Interesting study on parklets from University City District of Philadelphia:
"The Case for Parklets: Measuring the Impact on Sidewalk Vitality and Neighbourhood Businesses"
Couple of key points that jumped out at me:
Parklets are not just for patrons. A common concern is that Parklets may be interpreted by potential users as
private space intended only for patrons of the adjacent businesses. In fact though, Parklets attracted a large number
of non-patron users, with the busiest Parklets attracting the most non-patrons.
Parklet installation coincided with a substantial boost
in sales. The majority of host businesses were able to
provide sales data for the one to two weeks preceding
and following the installation of their adjacent Parklets2.
Among them, the sales impact of the Parklets was
substantial: following the introduction of the Parklets,
sales were up by an average of 20% (the number of
transactions increased by an average of 17% at the two
businesses reporting that additional statistic). Several of
the reporting businesses had been in operation for less
than one year, so it was not possible to compare the year
over year change in sales. Based on the typical increase
in sales, a new Parklet is likely to pay for itself after just
one to two seasons, particularly when multiple businesses
benefit from its presence and can share in the cost
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