Citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into temporary public places.

PARK(ing) Day STL is a collaborative effort between the City of St. Louis Treasurer’s Office and several neighborhood organizations to allow businesses and local organizations to find alternative usages for parking meters for a single day. This year the event will take place on Friday, September 20, 2013. PARK(ing) Day is an annual, global event on the third Friday of September. Citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into temporary public places.

This year Park(ing) Day will be celebrated in The Old North St. Louis, Cherokee Street, SouthGrand, and Downtown neighborhoods. The celebration in Old North St. Louis will take place from 4:00pm-6:00pm near the intersection of N. 14th St. and St. Louis Avenue includes: La Mancha Coffeehouse’s island oasis—complete with a snow cone machine; Jamaica Ray’s steel drum and handmade mannequin showcase; Ye Ole Haunt’s macabre beer garden and barbeque; 14th Street Artist Community’s interactive “skate park”; and Divoll Library’s interactive banned books exhibit.

The Cherokee Street celebration will take place all day and feature over twenty businesses and organizations sponsoring exhibits in parking meter spaces. Some of the featured exhibits include: Uplift’s outdoor library focused on mental illness awareness; Killeen Architects’ booth providing free architectural and landscaping consulting; Red Chair Studio’s Dragon Wagon Art Car; live music sponsored by Midwest Guitar, a hop demonstration sponsored by 2720 Cherokee from 11:00am-3:00pm; Pounds Media’s pop-up theater showing movies; live artist paining by Yaqui’s; Empire Café’s lemonade stand; a DIY custom buttonmaking sponsored by ButtonMakers.net; and a Skate Park at Texas & Cherokee.

Downtown’s Parking Day will feature several participants, including City Museum, who will set up a parking space with a mini-ball pit, squirt gun play area, and arts and crafts table.