Bassili (pictured) said they hope Park(ing) Day will have people seriously consider how space is used in the city. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

Commercial Street brieftly got a new look on Friday as Strong Towns Nanaimo and students from Vancouver Island University, took over serval parking spaces for Park(ing) Day.

Park(ing) Day is an international movement that started in 2005 in San Francisco as a way to start conversations around how cities are designed, and to explore what the space would be like without the need for vehicle parking spaces.

In downtown Nanaimo, Park(ing) Day was observed by Strong Towns Nanaimo and Master of Community Planning (MCP) students from Vancouver Island University who created two “parklets” in front of the Vancouver Island Literary Center and Cold Front Gelato on Commercial Street. Parklets are flexible and usually non-permanent sidewalk extensions made to create more public space. Parklets tend to be installed where there is streetside parking taking up one, two, or sometimes three parking spaces.

Strong Towns is a grassroots organization that advocates for new approaches to urban planning and development in Nanaimo, and creating vibrant, walkable neighbourhoods.

Bassili said they chose Commercial Street for the event because it is a great example of a core place that would work fine without personal vehicle access. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

Michael Bassili is the co-founder and director of Strong Towns Nanaimo. He said Park(ing) Day is about converting spaces that are typically for storing personal private vehicles and turning them into pedestrian spaces.

To do this, they turned a parking space into an outdoor lounge with board games, a TV with Super Smash Brothers, and snacks.

Strong Towns Nanaimo worked with the City of Nanaimo and MCP students from VIU to organize the event.

“We were invited to come and join and we were more than happy to help out,” Bassili said. “We've been doing stuff like this for a while outside of Park(ing) Day, and so this was a great opportunity to really get out there and work with the MCP students, work with the planning students, the geography students, and show what can be possible with community action.”

He said they chose Commercial Street for the event because it is a great example of a core place that would work fine without personal vehicle access.

“We've seen as a city what can be done if you shut down for car traffic. With the night market, everyone in Nanaimo has seen how successful turning Commercial Street away from cars and to people as it becomes a vibrant pedestrian space with lots of business and lots of activity,” Bassili said. “This is a perfect kind of place to do this.”

He said they have thought about doing it on Victoria Crescent but figured due to the construction happening on Commerical Street it was a good idea to bring in more foot traffic for the business on Commerical Street.

Bassili said their dream plan for Commerical Street is to have it be a space primarily built for people.

“So levelling the street, making it more inclusive for people outside of a vehicle, that's step one. But I think deep down, we're all kind of thinking about the possibility of turning Commercial Street into a pedestrian-only space. People don't really use Commercial Street to get to and from parts of downtown,” Bassili said. “Commercial Street itself is a great place for people to kind of congregate and hang out and be patrons to our the local businesses.”

Bassili said they see streets like Government Street in Victoria and the Gastown pilot project in Vancouver that created permanent pedestrian fixtures that would be a great end goal.

He said while he understands why people may express the need for Commercial Street to have vehicle parking, he said there is still many other parking locations in the downtown core near the street.

Bassili said they hope the parking space takeover will have people seriously consider how space is used in the city.

Groot said it is important for students in the Masters of Community Planning to take part in events like this as they are always learning and talking about parking in their program. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

“People are so used to seeing cars parked everywhere, parking everywhere, and that sort of mindset has really contributed to this auto culture in Nanaimo, where if ‘I can't drive there, it doesn't exist,’” Bassili said. “Places like the Vault, for instance, have almost no parking at all, there's no parkade next to it, there's barely any on-street parking. But the Vault is a great example of a very vibrant, packed place.”

Hannah Groot is a Master of Community Planning student who helped organize a parklet for Park(ing) Day with other VIU students.

For their parklet, they took over a parking space across the street from Strong Towns Nanaimo parklet and turned it into an outdoor art gallery.

“So we did a kind of ‘Art in the Park’ theme. So we did a pop-up Art Gallery, and we got together as a program to develop all of this fun art so it's kind of just like a fun art night. We all got to hang out and just go crazy with, like, paints and pastels,” Groots said. “So then we were able to kind of put together this, this little art gallery, and it was really, really fun to came together.”

She said it is important for students in the Masters of Community Planning to take part in events like this as they are always learning and talking about parking in their program.

For the MCP parklet, they took over a parking space across the street from Strong Towns Nanaimo parklet and turned it into an outdoor art gallery. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

“We talk so much about creating these really vibrant community spaces and I feel like Park(ing) Day is a really great way to show that and actually take action in that area,” Groot said. “So I think it's like, really nice for our students to be a part of that.”

She said doing it on Commercial Street is a great location as they talk a lot about reinventing downtown areas and creating pedestrian-friendly spaces.

“We kind of thought that commercial street would be the best option because it has such a high level of foot traffic and people are kind of just wandering around as is, so we thought it'd just be a great space for it,” she said.

Groot said also far they have received positive feedback from passerbys who seem to be interested and excited for what a future without parking could be like for Commerical Street.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.