Park(ing) Day, launched in San Francisco in 2005, will be celebrated worldwide on Friday, September 19. It’s a global movement where people temporarily repurpose curbside parking spaces and turn them into public parks and social spaces. The purpose is to advocate for safer, greener and more equitable streets for people.
Better Block SGF will host a Park(ing) Day event on South St. in downtown Springfield.
"The goal is really to kind of get people talking and just kind of reimagining what could our space be if it's not auto-centric," said Justin Wagler, the nonprofit’s managing director. What if it's more people-centric, and it's a space where we can gather and kind of be together in these shared spaces?
For their next Park(ing) Day project, Better Block SGF will create a gathering space in front of the new Ozarks Farm Stop at Walnut and South. It will be a temporary green space with turf and seating surrounded by filled planters and the organization's signature colorful cubes. There will be food trucks, live music, games and more. The event runs from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Visitors will also get a first look at a new Better Block structure, which is designed as a flexible piece for future site activations that the nonprofit said in a press release "will round out the transformed streetscape, creating a casual, social environment."
It will coincide with the ribbon cutting at 4 p.m. for Ozarks Farm Stop, a new business that offers an array of items from local farmers, artisans and food producers.
"Anybody should come out and enjoy the space," said Wagler. "Take a seat, grab a drink, maybe grab lunch at one of the food trucks."
Better Block SGF has been participating in Park(ing) Day since 2019. It's set up temporary activations on Walnut St., South Ave., Jefferson Ave., E. St. Louis St., the Missouri State University campus and the Battlefield Mall parking lot.
Ozarks Farm Stop, the City of Springfield, the Downtown Springfield Association and the MO State Planning and Development Department helped make Friday's event possible.
Park(ing) Day projects are described on the Better Block SGF website as "beautifully disobedient." Wagler said "I think that's maybe the component of Park(ing) Day is...trying to do something different and kind of break the mold, you know, what we're accustomed to, in a way that is beautiful, but in normal terms is disobedient because we're not using this space for cars now. We're using it for a gathering space for people."
