A [Park]ing Day spot in Studio City in 2009 | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist
The national annual event known as [Park]ing Day, where city street parking spaces are turned into mini-parks for a day, is no stranger to Los Angeles. For some, however, parks and open space might be a stranger to their neighborhoods.
Despite having Griffith Park and lots of access to nature surrounding Los Angeles, the city is actually park poor. "Per person, Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest metropolis, has about a third of the park space of New York: 11.8 acres, as compared with 37.3," according to Greenspace in 2008. "And it has far less than Chicago (18.7), Boston (18), Philadelphia (17.1) and Miami (16)."
The numbers were based on a UCLA report that then dug into what neighborhoods have what when it comes to access to neighborhood open space. It found that most white neighborhoods had 31.8 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents while African-American neighborhoods had 1.7 acres. It was even worse for Latino and Asian areas, they had 0.6 and 0.3 acres, respectively.
And this is what [Park]ing Day participants in Los Angeles aim to bring attention to. Next Friday more 15 groups will get together and take over street parking spaces in the L.A. area to make an ad hoc parks. Sometimes they are basic, other times they are fancy and artful, but no matter what, they grab attention for being out of place, which is a starting point for conversation.
Previously: [Parking]Day Coverage on LAist from past years
