nothin A Call To Arts For City Parking Garages | New Haven Independent

A Call To Arts For City Parking Garages

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Donius, Sherban at BAR’s parking “tap” event.

Imagine downtown drivers pulling into parking garages instead of first circling the block looking for spots. Imagine that inside these garages parkers also pick up locally grown fruits and vegetables or read poetry on the walls.

These were just a few of the ideas that flowed along with the beer at BAR Tuesday evening during a Go New Haven Go Transportation on Tap” event where a panel talked about ways to reimagine the most ubiquitous of public spaces — the parking space.

Pickett.

The talk, which was moderated by Urban Resource Initiative’s Anna Pickett, comes just as Go New Haven Go prepares for the upcoming PARK[ing] Day celebration, which encourages the use of traditional parking spaces for something more than just cars can enjoy. PARK[ing] Day is Sept. 16; the celebration begins on the week leading up to the day.

Former New Haven transit chief Jim Travers — who pioneered the use of street parking spaces in New Haven for outdoor dining tables — helped kick off Tuesday night’s discussion by addressing a practical matter about parking structures in the city: They cost so much to park in that people are almost encouraged to fight for parking on the street. He said that’s a bit backwards.

You’ll see the same car circle the block for an open space instead of moving into the structure,” said Travers. He suggested that the city work with local businesses to make parking in garages more attractive. That would allow for less on-street parking and more use of that parking for something else.

And oh, by the way, consider making parking garages a fun” home for New Haven arts and culture, he suggested. Put poetry from New Haven students in the stairwells of garages and have rotating art installations. Allow Yale architectural students to use parts of garages to design structures for the future.

Sarah Sherban of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas loved the idea of putting more rotating art in parking structures, but said as a practical matter it could be a lot to maintain. She pointed to the recent installation of chalk boards on the Green as part of this year’s Arts & Ideas. Most people used the opportunity to thoughtfully complete the writing prompt Before I die…” Some people used it to be negative or write obscenities. A&I volunteers cleaned off the giant chalkboard each day so that people could add more of their thoughts to them.

Sherban shared examples Tuesday night from around the world of how arts and simply fun pop-ups have transformed public spaces including the installation of an adult playground in Boston that was so popular that people waited in line for the swings.

She said she sees the planned new Dixwell Q House and another former community center in the Hill near Trowbridge Square (the former Barbell Club) as public spaces with the potential to be reimagined in similar ways.

Jenkins.

James Jenkins, director of New Haven Farms, said if you give him five spaces in a parking deck, he could give you a stand where people buy food grown from the city’s urban farms, or a central place where people could pick up their monthly CSA (community supported agriculture) share. New Haven Farms has been reimagining vacant lots in the city as places to grow food for people who have chronic diseases.

He said the city also could bring food closer to people by reimagining spaces where you don’t find food now. The city could thus address food insecurity in neighborhoods like Fair Haven and the Hill, where having reliable access to affordable and nutritious food impacts 43 percent and 38 percent of neighbors, respectively.

Lizzy Donius, interim director of the Westville Renaissance Alliance, said that once a street is reimagined for non-car uses or art goes up in unusual places, people never quite see the space the same again.

People want to be in beautiful places,” she said. People want to see interesting things.”

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