Interesting protest for new parks, take over parking spaces, or someone getting carried away with alliteration?
Parking spots turn into parks
By Lisa Heyamoto - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Sometimes, you can't have too much of a good thing.
With 211 public parks -- about 7.6 percent of the city's land area -- Sacramento is considered to be well-served when it comes to open space.
But if you ask a few enterprising folks around town, it couldn't hurt to have 213.
On Friday, a group of residents will create two impromptu parks out of erstwhile metered parking spaces -- a sort of guerilla gardening effort meant to raise awareness of the importance of public space.
The movement, established a few years ago by the Trust for Public Land, a conservation organization, is part of a countrywide event called National Park(ing) Day. First adopted in San Francisco, the idea has spread to 31 cities, where participants will sod, seed and sit back in their temporary urban utopias.
"The goal is to raise awareness that we need more parks in cities," said Tim Ahern, spokesman for the trust. "We're encouraging local people to do it in ways that work for them."
This is the first year Sacramento has been a part of the event. It began with 24-year-old Nancy Mathison and her housemate Linsey Payne, who heard about the movement and independently decided to check into any Sacramento options.
