Volunteers Brave Rain to Erect Tiny Parks Throughout City
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| Deck the Parking Spaces With Planks of Hardwood |
"They've got about three parking spaces filled up with a deck, planters and bike racks," said local physician Dan O'Neill, whose brother Joe was among volunteers building a so-called "parklet" infront of Mojo Cafe on Divisadero Street. This project consisted of a hardwood patio similar to what one might find at a Silicon Valley estate.
Earlier this week, workers put barriers around two parking spaces along busy, four-lane Divisadero, and laid down a hardwood-planked patio. Thursday, workers were installing bike racks, and Friday potted plants, benches, chairs and other amenities were arranged on the surface to create a sort of public backyard.
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| This parking spot seems like a nice place to sip coffee |
Pavement to Parks projects completed so far include "Guerrero Park", a cluster of logs and planter-boxes filled with trees on what used to be street surface at the intersection of San Jose Avenue and Guerrero and 28th Streets.
At 8th Street and 16th Street, designers created planter-box strewn plaza style park.
And at 17th and Castro, volunteers cordoned off a corner of street with terra cotta planters, set down some chairs, and created a plaza.
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Mojo's owners, apparently wise to the program's potential for their business, had expressed interest in hosting a pilot version of the "parklets" after they heard about the Pavement to Parks program. And they've agreed to provide upkeep, sweeping up, stowing chairs at night, that sort of thing.
"The next one will be in about a month's time from now in
the Mission neigbhorhood on 22nd Street at
One strain of popular wisdom says retail businesses need ample automobile parking spaces to survive. Another one says "location, location, location." Mojo has made a bet that by sacrificing parking spaces they can induce new customers to seek out their location. Our bet is that merchants citywide will follow suit.
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