San Marcos celebrates International Park(ing) Day with a pop-up park

Part of the temporary installation for International Parking Day included a mural that visitors could sign. The theme asked what people were most proud of. People responded with things like “my beautiful town” and “my cat, Chubs”. Photo: Elizabeth Parrish

San Marcos celebrated International Park(ing) Day Friday, Sept. 15 by creating a temporary interactive pop-up park out of a select downtown parking space.

“It just creates another spot for people to engage with each other and, you know, have a good place to sit versus it just being a parking space or it being pavement,” said Andrea Villalobos, the city planner in charge of the project.

This year’s installation occupied the corner of Guadalupe and San Antonio streets until 7 p.m. Several shaded picnic tables, freshly potted plants, a bean bag toss game and a game of Dominoes fit neatly into the sectioned off area. Bottled water, sandwiches and chips were also available to visitors.

“I feel like they could get more of the community into it,” said WIlliam Farr, a local resident. He specified that there should be more advertising and promotion of the event.

Farr added his favorite parts of this year’s installation were the potted plants with local flora and fauna as well as a temporary mural wall that visitors could sign.

International Park(ing) Day originated in San Francisco in 2005 when art and design studio Rebar set up an installation in a metered parking space. However, it’s inception in San Marcos wasn’t until 2013.

One side of the park included a two-player bean bag toss. Photo: Elizabeth Parrish

The goal of the pop-up park project, and similar downtown-oriented projects, is to bring more business to the downtown area but also to make the space more pedestrian-friendly.

“It wraps around the intersection a little bit to kind of create a little bulb-out for pedestrians to have a safer area to walk,” said Villalobos. “It narrows down the intersection and the time that a pedestrian needs to cross the street.”

The one-day event is sponsored by several local organizations that work together to design the park, including the city’s Main Street Program. The Main Street Program was created to design and work on projects that keep downtown San Marcos enjoyable to both the community and tourists.

“We're really excited about this year's Parking Day because we're able to showcase it during the Texas State University family weekend,” said Samantha Armbruster, the Main Street Program manager. “So we have 1,900 people coming from all over the state and even from out of state into San Marcos.”

Although the Main Street Program has been the main contributor to International Park(ing) Day, creating an interactive park isn’t limited to them or other select local organizations currently involved with the project. City Planner Abby Gillfillan says anyone is welcome to contribute their own installation.

Gillfillan, along with others who set up the park, sat at the picnic tables to invite visitors to sign the wall, offer them bottled water, share with them the history of Parking Day or even give them directions.

“I think one thing we’d like to see is other groups, whether it’s businesses or different organizations, take on their own [project] and sort of see it spread on Parking Day,” Gillfillan said.

International Park(ing) Day takes place on the third Friday of September each year.