Park(ing)day in Leipzig: car parking spaces become green spaces

Leipzig. An armchair, a table with flowers and cake, a drink in your hand and the sun on your face. It looks really cozy on Eisenbahnstrasse on Friday. From Herrmann-Liebmann-Strasse out of town, traffic is blocked off, and seating and stalls dominate the area that would otherwise be full of traffic.

Holiday feeling on asphalt – the international Park(ing) Day celebrated in big cities makes it possible, including in Leipzig since 2011. Organized by the Ökolöwen, there were initially five converted parking spaces, now there are more than 200 at over 40 locations. The epicenter of the temporary conversion is Eisenbahnstrasse with over 40 parklets.

It is precisely there that Anthea Swart and Elena Kühning have set up the “City instead of parking” stand near the Kulturapotheke, where a sofa and home-baked goods as well as posters with slogans such as “Talk instead of parking” or “Meet instead of parking” invite people to engage in dialogue. “We were there last year too and had mostly constructive discussions,” reports Anthea, a town planner by profession.

“Sometimes we are asked whether we want to create parking spaces and cars – but that is not what we are concerned with,” says Swart. “We want to show what is possible when the area is not just reserved for cars.” The statement corresponds to that of Matthias Uhlig. “Through a creative and friendly redesign, we want to make it clear that the urban space belongs to all of us, it can be distributed more fairly for and by people,” says the Ökolöwen spokesman.

Vehicles take up a lot of space

The association states that the more than 272,000 motor vehicles registered in Leipzig take up around 3.4 million square metres of public space between the road and the sidewalk. “On Park(ing) Day, we will show together with the people of Leipzig how quickly and easily this space can be made more attractive, fairer and more livable,” says Uhlig.

He sits on a green wooden block in the middle of Kolonnadenstrasse, the popular shopping and bar district near the Ring. “There wasn’t a single official place to sit here before – but now there is.” What’s special about this parklet is that it doesn’t have to be dismantled after the event, like most of the others, but can stay. The city’s revised special use regulations recently gave this type of use the same status as parking a vehicle. “It used to cost 1,000 euros, but that’s no longer the case,” says Uhlig.

Whether for a day or longer, residents and house communities could register in advance to take over such an area and take on sponsorship. The colonnade box, approved until the end of the year and extendable beyond that, was designed by the Ökolöwe itself. The sponsor is Daniel Kellermann, who runs the Tunichtgut café opposite.

Park(ing) Day is one of the final acts of the European Mobility Week 2024, which will end on Sunday with the car-free ring from 12 noon. Friends of slowing down will now also populate numerous spots in the city until Friday evening. Mini gardens like green living rooms without a roof. And a railway street where a jogger is smiling as she runs along the unusually free stretch, while just a few meters away a vacant parking space is used for gymnastic exercises. Freedom from exhaust emissions that everyone takes in.

“It’s unbelievable how the event has changed the atmosphere on the street,” says Julius, “it’s so beautifully quiet.” The 26-year-old went to Park(ing) Day with his friend Marius, “because it was really cool last year.” Now the two of them are at “Wood and Games,” a course by Dirk Hoffmann made of XXL-sized wooden games, aimed at children and adults alike.

Diagonally across the street, a woman is just closing her insurance office. What does she think of this special day? “Good, but the best thing is that the street was cleaned properly beforehand.” “Otherwise it’s just disgustingly dirty here,” she says and walks on.

Anna Kaufmann is happy about the peaceful hustle and bustle. “The atmosphere is great, I like it a lot,” says the operator of Café Kune. She is also happy that the city approved a so-called Schanigarten for her some time ago. Since the city council decision in March 2022, it has been possible for Leipzig’s restaurants to have parking spaces converted into outdoor seating areas.

The “Eisi” area, which has been closed off by barriers, begins at Café Brothers, which borders the superblock that will be traffic-calmed in 2023. Its installation was criticized, especially by business people. How do people here feel about the additional traffic being blocked on Fridays? “We’re relaxed about it, it’s completely fine,” says one employee.

LVZ