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San Francisco Celebrates Park(ing) Day

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SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Finding a parking spot in San Francisco can be a challenge on any given day, but Friday proved to be a bit more problematic as a number of parking spots city-wide were converted into pop-up parks.

"Park(ing) Day began as a celebration of public space in San Francisco more than 10 years ago, and it was celebrated again on September 15, 2017.

"Oh, I think it's terrific," said a Lafayette resident visiting San Francisco for the day. "We have one in our our community so you can do your picnic lunch outside a coffee shop.

One the third Friday of September, cities around the world take part in Park(ing) Day. It began with a single parking space in San Francisco in 2005.

"We rolled out some grass because you can't have a picnic without a nice patch of grass," Gayle Effron of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco said of her organization's collaboration with the policy think tank SPUR to transform a Mission Street parking space. "We've set up a whole picnic area with a table where people can come and sit together around conversation."

"Here in SOMA, there's not a lot of park land and this gives us just a little injection of public park into our streets," added Noah Christman of SPUR.

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