Mayor Harp and the City of New Haven are proud to announce that it will be participating in PARK(ing) Day again this year. PARK(ing) Day is an annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places. The project began in 2005 when Rebar, a San Francisco art and design studio, converted a single metered parking space into a temporary public park in downtown San Francisco. Since 2005, PARK(ing) Day has evolved into a global movement, with organizations and individuals (operating independently of Rebar but following an established set of guidelines) creating new forms of temporary public space in urban contexts around the world.
The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat … at least until the meter runs out!
On Friday September 19th, several New Haven businesses, organizations and artists will be creatively illustrating that the streets can be for more than just cars. This is the sixth year in a row that New Haven has participated. There will be spaces reserved throughout the City, all doing something different.
"Snowcrew matches neighbors to neighbors to shovel out from the next storm."
Become a Yeti. This was designed by Ben Berkowitz, also the guy known for once singlehandedly rescuing an entire parking lot full of veterinarians from being stuck last year on Feb. 8 during the big blizzard of 2013. Snowcrew.Org
If you see something, say something, in this case. If you're reading this, please stop stealing tires. You're missing all of your opportunity to be lifting weights, by wasting barbells to prop up cars on their rims after removing their tires.
This is not Ok.
Lisa Sidarz, the neighborhood block watch party notified her neighborhood regarding the atrocity with the following statement:
From Email List Serve SoHu:
"When I was driving to work this morning, there was a station wagon up on stones with all 4 wheels gone. It is right near St Josephs Church. So if you made a right onto Edwards heading to State, the car is on the left hand side just before St Josephs. I was moving, so didn't see what make the car is, but the name on the back started with V (not a name I recognized - not Volvo)"
-Lisa Siedlarz
A sandwich, reserving a parking spot.
Elsewhere on Edwards, a sandwich in the middle of the road was discovered. It was taking up a parking space. This was an issue to local pedestrians. "There's a burger in the middle of the street," said one, as he walked towards the car with the missing tires. "I wonder if we should eat it."
It was advised to leave both the car and the burger alone, since both looked dangerous in their own ways. If you are on Edwards Street today, please be careful. It's a mess out there.
Snowstorm Recap. Ben Berkowitz, founder of acclaimed website SeeClickFix, essentially skipped the "Click" part and simply saw and then fixed a situation during the aftermath of the snowstorm on February 8, 2013. The scenario? A parking lot of veterinary clinicians was rendered immobile, due to one vehicle blocking the entrance of the driveway. The SUV had become so completely stuck that no amount of pushing or shoveling would help, and none of the other cars could leave the lot. (See vid).
Enter Ben. With his son Oliver wrapped around him in what appeared to be some kind of cloth, he flagged down the first pickup truck he saw. That truck happened not only to be already an acquaintance but also had a rope in the truck, particularly for the purpose of pulling out cars. (See vid).
Within moments, the red pickup truck had towed out the white SUV blocking the driveway, and all of the veterinarians were then able to return to the roads and get back to their homes. Some of them had been stuck there since earlier the previous day. (See vid).
Nhv.Org has paired SeeClickFix and MakeHaven on a challenge to improve these pedestrian crossing signs to make them more interactive.
SeeClickFix is a website dedicated to civic improvement, and MakeHaven is a workspace for inventors and thinkers. It seems only natural to pair these two together for their first combined challenge.
The project is simple: come up with a design that improves the ability for pedestrians to cross the street safely. The result? A better world!
Why Should Pedestrians Have Priority?
The reason why pedestrians have priority in situations involving crossing the street, even a very busy street such as Willow, is because walking is better for the environment. Therefore driving should be seen as a disadvantage in strategic crossing situations. The law is clearly on the side of peds, as indicated by these highly florescent road signs placed auspiciously in the middle of the street.
Challenges To The Designers
Even without electronics, these signs have difficulty withstanding the elements. The goal is to create a design that is simple, effective, and affordable to manufacture.
Another challenge is potential of theft. The device has to either be very difficult to steal, or look very unappealing. One childish rendition of the design is available:
Relation Between SeeClickFix and MakeHaven Aside from the obvious connection between the forces driving both organizations, both seek the goal of improvement of quality of life; one with civic responsibility and the other with ingenuity and design. Once Makehaven has developed a prototype for the radio sensor, it will be scrutinized by the New Haven SeeClickFix community (as with all things here) and the design will be perfected through the process of testing in real-world situation. The Goal (reward) and Follow-Up If the design is a success and an invention is completed and tested, then Nhv.Org will release an awesome video, for free, about the design and development of this project. Sorry we can't offer you something better! Maybe in addition "SpacePirate" will throw in a free CD or a USB Zip drive with every nintendo game ever made.
