Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and the City of Orlando hosted the first One Less Car, One More Park event where six local design firms temporarily transformed Orange Avenue metered parking spaces into potential re-imagined parks and green spaces. Representatives of Orlando’s major transportation arms including Lynx, SunRail, MetroPlan and others had information booths. The city hopes to make this an annual event.
Despite Orlando’s distinction as one of the most dangerous cities for pedestrians as well as a recent report citing Orlando among the worst cities with traffic, Mayor Dyer claimed to be the “best” city for commuters and a “bicycle community.” The goal of the event was to promote more modes of alternative transportation.
About 100 people were on hand for the awarding of a winning team design. E Sciences was announced as the first winner of the competition for their re-imagined parking space full of chairs, plants and a bubbling pond with ducks. They were awarded a traveling trophy for their business: a reconstructed parking meter turned into a planter with a pop-up park.
Ironically, the City of Orlando created a display that oddly resembled a front-yard garden. City officials are currently in a heated battle with local residents growing a front-yard garden and that made this display a little awkward.
Another display, by DLR Group/KZF Design Studio, was also destined to lose as it included sidewalk chalk. No word if Mayor Dyer would have anyone arrested, though he did have Occupy Orlando activists arrested for drawing on the sidewalk with chalk a year ago. Someone also added a “#Occupy” in chalk, showing the movement still hounds Dyer.
San Francisco had these micro parks up and down Haight Street. Cafes and bookstores use them as they wish, with garden furniture being brought out for extra seating just step from the main entrance…and people can sit and talk, dine, surf the web, read…
This event was only a small sampleing, of what is going on, in other parts of the country. When completed the effect is beautiful. There are decks, bistro dining and people just relaxing and as a result, with fewer cars, is much safer for pedestrians. All in the space, once occuped by a car.The traffic in front of city hall is a nightmare. All traffic “except for buses” should be re-routed around. The family in the news just needs to border their garden with fence along the street-side and flowers along the neighbor sides.