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.

[2]

Three Days left to submit a proposal for Walk/Bike/Places 2021! [2]

Wednesday, December 9th is your last chance to submit a proposal for Walk/Bike/Places 2021 in Indianapolis, IN! The conference program will focus on the "Route to Recovery," and there are plenty of ways to participate both in-person and virtually, so don't miss out. Apply now. [2]

Dec. 10 • Webinar: Telling the Story of Place: Branding for Public Spaces [3]
Join leaders from Project for Public Spaces, Bruce Mau Design, Austin's Waterloo Greenway, and Atlanta's Woodruff Park for a discussion about bringing a public space brand to life. Register now. [3]

More Events & Opportunities

Jan. 8, 2021 • Call for Proposals: 2021 ULI Americas Awards for Excellence, Urban Open Space Category [4], Urban Land Institute

Jan. 8, 2021 • Webinar: Small is mighty: How small urban ecology projects are having big impacts (and how you can contribute) [5], Park People

From the Blog

The Power of Placemaking through Corporate Social Responsibility [6]
November 16, 2020

Seven Principles for Becoming a Market City [7]
October 30, 2020 • by Kelly Verel

Toward Market Cities: Strengthening Public Market Systems in Three North American Cities [8]
October 16, 2020 • by Kelly Verel

A New Leadership Team at Project for Public Spaces [9]
October 4, 2020

Virtual Walk Audits: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly [10]
October 2, 2020 • by Ian Thomas, America Walks

Public Space News

Best of Design Awards. Project for Public Spaces received an honorable mention in The Architect's Newspaper's 2020 Best of Design Awards for our collaboration with OSD Outside on our redesign of the street grid in the Flatiron & NoMad District of New York City in response to the coronavirus pandemic, pictured above (Architect's Newspaper [11]).

No Better Time to Turn Streets into Markets. In response to our recently published report Toward Market Cities [8], Kea Wilson at StreetsBlog makes the case for how public markets can contribute to more human-centered streets and transportation systems in addition to their often unappreciated benefits to health, entrepreneurship, and equity (StreetsBlog [12]).

As our own Co-Executive Director of Programs Kelly Verel says in the article, “Markets can be part of the solution for a lot of major societal issues, but without a strategic approach and strategic local policies, not to mention real investment and management, they don’t do nearly as much as they could.”

Resilient Rural Places. As the COVID-19 pandemic tests the resilience of rural economies in real time, a new research series from the Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking argues that our attention should not be focused on an outdated, inaccurate image of rural America, but rather on understanding, sustaining, and investing in the hyperlocal strategies already working to bring growth and equity to increasingly diverse and dynamic rural areas (Brookings [13]).

#BlackFridayParking. Every year, Strong Towns challenges the misconception that cities need plenty of extra free parking to accommodate Black Friday crowds by asking members to take photos of the many half-empty parking lots around the country on the country's busiest shopping day. This year, they've added a twist: What do you wish this parking was instead (Strong Towns [14])?

When Outdoor Dining Goes Indoors. As the winter months come, many restaurants are enclosing their newfound outdoor dining spaces to protect from the elements. But at some point, enclosure hinders the main way that outdoor dining stops the spread of the coronavirus—air circulation (CityLab [15]).

The Bermuda Triangle of Bikes. As bicycling boomed in Paris during the Covid pandemic, so has the number of stolen bikes. But the city has vowed to fight back with safe storage spaces (CityLab [16]).

Unhoused, Unwelcome? In a public realm that does not cater to the needs of the unhoused, people without housing effectively become perceived as intruders into the space of the people who do have it. Asante Haughton asks, "What if we did something radically different and instead utilized our shared assets to provide resources and services that can support unhoused people in getting back on their feet" (Azure [17])?

Teenage Covid Social Hurdles. With schools remote, sports canceled, and libraries closed during the pandemic, teenagers in many U.S. cities find themselves unwelcome in parks and public spaces (CityLab [18]).

Placemaking Playbook

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

The Boston Foundation's unique investment in convening and cultivating place governance organizations (Brookings [19])
A utopian experiment in revitalization without gentrification from our partners on Walk/Bike/Places in Indianapolis (Indianapolis Monthly [20])
The top 11 urban planning books of 2020 (Planetizen [21])
An environmental neuroscientist's take on making more equitable public spaces (City Monitor [22])
A placemaking grant program to keep youth engaged during the pandemic and support the local economy (ABC News [23])
A guide to saving nightlife businesses during COVID-19 (CityLab [24])
A deal to maintain Rome's historic sites through corporate sponsorship (CityLab [25])
A thousand-year-old shop in Kyoto that knows a thing or two about resilience (New York Times [26])
An overpass for wildlife in Utah that is already getting well used (Smithsonian Magazine [27])
The place gene (Bill Fulton, Medium [28])

State of Place's Picks for #GivingTuesday

This week, our friends at State of Place recommended Project for Public Spaces as one of nine awesome organizations [29] to support on Giving Tuesday this year. We feel honored to be in such good company.

Here's what they had to say about Project for Public Spaces:

“For over 40 years, the Project for Public Spaces has been creating community-powered and community-centered spaces using placemaking approaches. By partnering with CSR departments in various foundations and corporations, PPS has provided funding, technical assistance, and capacity building to redefine the way we build and use public space in more than 3,500 communities. Donating to them [30] this Giving Tuesday will help preserve and promote the unique physical, cultural, and social identities within our communities in order to better serve the people in them.”

While Giving Tuesday has already passed, it's not too late to make a year-end donation to Project for Public Spaces. We hope you'll take a moment to support our mission to bring public spaces to life by planning and designing them with the people who use them every day. Support our work. [30]

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