A simple experiment turning a parking space into a parklet reveals how small changes to public spaces can spark connection, belonging, and awe.

BLAINE MERKER: I grew up in a small city called Bend in Oregon. Lived in an old logging town, 20,000 people. Kind of knew everybody. And then when I was nine years old, my family moved to Amsterdam 'cause my dad got a job as a aircraft engineer. So I lived in Amsterdam and then we moved to Zurich. And those were cities that had great public transportation systems.

Train SFX 

And as a young teenager. I had a transit pass in my pocket and you know, a little bit of money and I could go anywhere I wanted. So, you know, what I noticed was just kind of this infinite. Invitation to make stops if you wanted to just kind of loiter around and sit around on a park bench if you wanted.

The streets allowed you to make choices. There wasn't just one way to do things. There was a million ways to do things. And then we moved back to Oregon and I looked around at everything in the United States and thought, why can't we have more of that?

If we look back at the pandemic, it became clear how essential public spaces are to public health. We went on long walks and hikes, and we even met friends for coffee or dinner in parks. Moments like that remind us. The public space doesn't just happen, it's imagined and sometimes improvised. One small experiment in 2005, set in motion big changes for our cities and helped us in a crisis, even though it was legally ambiguous.

Well-designed public spaces invite curiosity, connection, and creativity. They give people room to slow down, notice one another, and discover that even in a busy city we're part of something larger than ourselves. At their best, they can be powerful engines of inclusiveness, creating room for people of different ages, cultures, and backgrounds to feel seen, welcome and like they belong.

DACHER KELTNER: Recently I went to downtown San Francisco to learn more about how public spaces shape our wellbeing.  We looked at a small piece of land at an intersection.

Blaine Merker is an urban designer and public space advocate, and he thinks this intersection lacks something. In his field of work, they call it stickiness. Stickiness measures how much a place makes people want to stick around instead of just pass through. 

Blaine decided to run an experiment to see if he could increase the stickiness of a small vacant parking lot. He created the very first "parklet" in San Francisco.

This is an amazing, thought-provoking and inspiring story. I'd rather let these two men tell it so click HERE to read the transcript or take a quick listen: