Miniature parks aptly referred to as ‘parklets’ were supposed to be the urban answer to noticeably lacking green, public spaces. Boston dipped a toe in the parklet pool, following the likes of San Francisco and New York City, though found less traction in implementing them city wide. A new local Kickstarter campaign, though, is hoping to make parklets a more accessible amenity for Bostonians to both enjoy and to build.
Called Parkolation on Kickstarter, the brainchild of VSA Massachusetts is intended to empower youth students to design and create their own parklets through educational programs to bolster Boston’s economy, provide residents with clean urban spaces and promote a healthier lifestyle.
“As an arts educator, when I learned about the parklets movement I thought – wait a minute – what if young people could design these new and innovative spaces,” wrote Wilhelmina Peragine, VSA MA Teaching Artist, Parkolation Founder and Director on the Kickstarter page. “What if we put students in charge of working together to re-imagine and re-envision how we use our public street space?”
BostInno reached out directly to Peragine for a more specific take on how her Kickstarter campaign may alter the state of miniature urban spaces in Boston, but she was not immediately available to comment.
Boston parklets can trace their roots back to 2012 when former Mayor Tom Menino piloted the idea here in The Hub to little fanfare. Three neighborhoods were slated to receive the mini parks, each thought to run the City of Boston between $15,000 and $25,000.
One of those didn’t last very long.
The Boston Globe opined back in April that the city’s haphazard attempts at parklets rendered “poorly designed, poorly located structures,” though noted that there’s plenty of room for improvement in all respects.
The Parkolation Program hopes to pick up where Boston left off by raising $12,500 by June 27, 2014. Already they’ve garnered $4,160 with 28 days remaining. In total VSA MA is hoping to bank $50,000 to be utilized for “building an open source kit and curriculum to provide you the blueprints to build and customize public spaces near you with your students, friends, neighbors or colleagues.”
Parkolation is also partnering up with Sistine Solar, an MIT-spun startup that turns solar energy into public art, to implement the company’s sun-powered tiles within the parklets for aesthetic purposes and to allow for free phone charging.
This revamped parklet initiative differs from the first attempt in two distinct aspects: First, it’s primary focus will be on engaging students to design and build the parks. Second, hindsight is 20/20.
“The parklet movement is an exuberant one that represents a changing of the guard, a moment in which streetscapes are being reinvented and reimagined for actual human beings,” Max Grinnell, a connoisseur on the urban condition, told BostInno in an email. “It’s exciting to see new parklets like the one over on Tremont Street in Mission Hill offered up as a way to start conversation about how we can take back the street for humans.”
Boston is poised on the brink of a major public space and infrastructure overhaul, from more secure bike lanes to the innovative Rose Kennedy Greenway, and stands to do much better this time around when concerning parklets. Not only do Boston residents stand to gain more access to parks (despite the fact that they’re comparable in size to two parking spaces), but the city’s foot traffic and economy are also in line to receive big boosts.
The? San? Francisco? Great? Streets? Project? conducted an impact study in 2011, examining the pros and cons of parklets in the California city from April 2011 to August 2011.
In essence, it determined that parklets can only benefit the surrounding area and in no means poses any semblance of a detriment.
“After? the? parklets? were ?installed,? the ?number ?of ?people ?stopping? to ?spend? time ?on ?the? block? increased? as? people? were? able? to? stop? and? sit,? read? a? book,? eat,? or? socialize ?where? there? previously ?wasn’t? space? dedicated? for? that,” notes the report.
It’s important to note that some of the crucial findings indicate that while foot traffic increased by 44 percent on one street with a parklet, others saw no significant change. Some nearby businesses, too, saw a rise in customer levels while others did not.
But the number of people stopping to engage in stationary activities and number of bikes parked in each location each increased proving the point of the report, which is that “The? most? tangible? bene?t? of? parklets? this? study? identified? is? the? creation? of? new? public? space? for? anyone? to? sit,? relax ?and? enjoy? the? city? around.”
With parklets, cities have everything to gain and very little to lose. Especially if the next one is backed by crowdfunding.
Should Peragine’s campaign garner the necessary funds, Boston could proliferate its parklet scene. With a little help from City Hall and gung-ho Mayor Marty Walsh, we may all soon be enjoying a little manmade slice of Mother Nature.
