Earlier in the school year several students, including myself, organized an event to take place at IU South Bend. This is event is called Park(ing) Day and takes place all over the world.
Park(ing) Day is a day in September set aside for people to stop and think about how we are using our limited resource of land. How it works is one or more parking spaces are, with permission, blocked off and then become the one-day location of a temporary public park for all. Some groups have sod brought in to cover the space. We chose to use donated astro-turf because it can be reused every year. We also had a sound system set up playing music, a popcorn machine, hula-hoops, bubbles, kites, yard games, and a lot of other fun activities for anyone to
stop and participate in. This unique set-up brought in over 100 students to hang out and just have fun on our two-parking space area and got us on the local news! On a typical day, the space is used for two people to park just two cars. This brings us to
System Condition #2, the accumulation of substances produced by society. When new buildings go up, we like to surround them with acres of asphalt for individuals to leave their individual cars.
By holding Park(ing) Day, people can reevaluate how we are best utilizing our land. Because this is such a strange sight to see in a parking lot and the main question we got was, “What the heck is Park(ing) Day?” those people who stopped by and those who walked past had a moment where they thought about this.
Maybe they will think next time before they pave paradise and put up a parking lot.
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