PARK(ing) Day Recap

September 20, 2021

Should the outer ring of the square have street trees installed to shade the sidewalk?

Individuals gathered in downtown on Friday to celebrate PARK(ing) Day, a global event to temporarily repurpose street parking spaces for other uses such as tiny parks, art displays, play areas, and social gatherings.

The Denton event was organized by Valley Quest Design, a landscaping architecture studio located just south of downtown. Other participants included Painted Flower Farm and Bike Denton. The groups enhanced the parking spaces with greenery, shade trees, seating areas, and bicycle parking.

Valley Quest Design participated in PARK(ing) Day in 2019, but before that, the last known PARK(ing) Day in Denton was in 2010 on W Hickory Street.

PARK(ing) Day occurs on the third Friday of September each year. If you have a great idea for how to temporarily repurpose a parking space, plan to participate next year!

One customer takes up an entire parking space when they drive to downtown. When more people can safely travel to downtown by bicycle, 8-12 customers can fit in a single parking space. This frees up more car parking for people who must drive to downtown.

Sean Hunt, Valley Quest Design, explains to Denton Parks and Recreation Staff how much tax revenue per acre each property in Denton generates. Red areas are lower revenue-per-acre and green is higher revenue-per-acre. In general, the green areas subsidize the red and orange areas.

Playing card games.