Eh, no parking on the kalo.

For three hours today, there will be a lo'i on the corner of Merchant and Bethel streets Downtown. A second taro patch will go in at Merchant and Alakea. Each will occupy a single parking space and, yes, the meters will be fed during the duration.

Today is National Park(ing) Day. More than 60 cities across the country will have tiny temporary parks set up in urban parking spaces. It is a playful, creative way to promote the need for parks, gardens and playgrounds in downtown areas.

The Trust for Public Land's Hawaiian Islands Program is working with Malama Hawai'i on today's parking-space lo'i. They are borrowing kalo and other native plants and some grass from local nurseries, and will have poi pounding and Hawaiian music.

"Park(ing) Day is a fun, guerrilla-art installation kind of way of reminding people of the importance of parks and natural spaces in our ever more dense urban environment," says Lea Hong, Hawaiian Islands Program director of the Public Land Trust. "Last year, folks who walked by were intrigued and bemused by our little 'park' and it was a good opportunity to get into some fun and even heavy discussions about loss of land, culture, our past, in Hawai'i."

The Park(ing) Day concept originated in San Francisco in 2005 as a way to "reimagine the potential of a metered parking space," according to a description of the program. In 2007, the Trust for Public Land went with the more mainstream concept of a park Downtown, with turf grass, lawn chairs and bird baths. Hong had to camp out in her car until 10 p.m. the day before to secure the space for the next day.

"We laid down a tarp so we could clean up and leave no mess easily, put down the grass, unloaded the furniture and bird bath, and scooted out before we could get a parking ticket," Hong said. "Then a few hours later, we had to clean up as if the 'park' was never there."

As it turned out, one of the sponsors, Quality Turfgrass, ended up selling the big roll of sod they let Trust for Public Land borrow for the event. Some guy spotted it on the street from his office window and came to ask if he could buy it when they were pau. The man had been planning to buy turfgrass that weekend and this saved him the trip.

The locations of the parking space parks are: