COLUMBIA, S.C. — If you drove down Columbia's Main Street Friday, you may have noticed some of the parking spots became mini parks and community-gathering places.
Columbia has been part of International Park(ing) Day annually for the past eight years.
It's a day for people to temporarily transform parking spaces into small, interactive urban open spaces.
"What we try to do as a city is get applicants to imagine a separate use that is not vehicle related so that we can have a discussion about reclaiming some of this single use space downtown," said Scott Holder.
Holder is a land development planner for the City of Columbia and part of the SC chapter of The American Society for Landscape Architects.
"We've begun to take out more trees than we were putting back," Holder said. "And with climate change, it's not getting any cooler. So I think turning some impervious surfaces back into green space is important."
The city said it's calling attention to the need for more urban open space and starting a debate about allocating public space.
"It points out how parking spaces are public spaces, that oftentimes people forget is public space," said Lee Snelgrove, who was working at the Richland Library parklet. "And typically a parking space is only used by a single person, and they might not actually even be in it, it's mostly just their property that sits."
For many participants, it's a chance to talk about how they think public spaces should be used.
"Parking Day is a day where we take urban spaces and turn it back into art spaces," said Xavier Blake, the executive director of One Columbia. "Finding opportunity to be able to put that on display in our public spaces in Columbia is really, really important."
"To engage with the city is something that we've been missing," said Tim Landholt, another participant. "I'm glad to see these types of initiatives taking place."
"To sit and chat, to participate in a play, to listen to opera, to do," Snelgrove said. "All the kinds of things that they could do in a park space. The arts are a huge part of what can take place in parks."
Holder said the city also has permanent parklets on Hampton and Washington Streets. They're small areas with tables and open space right off the curb.
"Maybe we can have a conversation about reutilizing some of this space for something that we can all enjoy instead of one use of parking cars," Holder said.