This Friday, Sept. 15, if you haven’t heard, is Park(ing) Day. It’s not a U.S. holiday, but it is celebrated around the globe every September inviting people to reimagine how to use their streets. It was the spiritual ancestor of parklets and slow streets, and it started here in San Francisco.
On a sunny fall day in 2005, SF-raised artist Matthew Passmore and two designers, John Bela and Blaine Merker, covered a parking spot on Mission Street with real grass, a tree, and a bench, then fed the meter and waited for people to react.
“I thought we were going to get arrested and taken to jail,” Passmore recalls.
Instead, people sat on the bench under the shade of the tree. Others gave a thumbs-up as they stopped to check out the scene. Staffers for Mayor Gavin Newsom even saw it and asked Passmore and friends to meet for beers. Turns out the mayor liked it and urged them to keep it up, according to Passmore.
A blog post about the temporary park went viral, and emails flooded in asking how to set these “parks” up all over the world. The three, who would form the art and design studio Rebar, pulled together an open-source manual to empower others to reclaim spaces exclusively reserved for cars.
To ensure the event would pack a bigger punch, Passmore says they designated a specific date: the third Friday in September. One of the ideas in starting Park(ing) Day was to “test government response when citizens try things like this,” he adds.
Passmore never imagined the ripple effect, leading not just to SF’s Sunday Streets (started in 2008) and parklet program (2009), but closures of JFK Drive (now Promenade) in Golden Gate Park and the Great Highway.
What’s more, he attended one of the city’s first gay marriages in a rogue Park(ing) Day space; another year, he saw health care workers set up space to offer services to day laborers on César Chávez Street.
And without Park(ing) Day, SF might never have had the Deepistan National Parklet. That’s the name of the space outside Amandeep “Deep” Jawa’s home on Valencia Street, which cuts off access to his driveway. (Like 31 percent of San Franciscans, Jawa doesn’t have a car.)
He built Deepistan in 2011, got married in it, and it remains the only SF parklet at a private residence. We feel pretty confident that it’s also the only SF parklet guarded by a rebar dinosaur named Trixie.
An Apple software engineer, Jawa has served in the leadership of the SF Bike Coalition and currently leads Friends of Valencia, an advocacy group that wants cars banned from some parts of the street to make more pedestrian space. The city is currently running a 12-month experiment with protected bike lanes running down the center of Valencia.
On a recent afternoon, The Frisc met up with Jawa in Deepistan (listed on both Google and Apple Maps) to discuss Park(ing) Day, how he became a parklet owner, and the experience of getting married in front of hundreds of passersby.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.
The Frisc: What were your impressions of Park(ing) Day when it started?
Amandeep Jawa: My first thought was “I wonder if that will be fun — I’ll try it.” It hit me how obvious this was. I don’t have a car, and they’re literally showing people they can imagine a better way to use streets. After that, I biked around and checked out all the installations for several years.
What made you consider turning your driveway into a parklet?
I was spending a lot of time out here, hosting barbecues with friends, working on Halloween costumes, but I hated the space. It was a concrete jungle. So I enlisted the help of a landscape architect, Jane Martin, who had worked on lots of greening projects in public spaces. She suggested a parklet. No private person had done it, but there was no reason not to do it.
What did it take to make it happen?
It was relatively simple. I paid for a permit and insurance. The design had to be technically removable and open to the public, and that all worked for me.
No private person had done it, but there was no reason not to do it.
How was the space received by the neighborhood?
I met a lot of neighbors. Kids would come and leave little plastic dinosaurs [for Trixie]. It’s been surprising to see how it gives people a boost whether they stop to chill or take a break to have a coffee or ice cream.
You and your wife were married in this parklet. When did this happen?
It was 11 years ago during a Valencia Sunday Streets. It was very memorable; we had music and gave out cupcakes. In fact, I’ll still run into people on the street who say “‘Hey, I was at your wedding!’”
What other events have you hosted?
We’ve had readings from Lit Crawl, buskers come and play music, and we’ve brought out a big screen to have watching parties for the World Cup, election returns, or a movie night.
Have you had many negative issues?
I’m surprised how often I’m cleaning graffiti, but the joy I get out of this parklet and the pleasure it gives others far outweighs the hassle. My wife and her father come out here to garden together, and they’ll hear people chatter about how beautiful the garden looks. It’s really noticed and appreciated. I feel like we’re giving something back.
[Deepistan could use a little TLC. The sign has come loose, a bench is tagged with graffiti, and Trixie, who doubles as a flower pot, has no plants. But it’s still quite lush, and as we talk a cabbage white butterfly lands on an adjacent flower.]
What would you say about others turning their sidewalk and street space into a parklet?
I’d say for them to please do it, you’ll be surprised how much you get out of it. It’s a great investment for yourself and the city.
You’ve had a front-row seat to observe the new bike lanes down the center of Valencia. How are they working so far?
I think it’s working pretty well after a rough rollout. I’ve noticed cars have slowed down and things are calmer. We use it to ride with our daughter to school. Before the center lane, I always worried about her getting doored. The center lane takes that concern away.