the world who will be temporarily transforming metered parking spaces into public parks and other social spaces, as part of international “PARK(ing) Day” [1].
Once again, Manchester Friends of the Earth members will be redesigning car parking spaces in Manchester city centre into picnic parks complete with “grass”, plants, deckchairs, tea, cupcakes and sparkling conversation [Ed. Is this right?]
The group have also launched a PARK(ing) Day photo competition asking people to send in their creative, colourful photo messages, showing their support for green space in Greater Manchester. There are some great prizes from Redeye the Photography Network and Unicorn Co-operative Grocery. The photo competition runs until 30th September. See www.manchesterfoe.org.uk/parking for more details.
The aim is to encourage people to imagine how much better our cities could be if they had fewer spaces for cars and more room for people. The Manchester group will be in good company: the 2011 PARK(ing) Day included over 975 installations in more than 162 cities on six continents.
Over the last fifty years our cities have been developed to make more and more space for the car. Supermarkets and malls, with massive car parks, have often overpowered local businesses in city locations. At the same time our streets have become noisy, polluted and unpleasant.[2] These policies have high costs in terms of air pollution, congestion and health.[3] PARK(ing) Day highlights the need to make our streets more attractive for residents and visitors, and improve the environment for businesses.
Catherine Thomson, Manchester Friends of the Earth Co-ordinator said:
“Imagine if our cities had fewer spaces for cars and more room for people. We are inviting people to help us make parking spaces more sociable, fun and colourful. Join us on the day or send us a photo of how people can help make grey spaces become green”.
Disclaimer: MCFly co-editor Marc Hudson, is, for his sins, a member of Manchester FoE.
Oh, and the song that inspired the blog post title is cool.
As is this one!
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Source: Manchester Climate Monthly
