A portion of street parking in downtown Oak Park was turned into a children’s play area on Friday to celebrate the world-wide Park(ing) Day.
From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., anyone could stop by 1100 Westgate St., for snacks, games, coloring and conversations with the village’s Parking and Mobility Services team. The Oak Park event is just one city in a larger effort to temporarily turn on-street spaces into green spaces.
One family, Jason and Nuru Dorsey, joined in the event with their 4-year-old daughter where they were able to play with crafts and bubbles. He said he thinks it is important to be “connected and involved with community activities.”
The Park(ing) Day event originated in San Francisco in 2005 with just one parking space being turned into a “public park” with sod, a bench and a single tree. The effort was an attempt to regain more of the city’s land area, of which 70 to 80% was used for streets, for a better public purpose, according to the website.
This year marks Oak Park’s third time participating, and the theme was Art & Play. Parking and Mobility Services Manager Marlin Jackson said the event is important to connect government workers with the community to show their commitment to giving back.
“We want to show that yes, parking can sometimes be a strain in Oak Park, but we are people first, and we all want to come together and just show that we’re a loving community,” said Jackson.
He shared that he loves getting to speak with residents at events such as these to hear their concerns. The visibility it brings helps “humanize the relationship” between people and the team that may be looked upon in a negative light with the enforcement side of parking.
“If we don’t know about it, there’s nothing we can do to fix it,” said Jackson. “The village is a village that loves to hear from their constituents, and I say let’s just come together and work together as a community so that we can change whatever it is that we can change to make things better.”