micropark
n. A small, usually temporary, public park set up in a street parking spot.
Also Seen As
Examples
2015
Buses, bicycles, even microparks are competing for the curbsides of Seattle, where the city is outgrowing 20th-century traditions of on-street parking.
—Mike Lindblom, “Seattle’s street parking vanishes as bus and bike lanes boom,” The Seattle Times, February 14, 2015
2015
In 2011, Mr. Gemignani had bamboo flooring, tables, brightly colored cafe chairs and dwarf fig and olive trees installed on a platform that extends from the curb over the pavement. In this way, the parking spots are transformed into a micro park, or parklet. Since then, the Slice House’s business has quadrupled, he says.
—Claire Martin, “When the Parking Space Becomes a Park,” The New York Times, January 10, 2015
2013
While drivers in many urban areas know Parkmobile as the system that lets them use their smart phones to pay for street parking, people in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Community Benefit District (YBCBD) are enjoying another type of Parkmobile: a truly moveable micropark.
—Julie D. Stern, “Moveable Urban Green Spaces,” National Association for Industrial and Office Parks, September 19, 2013
2012
—“Micropark Examples,” Park Chelsea, April 15, 2012
2007 (earliest)
NoPark returns “no parking zones” — mostly those associated fire hydrant placement — to low growth mosses, and grasses. These micro green spaces use foliage to stabilize the soil and to provide a durable low maintenance surface cover in addition to other benefits. These microparks can continue to provide emergency parking space for fire trucks and exasperated Fresh-direct delivery persons. But the other 99.9% of the time they now do something more.
—“No Park,” New York University, November 10, 2007
Notes
I'm posting micropark (also called a parklet or a minipark) in recognition of Park(ing) Day, "an annual worldwide event where artists, designers and citizens transform metered parking spots into temporary public parks" (according to the Park(ing) Day website). Park(ing) Day has been held on the third Friday of September since 2006, although the original Park(ing) installation occurred on November 16, 2005, in San Francisco.