This newsletter from the Project for Public Spaces connects people who share a passion for public spaces to ideas and issues, news, quotes, places, and events from the placemaking movement.
Voting Results for Walk/Bike/Places Conference Sessions
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Thank you to everyone who participated in our public voting period for Walk/Bike/Places conference sessions last month. We received over 3,300 votes that will help our reviewers gage interest in sessions and topics!
Some of the most popular topics were improving pedestrian and cycling infrastructure; addressing inclusion and accessibility in design and engagement practices; lighter, quicker, cheaper placemaking projects; parks and green spaces as essential public health resources; and digital community engagement.
Registration for Walk/Bike/Places opens February 1st. We hope to see you there on June 15-18 in Indianapolis, IN, or online.
More Events & Opportunities
Jan. 27-28, 2021 • Webinar Series: The Future of Monumentality, Next City
Feb. 5, 2021 • Call for Proposals: The Great Places Awards, EDRA & Project for Public Spaces
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The Future of Public Space in the Capital. Increasing security in Washington, DC, over the years has made public spaces less public. Visitors have decreasing access to the spaces of the national imaginary and the federal government, and locals have been slowly cut off from their own public backyard. The storming of the Capitol building means that will probably continue. (New York Times)
What the Internet Can Learn from Public Spaces. While social media has created a divided, angry and misinformed society on an unprecedented scale, the problem of how to gather strangers together in a way where people generally behave themselves is one that our physical cities have grappled with for millennia. Eli Pariser and Danielle Allen argue that it’s time to start building online versions of the libraries, parks and other public spaces that make societies and democracies work. (Politico)
The Rise of Suburban Anxiety. Historian Kyle Riismandel's new book Neighborhood of Fear tracks the development of suburban anxiety that led to the rise of NIMBYs, vigilantism, and the environmental movement in the late part of the 20th century. (CityLab)
Beyond Child-Friendly Cities. A new study demonstrates how pre-school-aged children are able to participate in urban planning processes. The children in the study showed a strong inclination toward gathering places and creating caring environments for themselves, other people, and the environment. (The Conversation)
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Here is a roundup of 10 inspiring placemaking ideas from the week:
- The hidden costs of overparking in our cities (Sightline Institute)
- A green transformation for Paris's Champs-Élysées, the "world's most beautiful avenue" (CityLab)
- A farm in South King County that offers seeds of hope for homeless Native Americans (Seattle Times)
- The coexistence of public health best practices and a vibrant public realm in Baltimore's commercial districts (Brookings)
- The latent placemaking potential of urban infrastructure, from fire hydrants to safety bollards (Azure)
- A traveling, pop-up library holds exclusively books written by Black women (Next City)
- A complete streets overhaul in Hopewell, VA, that shows small towns can be urbanist, too (Greater Greater Washington)
- A plan to save the world, starting with the sidewalks (Social Life Project)
- What transformative placemaking taught us in 2020, and how it can help build a better future (Brookings)
- Recycled plastic asphalt on first major city street (Construction & Demolition Recycling)
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