This newsletter from the Project for Public Spaces [1] connects people who share a passion for public spaces to ideas and issues, news, quotes, places, and events from the placemaking movement.

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New Webinar: Telling the Story of Place: Branding for Public Spaces [2]

December 10, 2020 @ 12:00–1:00pm (ET)

Branding is about so much more than just a logo. Especially when it comes to public spaces, a brand is also about the experiences we offer, the stories we tell, and the details we sweat over.

Join leaders from Project for Public Spaces, Bruce Mau Design, Austin's Waterloo Greenway, and Atlanta's Woodruff Park for a discussion about why branding matters for public spaces, what it takes to bring a great public space brand to life—even on a budget—and how the way we communicate about public space is changing during the coronavirus pandemic. Register now. [2]

Dec. 1 • Webinar: Mapping Your Markets: First Step Towards Becoming a Market City [3]
The first step toward better supporting our public market systems is better understanding them. In this webinar, the Market Cities Initiative and market leaders from Seattle and Kampala, Uganda, will walk you through our method and free tools available to survey and map an area’s public market system. Register now. [3]

Dec. 9 • Call for Proposals: Walk/Bike/Places 2021 [4]
In 2021, North America's most progressive active transportation conference will be a hybrid event, allowing speakers to participate online or in-person in Indianapolis, Indiana, in a variety of formats. Apply now. [4]

More Events & Opportunities

Nov. 25 • Request for Nominations: Freeways Without Futures [5] (Congress for the New Urbanism)

Nov. 25 • Webinar: Deepening the conservation conversation: Exploring the connection between biodiversity, wellbeing and inclusion [6] (Park People)

New Funding Resource: Creative Placemaking Public Resources Guide [7] (NASAA)

From the Blog

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The Power of Placemaking through Corporate Social Responsibility [9]

In case you missed it, this week Project for Public Spaces revealed its new brand and announced a new direction for the organization!

While the pandemic has revealed public space for what it is—a fundamental and under-appreciated piece of physical, social, and economic infrastructure—the processes that shape our public spaces have also left too many communities behind.

Project for Public Spaces is shifting our focus to address this vital need by forming corporate social responsibility partnerships that offer more communities the chance to create, transform, and sustain their public spaces. Read more. [8]

More from the Blog

Seven Principles for Becoming a Market City [10]
by Kelly Verel • October 30, 2020

Toward Market Cities: Strengthening Public Market Systems in Three North American Cities [11]
by Kelly Verel • October 16, 2020

A New Leadership Team at Project for Public Spaces [12]
October 4, 2020

Virtual Walk Audits: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly [13]
by Ian Thomas, America Walks • October 2, 2020

How an Atlanta Park is Connecting People to Housing through Place-Based Social Service Provision [14]
by Elena Madison • August 26, 2020

Public Space News

The New Street Vendors. More than half a million undocumented immigrants in the United States have had their lives have upended by the pandemic but are ineligible for most financial assistance, including stimulus money and loans. Many people from Latin America who were ambulantes back home have turned to street vending once again to survive. (New York Times [15])

A Bike Boom without a Bust? In Europe, cycling caught on in a big way this year as COVID-19 discouraged cars and crowded public transit. Some city leaders hope to make the habit permanent and make congestion a thing of the past. (Globe and Mail [16])

Shut Up and Play the Hits. The president never signed this controversial "Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again" executive order, but a neoclassical-only building mandate is still happening, for better or worse. (CityLab [17])

Urban Change Below the Surface. The bike lanes and sidewalk dining may be obvious results of pandemic response, but many mayors are also implementing deeper changes to education, housing, and infrastructure. (Globe and Mail [18])

The Global Partnership for Informal Transportation: This week, New Cities Chairman and CoMotion CEO John Rossant announced the Global Partnership for Informal Transportation, which will work with informal transit systems in cities of the Global South to advance innovation, improve services, and promote rapid decarbonization. Project for Public Spaces board member Benjamin de la Pena will serve as the Partnerships founding Executive Director. (GPIT [19])

Raise the Drawbridge. When election and racial justice protests rocked the Chicago, its mayor used raised bridges and shutdown public transportation as crowd control measures, which harmed the city’s workers. (The Appeal [20])

Whose Streets? In Tulsa and other U.S. cities, street art that served as a summer rallying cry is now under threat from vandals, pro-police groups, and local governments. (New Yorker [21])

U-Turn. After living with the benefits of low-traffic neighborhoods across the UK, former opponents are coming around. (The Guardian [22])

Placemaking Playbook

Here is our roundup of 10 inspiring placemaking ideas from the week:

A guide to throwing an outdoor Thanksgiving (Outside [23])
A parking lot in Calgary that becomes a colorful public space in its off hours (CTV [24])
Five public space programming pivots in Philadelphia, San José, Detroit, and Los Angeles (Reimagining the Civic Commons [25])
The key to transitioning people successfully to permanent housing: trust (Next City [26])
The life cycles of cities according to archaeologists and designers (NPR [27])
Nine amazing Latino contributions to urban space (Salud America! [28])
The ruins of a mall that became a lush lagoon in Tainan, Taiwan (Dezeen [29])
The cities that are finally showing skateboarders some respect (New York Times [30])
The untapped spectrum between indoors and outdoors (Fast Company [31])
The many considerations that make a park truly "accessible" (StreetsBlog [32])

A Closer Look at our New Brand

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See the Case Study from Bruce Mau Design [33]

We love our new look, and we hope you do, too. You can learn more about the thinking behind Project for Public Spaces' new brand on the website of Bruce Mau Design, the design studio behind our visual identity. Check it out. [33]

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Telling the Story of Place: Branding for Public Spaces | Placemaking Weekly