Tommy Wells explains how we can rethink streets as parks

Public Spaces

Tommy Wells explains how we can rethink streets as parks

by Eric Fidler • September 18, 2011 2:26 pm

On Friday people around the world converted street parking spaces into pop-up parks for the annual Park(ing) Day. The event inspired people in our own region to rethink how we can rearrange public spaces to improve our quality of life.

DC Councilmembers Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) and David Catania (I-at large) combined their parking spaces outside the Wilson Building to create an impromptu park. Washington Parks & People supplied the sod and shrubs while councilmembers and their staff cooked burgers and hot dogs for passersby.

Here is Tommy Wells explaining the event:

Across the river in Alexandria, a park popped up on St. Asaph Street in Old Town. Residents faced off with games of bocce.

Photos by Adam Froehlig.

With each Park(ing) Day we get to realize how street design influences public interaction. Places for people to sit, talk, and eat are far more rewarding than places to park cars all day.

The key to Park(ing) Day's success was more than just unfurling sod onto asphalt. The events and amenities—barbecues, benches, tables, and games— in each popup park supplied the infrastructure for community.

12 comments

Tags: Alexandria, David Catania, DC, parking, parks, public spaces, Tommy Wells, Virginia

Wells, Catania organize Park(ing) Day on Pennsylvania Ave (Sep 15, 2011)
Join Tommy Wells for reelection kickoff Saturday (Mar 25, 2010)
Tommy Wells gets transportation chair, WMATA Board (Dec 22, 2010)
Wells would keep Circulator fare, expand CaBi, and more (May 11, 2011)
Cheh, Wells, Fisher on car-freedom (Sep 30, 2008)

Eric Fidler has lived in DC and suburban Maryland his entire life. He likes long walks along the Potomac and considers the L'Enfant Plan an elegant work of art. He also blogs at Left for LeDroit, LeDroit Park's (only) blog of record.

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Ok, played the video anxious waiting the hear how " we can rethink streets as parks" ... And didn't hear the CM say a word about that. Did I miss it? He just talked about how he used a parking space to do a tailgate party without the pickup truck. How is that 'rethining a street as a park'?

by Lance on Sep 18, 2011 3:06 pm • link • report

Leave it to Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells to make news about parking even after his less-than-noble colleagues banished him to parks and rec!

This exercise really works for me; I start to look for opportunities to expand greenspace permanently in our city. For instance Massachusetts Avenue is lightly-traveled between Lincoln Park and Independence Avenue, yet it bloats to include two left-turn lanes onto Independence. Perhaps those lanes were in demand once, but of late they're just greenspace subtracted from folks' front yards, and from what could otherwise be a substantial green median.

How do we move from pop-up to permanent greenspaces?

by Kim Toufectis on Sep 18, 2011 3:59 pm • link • report

Tommy how about we actually make our downtown parks great programmed parks instead of crappy homeless day camps? I could care less about this parking day gimic until I see our downtown parks improved. I can't think of any other city I've visited in the last couple years where downtown parks the size of Franklin Park and Mount Vernon Square are basically ignored by city officials. That's before you even get to the neglected pocket parks.

by Paul S on Sep 18, 2011 7:26 pm • link • report

You know, if this really takes off, I can imagine a future where everyone has a personal piece of green space in front of their buildings. Maybe even behind and to the sides of where they live.

by Kolohe on Sep 18, 2011 7:54 pm • link • report

@Paul "I can't think of any other city I've visited in the last couple years where downtown parks the size of Franklin Park and Mount Vernon Square are basically ignored by city officials."

I don't believe either of the two parks you listed are city parks. I know Franklin Square (not 'Park') is a national park and I think Mount Vernon Square is also. As such, city officials have no jurisdiction in them. They're administered by the National Park Service ... Which all in all, historically has does a far beter job with its DC-based national parks than Parks and Rec has with it DC owned parkes. (At least in regards to maintence, trash pickyp, and generally everything ... other than what they're programmed for ... i.e., used for ... because NPS is under restrictions that apply nationwide .... and oftentimes don't work well with what an urban environment needs.)

by Lance on Sep 18, 2011 10:54 pm • link • report

@Kolohe "You know, if this really takes off, I can imagine a future where everyone has a personal piece of green space in front of their buildings. Maybe even behind and to the sides of where they live."

LOL ... that's called 'the suburbs' ... I agree .. but just about any policy advocated on here by most of the smartgrowthers here basically takes the opposite approach. Like the new regs being proposed by the Office of Planning, most people on here are supporting policies which will result in LESS green space (e.g., reduced sideyard and set back requirements) and more building of buildings filling their entire lot's footprint and leaving basically NO greenspace for their residents and others to enjoy either visually or for recreational use. Given the support the people on here have shown for the parking day, it makes me wonder if they realize how at odds increased green space in the city is with how what their advocating plays out on a daily basis.

by Lance on Sep 18, 2011 11:01 pm • link • report

Seriously. Just today, I was thinking of how fantastic it would be if we decked over Connecticut Ave off of Dupont Circle, and planted a row of trees and put in some benches as a natural extension of the circle. Dupont Circle's pretty nice already, but this would certainly be a welcome addition (and I wonder why it was never built this way to begin with...)

Also, the grassy Pennsylvania Ave SE median (which I believe is a NPS thing) seriously misses its potential, along with pretty much all of the myriad of parks along that stretch. (Not only is Seward Square a parched void of nothingness...most folks don't even realize it's a square!)

by andrew on Sep 18, 2011 11:52 pm • link • report

building of buildings filling their entire lot's footprint and leaving basically NO greenspace for their residents and others to enjoy either visually or for recreational use.

Setbacks cannot be enjoyed by anyone for recreational use because they do not belong to the pedestrians, and the office and retail buildings have no residents. Instead they become deadspace.

by JustMe on Sep 19, 2011 8:44 am • link • report

@JustMe "Setbacks cannot be enjoyed by anyone for recreational use because they do not belong to the pedestrians, and the office and retail buildings have no residents. Instead they become deadspace.

That is so untrue, I don't know where the begin. Open space benefits us all in oh so many ways ... from fresh air, to sunlight, to visual stimulation. The next time you walk by someone's flower garden sitting in these unbuilt areas, ask yourself who's benefitting from not overbuilding ... from leaving Washington as Washington, and not trying to turn it into the concrete jungle that is Manhattan ...

by Lance on Sep 19, 2011 11:14 am • link • report

That still doesn't mean that not wanting to see set backs on lots equates to not wanting any green/open/space within a city/neighborhood.

by canaan on Sep 19, 2011 11:27 am • link • report

@Lance - I'm aware of their status. Franklin Park is an NPS Park and Mt Vernon Square is not. Either way I don't consider it an excuse that the city council can hide behind forever. If they made it a priority they could undoubtedly find a way to improve the parks and/or take ownership of them.

by Paul S on Sep 19, 2011 11:54 am • link • report

Why exactly do we need to expand green space in the city?
we have more than enough parks.

by beatts on Sep 19, 2011 5:24 pm • link • report