National PARK(ing) Day in Downtown El Paso

Nat'l Park(ing) Day in Downtown El Paso
I lifted this photo from an email forwarded to me.

In an effort to promote downtown El Paso, the City has commandeered what looks like a couple of parking spaces on Franklin Street, in front of snooty beer joint Craft and Social. (I’ve never been to Craft and Social, but the Yelp reviews are good.)

Also, there’s yoga and a bike ride.

The goals of National PARK(ing) Day, as stated on their website are:

The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat . . . at least until the meter runs out!

The problem for the organizers of this stunt is that Downtown El Paso isn’t busy enough for the installation to make an impact. And the program was shunted off to Franklin Street, where parking spaces are often underutilized. (See all the available parking spaces in the photo?) But they’re trying and it didn’t cost us $62 million, so they’ve got that going for them.

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