Hold on now. Pittsburgh will be having an explosion of parklets next Friday. All over the city, individuals, schools, community groups and businesses will be installing temporary parks in a parking space near you. Over forty of these temporary installations will be in place for an international celebration of the park concept.

From the Park(ing) Day Pittsburgh site —

Originally created by REBAR, San Francisco art and design collective, Park(ing) Day is an annual, one-day, global event where artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “park(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks. Anyone can participate in Park(ing) Day, though it is strictly a non-commercial project, intended to promote creativity, civic engagement, critical thinking, unscripted social interactions, generosity and play.

A map of the planned parklets will be available before the event. A few of these parks will be placed in parking spaces right here in Polish Hill. You can keep an eye open for developments here. The list of park spaces is still growing, but here are the most recent participants —

South Side Local Development Company
AIA Pittsburgh
Western PA Conservancy
Cultural District
Bloomfield Development Corporation
Lawrenceville United
East Liberty Development, Inc.
Friends of the Pgh Urban Forest
CMU Architecture Studio
Bike Pittsburgh
Allegheny Commons Initiative
CDCP
Mattress Factory
The Andy Warhol Museum
Kelly-Strayhorn Theater
REI
Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy
ARTica Gallery
EDGE Studio
GTECH
Pittsburgh Glass Center
Rothschild Doyno Collaborative
Children’s Museum
Penn State University
Shaler Elementary School
Chatham University ASLA Club
Washington and Jefferson College
Brandon Ciampaglia
The ToonSeum
Lili Coffee Shop
The Urban Gypsy
Commonwealth Press
CTAC
Animal Friends
Carnegie Science Center
Chalk for Peace
Artist Image Resource
L’ville Dog Park
OTB Bicycle Cafe
Dance on Water: Story Dancing
Nina Marie Barbuto
Gabe Felice
Christina Miller
Suzanne Trenney
Monika Gibson