Last Call for our Reimagining Streets as Places Training

More Events & Opportunities

Sep. 21 • Free Conference: The Art of City Building, featuring PPS board member Kimberly Driggins

Sep. 30 • Webinar: Don’t Just Tick the Box, Think Outside It: Reimagining Public Engagement in Parks and Public Spaces, Park People 

Oct. 1 • Call for Proposals: EDRA52Detroit: Just Environments, Environmental Design Research Association

Oct. 5 • Webinar: Open streets or equitable cities: Who will write urbanism’s next chapter? Park People

Oct. 9 • Call for Proposals: Winter Places: A Design Competition for Winter Placemaking, BenchCo

Oct. 31 • Survey: Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Farmers Markets, Farmers Market Coalition

Video Now Available: Does Planning Care about Black Lives?, plenary panel from Walk/Bike/Places conference

Missed any of our webinars on COVID-19 and public space? Watch the videos on our Events page.

Winter Is Coming. But don’t write off the darkest season just yet. Even with colder weather and shorter days, it’s still possible to plan for pandemic-safe life outdoors (CityLab). Have ideas of your own on how to adapt? Check out this new winter placemaking ideas competition from our friends at BenchCo.

The Soft Side of Displacement: Why do low-income residents oppose development even when displacement risk is low? There’s more than one way to be excluded from your community (Shelterforce).

Toward the Six-Foot City: The pandemic is transforming how Americans use public libraries, parks, and streets—and it's depriving vulnerable people of space when they need it most (Insider).

The Myth of Concensus: Public meetings often disprove the notion that communities have a unified stance on any issue. With this in mind, researcher Jeremy Levine argues that we must move past trying to find consensus and focus on uplifting the most marginalized voices (Shelterforce).

Sociable Distancing Strikes Back: What are architects and urban planners foreseeing as people cautiously gather? Streets “curated” for various uses and dynamic cityscapes that both advance wellness and knit communities together (New York Times).

Here's a roundup of 10 inspiring placemaking ideas from the week:

1. A silo-busting resident-led design initiative that remade a community center in Toronto, ON (Brookings) 
2. Seven grassroots strategies to empower urban communities (Planetizen)
3. A “parks after dark” program that adapted to the pandemic in Los Angeles (OpenSpace)
4. A toolbox for remaking streets for kids during COVID-19 (Planetizen)
5. A kayak church enables safe gatherings in Pennsylvania (RNS)
6. The astounding world of activity under Tokyo’s elevated railways (CityLab)
7. A group of figure skaters that swapped indoor ice rinks for outdoor pavement (New York Times)
8. The pedestrian railings causing a political uproar in Hong Kong (CityLab)
9. A day at the park: Eleven stories about how public spaces become a part of us (Park People)
10. The secret to success for pedestrian malls that have survived since the ‘70s (Fast Company)