Food
Sep. 4th, 2025 03:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
How Parking Day Brought This Louisiana City Back to Life
To break the impasse, the city of Lafayette partnered with a local nonprofit to host a Park(ing) Day event. Together, they installed 16 temporary parklets throughout the downtown, several of which simulated outdoor dining areas. “People enjoyed the experience, and it allowed downtown business owners and stakeholders to experience the change in a temporary way,” explained Carlee Alm-LaBar, then Lafayette’s planning director and now Strong Towns’ chief of staff. “They started to see the vision of how Lafayette could use its public space differently and how it might bring more energy to the downtown neighborhood.”
That experience mattered. Less than a year later, the city passed an ordinance allowing for parklets and outdoor dining to be built in former parking spots.
Other things you can playtest with this method:
* food truck parks
* busk stops
* pop-up shops (e.g. selling local art, fresh produce, seasonal decor)
* skateable / climbable sculptures
* new types of public seating
To break the impasse, the city of Lafayette partnered with a local nonprofit to host a Park(ing) Day event. Together, they installed 16 temporary parklets throughout the downtown, several of which simulated outdoor dining areas. “People enjoyed the experience, and it allowed downtown business owners and stakeholders to experience the change in a temporary way,” explained Carlee Alm-LaBar, then Lafayette’s planning director and now Strong Towns’ chief of staff. “They started to see the vision of how Lafayette could use its public space differently and how it might bring more energy to the downtown neighborhood.”
That experience mattered. Less than a year later, the city passed an ordinance allowing for parklets and outdoor dining to be built in former parking spots.
Other things you can playtest with this method:
* food truck parks
* busk stops
* pop-up shops (e.g. selling local art, fresh produce, seasonal decor)
* skateable / climbable sculptures
* new types of public seating