REBAR , a San-Francisco based art collective, conceived of the project. For 2007, dozens of parking spaces were chosen throughout the city and, by paying the meters, they are “leased” by the participants.
The goal is to make people rethink the use of “public spaces,” quality of life, and of course our car-centric societies. Will Rogers, President of the Trust for Public Land, sees public outdoor space as a necessity for quality of life. This becomes more of an issue in inner-city communities that don’t have access to parks. “Parks are all about health,” says Rogers. “They’re about individual health, how we come together with the natural world… but they also connect us with each other and that gets us to community health.
In 2006, REBAR constructed 5 temporary parks which were all assembled using human-powered transportation. There were over a dozen other parks constructed by other groups throughout the city, including one in the donated spot of the San Francisco mayor.
In this year’s edition, temporary “PARKs” were constructed by groups such as the San Francisco Department of Environment, the San Francisco Health Department, Curbed SF, Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association, and the SF Bike Coalition.
“We’re improving the quality of an urban human habitat, says John Bela, one of REBAR’s founders. “At least until the meter runs out.”
The idea has spread to dozens of cities around the country and around the world. Other parks occurred this year in cities such as Boston, Dallas, Louisville KY, Los Angeles, Miami, London, Berlin, and Vilnius, Lithuania!
Check out this great trailer with a link to the full 15-minute video
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