Parklet Symposium Highlights the Success of Shared Spaces

The International Parklet Symposium was held last week in San Francisco, and Streetsblog San Francisco’s Roger Rudick highlights the main takeaways.

“The conference speakers talked about how parklets were dreamed up as a way to return a portion of our streets to something more akin to their original use,” Rudick notes, providing a brief history of how street space in the United States was ceded to motor vehicles. Although streets were originally used as shared public spaces for vendors, pedestrians, and children at play, “with the help of auto industry lobbying, the concept of ‘jaywalking’ was created and it became essentially illegal to use the street for anything except driving.”

In 2005, Park(ing) Day launched in San Francisco, calling for a return to a different way of prioritizing public right-of-way and curbside space. “Now, of course, the idea of shared spaces and parklets has spread so far and wide even Tokyo (which doesn't really have street parking) has parklets, explained the speakers.” During the Covid-19 pandemic, the parklet concept was adapted to restaurants who could no longer serve patrons indoors, leading to a proliferation of outdoor dining patios in former parking spots.