Every year in New York, parking spots are taken over by people wanting to transform urban space into something more useable than concrete boxed in by painted lines under the banner of, Park(ing) Day. The even was originally imaged by San Fransisco’s Rebar, an interdisciplinary studio operating at the intersection of art, design and activism. The “small, functional, vibrant” parks that are part of Park(ing) Day each have a theme and are nearly all temporarily turfed with sod.

In the video, there’s a number of interviews highlighting people taking on the initiative for fun or for politics, but nearly all want to suggest the potential for rethinking the many, many, many parking spaces used by a single car at a time.

This certainly works given the sheer number of people in a city like New York, but if there was one parking spot in Windsor that you’d take over for a day, where would it be?

[via Worldchanging]

Since yesterday’s weather was soul-enhancing, to be dramatic, I decided to unload the small stack of tickets in my backpack and distribute them in the parking lots near the University of Windsor. I seem to be getting more and more sly with handing these out, which I’ll attribute to practice. It seems I’ll be able to continue handing tickets out for most of the summer, judging by how relentless the CUPE strike has been. Stay tuned.

The parking lot where this was taken contained many small cars. Whether due to the necessity of saving money as a student or a genuine interest in compact and sub-compact vehicles, almost half of the people parked here drove something relatively fuel-efficient.