What if you turned parking space in your neighborhood into the area’s newest park? Staff members from a handful of Arlington County agencies recently did just that, creating a new “pop-up plaza” near Courthouse Plaza. It only took paint, plantings, outdoor furniture, and two days of work.

Though the County may have borrowed this idea from New York City, it has recently shown an ability to get innovative in transforming public spaces using inexpensive materials: in May, tape, paper, and potted plants were all it took to build a temporary bikeway.

The pop-up plaza calls to mind the temporary “parklets” that pop up on Park(ing) Day each September, but it’s great to see these innovative spaces being created at other times of year.

Hopefully this plaza will remain a permanent fixture of the Courth House neighborhood (at least until the entire parking lot is reclaimed and transformed into a park).

Where do you think Arlington’s next pop-up plaza should go?

Alex Cox is a transit analyst who currently lives and works in the Boston area. He is a longtime Greater Greater Washington reader, former intern at the Coalition for Smarter Growth, and a native of Arlington County. The views expressed here are his own.