Parking Space or Open Space?
For one day only, a parking space in central Manchester was transformed into a picnic site.
On Friday 16 September 2011, one lucky parking space on Thomas Street in the Northern Quarter underwent a transformation into a picnic site courtesy of Manchester FoE. From 9.30am we paid to convert this patch of Tarmac into an urban park with a ‘grass’ mat, deckchairs and a chess set, not to mention cupcakes and morning and afternoon tea!
At Manchester FoE we don’t need to travel far (round the corner, in fact) for a picnic
The reason for all this? To take part in PARK(ing) Day, an international event highlighting the need for more urban open space and opening the debate about how cities are designed and space allocated for walking and cycling. Over the last fifty years, large areas of our towns and cities have been given over to the car, and our streets have become noisy and unpleasant places for pedestrians.
Manchester FoE’s message to people is this: “We are inviting people to help us make parking spaces more sociable, fun and colourful. Imagine if our cities had fewer spaces for cars and more room for people. It’s only for one day, but we hope this will inspire people to envisage the future of their streets in new ways.”
