Get ready for the one day out of the year when we actually like finding parking spots in downtown Chattanooga — Park(ing) Day.

After a two year hiatus (not to mention two years spent inside at home), the Chattanooga Design Studio is bringing the inside back out at Park(ing) Day this Fri., Sept. 16.

What is Park(ing) Day?

The poetic answer is that Park(ing) Day is a celebration of the public realm, the spaces we all share, and how we use those spaces.

The get-to-the-point answer? It's a day celebrated worldwide, wherein public parking spaces are transformed into tiny parks or social spaces, usually surrounding a specific theme.

This year's theme is "Inside Out," as a way to bring everything we've done indoors the past few years back outside.

What can I expect?

Taking part in Park(ing) Day is completely free — for those setting up parklets + folks walking around. With this year's theme, expect parking spaces that have been converted to spaces we had to create at home during the pandemic, like:

An at-home yoga studio or gym
A mini greenhouse
An at-home theater
A WFH setup (Spoiler alert: NOOGAtoday will be set up with a WFH parklet of our own)

Want a few specifics? Fine, we'll give — Hart Gallery will set up a tiny art gallery, White Oak Bicycle Co-op will create a bike repair parklet, and the Chattanooga Food Center will set up a space with plants, a mini seed library, and veggie trivia.

Where will it take place?

Businesses + organizations will set up their parking spaces on Broad Street, spanning from the Tennessee Aquarium to the downtown AMC Theater — if you were hoping to park on Broad this Friday, it may be wise to plan for elsewhere.

🗣️ "It's all about thinking about how cities and those specific spaces are devoted, and how they can be devoted to people." — Eric Myers, Executive Director of the Chattanooga Design Studio