ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Allentown marked International Parking Day by transforming downtown parking spaces into pockets of green and community activity, thanks to the city\u2019s Parking Authority.<\/p>\n
Instead of roll-up-the-sidewalks, the streets came alive as the authority “rolled out the greenery and pumped up the jams,” creating a pop-up public park.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our International Parking Day celebration,\u201d said Louis Rivera.<\/p>\n
The event turned ordinary parking spaces into areas where people could enjoy popcorn, hot dogs, live music, and even a game of mini golf. The festivities also featured a \u201cpie in the face\u201d activity in place of the usual dunk tank.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally it’s a dunk tank. This year was pie in the face, and it allows anyone to pie some of our staff. It also raises money, which is then used to support the local shelters,\u201d said Jonathan Haney of the Parking Authority.<\/p>\n
Proceeds from the annual event benefit some of the community\u2019s most vulnerable, supporting organizations like Sixth Street Shelter, River Community Incorporated, the Allentown Food Bank, and the Allentown Rescue Mission.<\/p>\n
Parking Authority leaders say the annual celebration spotlights the agency\u2019s commitment to community connection, not just parking enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of those things that we do to give back to the community,\u201d Rivera said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Allentown marked International Parking Day by transforming downtown parking spaces into pockets of green and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,4677,5546,5543,553,5544,554,555,5540,915,5541,5539,5198,28,558,560,5545,5547,5542],"class_list":{"0":"post-6167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news","11":"tag-allentown-parking-authority","12":"tag-allentown-rescue-mission","13":"tag-allentown-station","14":"tag-hamilton-street","15":"tag-jonathan-haney","16":"tag-keystone-symbol","17":"tag-liberty-bell","18":"tag-louis-rivera","19":"tag-new-jersey","20":"tag-parking","21":"tag-parking-authority","22":"tag-parking-space","23":"tag-pennsylvania","24":"tag-ppl-center","25":"tag-puerto-rican-diaspora","26":"tag-river-community-incorporated","27":"tag-sixth-street-shelter","28":"tag-toronto-parking-authority"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}