parklet

[pahrk-lit]

noun

1. an urban space for sitting, dining, or enjoying greenery, established where the sidewalk meets the street, often repurposing on-street parking spaces and part of the sidewalk: If the parklet stretches over the curb or covers the curb cuts, the city requires ramps be added for wheelchair accessibility.

   The restaurant’s owners were able to expand seating with café tables in a new outdoor dining parklet.

   If the parklet stretches over the curb or covers the curb cuts, the city requires ramps be added for wheelchair accessibility.

Word History and Origins

Origin of parklet¹

First recorded in 1850–55, and in 2010–15 for current sense

Example Sentences

“What we’re trying to do here is move us away from a scarcity mind-set, where we’re nickel-and-diming businesses trying to stay open, restaurants trying to open a parklet, residents trying to build an ADU,” Hall said.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But for the last number of months the small parklet has seen a number of tents appear.

Read more on BBC

But that outrage hasn’t reached this parklet, where the basketball hoops lack nets and the closest bathroom is in a nearby church.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The wee parklet hosts the city’s biggest farmers market at the base of the Witness Trees, enigmatic statues that might puzzle Erikson, as they look more like Disney attractions than they do Norse artifacts, but they have a certain eerie pagan-ness to them that he might have appreciated.

Read more on Seattle Times

The succulent-adorned parklet outside of Hook Fish was filled on a recent Friday afternoon with customers enjoying a late lunch of $17 burritos with carrot hot sauce.

Read more on New York Times