As Loren Holmes wrote in his photo slideshow piece about PARKing Day (ADN, Wednesday), the goal of this urban intervention "is to call attention to the need for more urban open space and to generate debate around how public spaces are used." And generate debate it did, on both the ADN website and its Facebook page.
Yet, ADN's coverage of the event was not entirely accurate. The main goal of our PARKing Day intervention in Anchorage was not to increase open space in town (although that's an important plight); Instead, our primary goal was to showcase creative ways that our spaces (both public and private) could be used -- with particular attention to our city's northern climate and design (or lack thereof).
PARKing Day, a worldwide event, is part of a greater movement called DIY or do-it-yourself urbanism, in which citizens take it upon themselves to make positive changes to their own cities with the intention of activating underused spaces and creating a more vibrant urban life and culture. We, the organizers here, are well aware of the massive amounts of green and open spaces available in our beautiful state. We also are well aware that our downtown, and greater Anchorage in general, has a lot of potential to be a lively urban winter city just like Oslo, Norway or Helsinki, Finland -- but we aren't there yet. This kind of change to our city will require not only long-term policy changes enacted by our city government but also short-term DIY efforts, like PARKing Day, from local community members interested in transforming our city right now.
While these interventions may be planned and executed by hippies and hipsters alike (as suggested in the comments to the PARKing Day coverage), I assure you, they are well-thought-out and well-researched attempts to utilize art and design as a mechanism for economic development in cities throughout the world. In fact, several recent studies conducted by ArtPlace America and the National Endowment for the Arts report that arts-related activities play a "key role in contributing to the kind of quality of place that attracts and retains talented people" and many communities across the Lower 48 are utilizing these art-based interventions as a primary community development strategy.
To us, PARKing Day accomplished exactly what we set out to do: It allowed our community to debate the utilization of our common spaces and perhaps even reminded those who visited some of the PARKing Day installations that maybe, just maybe, it could be pretty great if our city had a couple more places where strangers could congregate and linger for awhile.
Bree Kessler, a self-identified hipster, co-organized PARKing Day Anchorage and is an assistant professor of health science at University of Alaska Anchorage.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.