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Students trade parking for parks |
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Tuesday, 25 September 2007 |
 Appalachian students join forces with National Park(ing) Day to help preserve green space in Boone. Organizers kept the parking meters running Friday, turning parking spaces into a temporary park. Shanel Boston
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by ANNE BAKER
Intern News Reporter
In an effort to promote more green space in cities nationwide, several students set up a portable park on the edge of Appalachian State University’s campus Friday.
Two of the parking spaces directly outside of the library parking deck were used for the area in honor of National Park(ing) Day.
The event was nationwide as people across the United States bought out metered parking spaces for the day and transformed them into temporary parks.
National Park(ing) Day originated last fall in San Francisco in
conjunction with the Trust for Public Land, a non-profit organization
focused on conserving land that people can enjoy, according to their
Web site, parkingday.org.
Eventually the idea spread to different cities in multiple states.
“As it went so well on a local scale, we thought we’d bring the concept
to cities nationwide, and agreed to coordinate National Park(ing) Day
2007,” Matthew Shaffer said. Shaffer is associate director of marketing
services for the Trust for Public Land in San Francisco.
Caroline R. Poteat, a graduate student focusing on sustainable
development and geography, coordinated the temporary park on campus.
“I work for a conservation real estate company and ran across
information about National Park(ing) Day on the Trust for Public Land
Web site,” Poteat said.
Poteat liked the idea, contacted Shaffer for more information, and decided it was something she would like to do.
Synthetic turf, various plants, “Save Downtown Boone” signs, and
several chairs filled the two parking places from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m
Friday.
Paying the meters for the parking spaces for 8 hours cost approximately $40.
The coordinators heard no opposition regarding the use of the spaces for something other than vehicles.
Senior appropriate technology major C. Robert Taylor helped with the
park along with Poteat and was surprised at the attitudes of drivers
wishing to park.
“We expected a lot more heckling, but everyone has been really responsive,” he said.
Poteat added that the police were “super nice” in cooperating with her.
Although it rained for a good portion of the morning, skies began to
clear up in the afternoon and interest in the park increased.
“We’ve had many people filtering through and stopping in to see what we
were doing. The whole point is to raise awareness for green space, and
give different members of the community the chance to get together and
do what they like to do,” Poteat said.
Other cities that participated in National Park(ing) Day included Providence, R.I., New York City, Raleigh, and Charleston, S.C.
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