City Resolution #16

We're back to Brent Toderian's city resolutions and #16 states that we should "Champion “parklets” in front of your favorite stores or cafés/restaurants, converting a parking space to a people place. Tell every shopkeeper you can about the idea. And tell City Hall to make it easy to do."

As our region continues to grow, maintaining existing community and green spaces as well as developing new ones becomes ever more important. There are several ways to achieve that goal including requiring all new developments to provide community and green space, having municipalities purchase lands to convert to park space, and ensuring that current park budgets are appropriate to cover costs of maintaining current spaces.

We can also be creative when developing new community or green spaces. Parklets are one option. You can see many examples of these online. I believe the King Street Pilot in Toronto(pictured above) has incorporated many of these features as well. The City of Kitchener offers support for some greening initiatives such as tree planting, community gardens, and general placemaking through its #lovemyhood neighbourhood strategy. 

Are you familiar with the idea of 'parklets'? Where would you like to see one in your neighbourhood? Comment below.  #365ofgoodWR