This morning a crew from the University City District began installing the city’s first “parklet,” a wood and metal platform complete with tables, chairs and planter boxes at 43rd and Baltimore designed to reclaim parking spots for more leisure space.
The platform, which extends six feet into the street and is the length of two parking spots along 43rd Street in front of the Green Line Cafe, essentially widening the seating area of the cafe, although you won’t have to buy anything to sit there. Oddly, the spot chosen for the first parklet is about 50 feet from an actual park – Clark Park – which was recently renovated to add additional cafe-style seating.
The parklet will occupy a parking spot where a Philly Car Share vehicle was once parked. That spot will be moved up 43rd Street.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the parklet will be at 43rd and Baltimore at 1 p.m. on Thursday.
Parklets, which are designed to be temporary and portable, have become a fairly common site in many cities. They are designed to extend pedestrian space in busy urban neighborhoods and encourage people to drive less (presumably by making parking spots harder to find?) and slow down the spread of asphalt.
The parklet is a cooperative effort with the City of Philadelphia and the University City District and with money from a William Penn Foundation grant.
August 3rd, 2011 at 10:44 am
I admire the idea- but it sure would be nice if this wasn’t undoubtedly going to be used almost 100% by a single commercial property. When a bum comes and wants to sleep in it, what is the Green Line going to do? It would have been extra nice if this could service an area that could use a little more public space, when we have plenty to share near Clark Park. There are a lot of areas that aren’t such high-traffic ribbon-cutting-ready that would have made better use of this. Hoping to see the city make use of its “temporary” and “portable” qualities soon and try this out in some more experimental neighborhoods and see how that makes a difference in other communities.
August 4th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
…I don’t think I am in favor of this. For one, it looks ugly. For two, that area has plenty of public/leisure space already, so I’m not sure what this eyesore of a “parklet” will be adding, exactly. And for three, the ease of parking is one of the things I like BEST about our neighborhood–that makes it much more accessible to my friends in other areas of the city, and is stress-free for when I come back from running errands with a car and want to stop by anywhere before going straight home. Heck, the ease of parking is why I encourage friends to meet me here rather than going to Center City–I often find myself avoiding CC because I can never find parking there, and buses/trains don’t run swiftly/efficiently/late enough to be worth the bother a lot of the time.
August 4th, 2011 at 5:27 pm
I bet they chose this location precisely because it’s near a park/cafe. That is, this intersection is a mecca for people who want to relax outdoors, so the parklet is guaranteed to get a lot of use here and generate some buzz. It’s definitely true that there are other areas that need the parklet more, but this allows them to test the parklet on a receptive audience.
August 5th, 2011 at 7:34 am
Ya, I kind of don’t really get it. It means that people are sitting in a gutter, they don’t have nearly as much protection from cars taking speedy, wide turns from eastbound Baltimore Ave onto 43rd St as would be provided by parked cars, parking isn’t all that easy to find in UC, especially where residential permits are required, and more “experimental” neighborhoods (as another commenter put it), if we’re picturing similar areas, I would think have less need for something like this, less crowded sidewalks, fewer sidewalk cafés, and more plentiful parking – well, okay, maybe it’d be helpful at Rouge and Parc (not at all what I think of as an experimental neighborhood), but otherwise I’m thinking it might best be used at construction sites that block off sidewalks.
August 5th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
Well, Kit, I think it’s adorable. To each her own. AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD can we please all just stop fixating on freaking parking? I know it’s very popular right now in this city to whine about this issue (re: bike lanes), but it’s particularly silly in this instance as one of the two spots was a Philly Carshare spot and therefore not really “parking” at all. Somehow I manage to find buses and trains that reliably take me where I want to go; if you need help deciphering Septa schedules let me know and we can meet at the parklet for a tutorial. I’ll even buy you a coffee.
August 6th, 2011 at 4:57 pm
How delightful that you’ll buy the coffee! After all, the only thing that parklet has done is expand the seating area of the coffee shop.
August 8th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
I live around the corner from this thing and am not a fan. I don’t get this concept at all. Are they all going to be this ugly? It is hideous and like it or not, parking is at a premium here. Why should I be made to feel bad about wanting to park my car near where I live? We take SEPTA/bike/walk most places but regardless, we need to put our car somewhere. And don’t get me started on Philly Carshare and their gobbling of the precious few spaces that do exist. Ix-nay on the arklet-pay.
August 8th, 2011 at 11:14 pm
While I find placing a parklet across the street from a large park rather absurd, I’m most amused to see that complaint over the parklet’s taking over two parking spaces has morphed into a critique of PhillyCarShare’s grim impact on neighborhood parking. If you “take SEPTA/bike/walk most places” then one might ask why you keep a car at all, Suzanne? Did it occur to you that PhillyCarShare might actually be improving the parking situation, since a substantial number of people are using each space, numbers of whom might otherwise get cars? If my block is any indication, many people persist in the fantasy that their house came with a parking space — often two, never mind the fact that two car lengths is wider than the house. I have two small kids and no car — but apparently I’m part of the problem since I use Car Share.
August 9th, 2011 at 6:55 am
Charles-
My grumbling about Carshare’s parking spots was an aside. We need a car because we do. It’s as simple as that. And the the parklet add salt to the wound of scarce parking with it’s ugliness and stupidness.
August 9th, 2011 at 11:46 am
To me, a “parklet” is to “park” as “sitting under an open fire hydrant” is to “sitting on the beach”
August 10th, 2011 at 10:15 am
I agree that it’s as useful as testicles on a cow, and just as attractive, right across from Clark Park’s lovely new renovated park. It looks like people are sitting out in the gutter in a construction zone.
August 10th, 2011 at 10:29 am
I wish they would add BIKE parking instead.
September 27th, 2011 at 12:19 am
I personally like this when I saw it for the first time on Sunday; aesthetically, it could probably use improvement. There were about 5 people sitting there so it can’t be all that bad. I don’t think we leave the house enough in this country. I personally think that whatever we can do to get people to go outside a little more would be great; kinda reminds me of the towns and cities in Europe and Asia. My 2 cents.