Depave.org Reinventing Neighborhoods

PARKING LOTS to PARADISE // Documentary from Joey Dello Russo on Vimeo.

By all accounts, it was an awesome day! Frogs with jackhammers, asphalt art, 147 volunteers representing four continents, two Portland City Council Candidates, lots of laughter, music, celebration, pizza, donuts, and lots of earth liberated from the stranglehold of asphalt.

Too often, pavement and asphalt blight urban areas and streamline pollution into waterways.  An unutilized stretch of concrete compounds the heat in urban and suburban areas.  Depave.org has been greening up cities and towns by removing unwanted pavement and replacing it with parks, gardens and eco-friendly areas.  The organization's objectives include:

• Providing information, inspiration, and technical assistance to those wishing to remove concrete and asphalt.
• Educating the public about the benefits of pavement removal. 
• Advocating to minimize and/or reduce the amount of impervious pavement in public construction and repair projects.
• Promoting responsible and creative reuse and recycling of concrete and asphalt. 
• Providing an opportunity for greater connection with the natural world.

Depave's work is a nonprofit undertaking with a vision of "livable cities where people and wildlife coexist and prosper amidst clean air, clean water, robust urban forests and thriving local agriculture."