By Joe Veyera
There’s less than one week left to submit your application for the City of Seattle’s annual opportunity for residents to temporarily turn parking spaces into parks.
Last year, 45 parks popped-up on PARK(ing) Day around the city offering their own unique ways to engage with the local community. This year’s PARK(ing) Day is set for Friday, Sept. 19 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
To partner with the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), residents choose two mid-block parking spaces on an arterial street, or one mid-block space on a residential street, and notify nearby businesses and residents about your plans. Next, contact Joshua.Saitelbach@Seattle.gov by August 29 to get a free street use permit, and provide a location description and the parking space numbers found on the round metal plates bolted to the sidewalk, provide a copy of your site plan (using the PARK(ing) Day Application to prepare it), and rent and place temporary, mandatory “No Parking” signs 72 hours in advance of PARK(ing) Day. SDOT recommends searching the internet for “barricades Seattle” or to look in the telephone yellow pages under “barricades.”. SDOT cannot provide the “No Parking” signs.
Size wise, these mini-parks should be a minimum of two parallel parking spaces on arterial streets or one space on residential streets, and any items over 3’ in height must be placed within 4’ of the curb, not next to the travel lane. On the day of the event, participants are encouraged to show off their parks through social media with the hashtag #parkingday, and can print out this poster and display it in their park to let people know it’s part of a global event.
For more information on PARK(ing) Day, visit SDOT online here. If you have questions about applications, please contact Joshua.Saitelbach@Seattle.gov.
oh jeez. what a great idea.
Can we also have a day when we can park our cars in the parks? Seems only fair.