Rethink the Lot - Parking Day 2025

Name: Rethink the Lot - Parking Day 2025
Start: 2025-09-19T08:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-09-20T14:00:00-05:00
Location: 180 W. Center Street, Fayetteville, AR 72701

Schedule

Fri, 19 Sep, 2025 at 08:00 am to Sat, 20 Sep, 2025 at 02:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

180 W. Center Street, Fayetteville, AR 72701 | Fayetteville, AR

What do we give up when we carve out so much space for cars?
Fayetteville Strong is planning a housing focused installation for Parking Day! Park(ing) Day is a global, public, participatory project where people across the world temporarily repurpose curbside parking spaces and convert them into public parks and social spaces to advocate for safer, greener, and more equitable streets for people.
As Fayetteville repealed its commercial parking minimums back in 2015, we decided that a housing focused installation would be more appropriate considering that we are in the middle of a housing crisis. One of our primary policy goals is the repeal of residential parking minimums, so this year we would like to shift our focus towards a demonstration of how much urban housing could replace a parking space.
Our concept, which we are calling "Rethink the Lot", is to take over a few contiguous parking spaces in the lot across from City Hall and stage a few urban-format apartments. We've chosen the location (pictured above) for its immediate proximity to the bus shelter and the small landscaping/drainage area between the parking rows that we'll treat as a "courtyard".
The current plan is to create a 3-space (~500 sqft) up-scale one-bedroom; and two 2-space (330 sqft) efficiency units. We plan to furnish each space so that people can walk through and experience the space, and each would have a profile of a resident who might live there. We hope to include some additional interactive elements as well.
Educational material will gently introduce people to the ideas of the cost of "free" parking and how proper enforcement can improve their user experience; the benefits of housing variety, including smaller footprints; and some local public preference data about open space and car-optional living. We hope to engage with elected officials, city staff, local media organizations, and the general public.
Timing
The official Park(ing) Day event is Friday, Sept 19. We will set up Thursday, Sept 18 and keep the installation active through the Farmer's Market on Saturday, Sept 20. We would also like to invite people to join us for a Fayetteville Strong Social in the installation on the Friday evening, starting at 6 PM. People are encouraged to patronize local restaurants and bars and take advantage of the Outdoor Refreshment Area by bringing their food and drinks back to the installation to socialize.
How to Get Involved
If you are interested in being a part of this project, there are many different ways to participate!
- Sign up Volunteer to help setup, man the installation, or cleanup (https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0548A4AD23A1FFC25-58151799-rethink#/)
- Sign up to give or lend various needed project supplies or furniture (https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0548A4AD23A1FFC25-58250500-rethink#/)
- Support the project financially with a monetary donation ( https://venmo.com/u/Fayetteville-Strong)