Communities in Nairobi Compete to Contribute to Public Space

Public spaces have long been an afterthought in the informal settlements of African cities, where public spaces are prone to private land grabbing and authorities have other socioeconomic challenges to deal with, which have only been magnified by COVID-19. 

To draw attention to the potential of public spaces and lighter, quicker, cheaper placemaking in Nairobi, Kenya, the Changing Faces Competition (CFC) challenged over 100 community groups to transform neglected spaces into vibrant, safe, and healthy community places. Read more.
 

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More Events & Opportunities

Event: #GivingTuesdayNow, May 5. On this global day of generosity organized in respond to COVID-19, we hope you will take a moment to make a donation to Project for Public spaces. 

Webinar: Planning + Health in the Time of COVID-19: Transportation and Public Spaces, May 6 (featuring Cailean Kok, PPS)

Webinar: Placemaking – Engaging Community in a Time of Physical Distancing, May 20 (featuring Nidhi Gulati, PPS)

Conference: Walk/Bike/Places 2020, August 4-7

Missed last week's webinar on community engagement during COVID-19? Watch videos of our past webinars.

Life, Al Fresco: This week, the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius will open up its plazas, squares and streets for hard-hit restaurants and bars to create open-air cafés (The Guardian). Slate was quick to call for similar measures here in the US (Slate), and New York City is reportedly weighing whether it can undertake a similar program (Eater). While this is certainly a bold move, we at Project for Public Spaces think it could be even bolder. As more and more people realize how much we have sacrificed to the car (The Atlantic), what other uses and activities could we invite outside?

Certainly, we should not forget the street vendors whose livelihood depends on operating in public space (NBC News), as well as farmers markets that provide fresh food and support vital local supply chains (San Francisco Public Press). Many of us who have traveled abroad have seen the phenomenon of outdoor barbers cutting hair and a much wider variety of goods and services sold on streets and sidewalks, lessons that could be adapted to more auto-oriented, regulated streetscapes here in the US.

Of course, we should also consider how we can ensure the publicness of our public spaces as we invite more private businesses into them. Who is allowed to sit in an outdoor café? What free cultural and recreational activities could our public spaces offer while physical distancing?

As Anuj Gupta, former general manager of Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market, argued this week, the danger, fear, and isolation of the pandemic will result in "civic trauma" for many communities, and while recovery must be slow and intentional, we must also begin imagining how public spaces can help heal our cities and towns (Philadelphia Inquirer).

How would Jane Jacobs Reopen the Economy? May 4th would have been the 104th birthday of urbanist Jane Jacobs, and we couldn't help but wonder what unconventional wisdom she might have had for us as we respond to and recover from COVID-19. 

One answer is to create a "15-minute city," as Mayor Anne Hidalgo of Paris calls it, by mix more small businesses and everyday services into residential neighborhoods to distribute downtown crowds more evenly throughout the city (TreeHugger). Another idea comes from Jacobs's lesser known works on economics: her wonky term "import replacement" simply means to produce more things locally that we once had to import, and it could be vital to saving our local economies right now (Next City).

The Future of Public Space is... Tape? As more and more communities begin to cautiously reopen aspects of public life, tape has become a secret weapon for clearly and intuitively communicating where and how people can occupy a public space (New York Magazine).

While over-policing kicks people experiencing homelessness off of benches (The Local), park rangers face increasing abuse from angry visitors (CBC), and police departments experiment with using drones to monitor public behavior (Governing), the many creative uses of tape stand out as a more positive way to invite people back into public spaces—safely.

As the New York Times Editorial Board wrote this week, "A balance can be found to be both safe and outdoors" (New York Times).

Forget Going Back to Normal: Urbanist and advocate Tamika Butler argues that we should stop getting used to the "new normal" or aim to get things "back to normal" (Medium). The response to COVID-19 has not only revealed inequalities but created new ones (CityLab), and Butler challenges urbanists not to allow this moment of disruption to pass by without examining and dismantling these inequalities, old and new. How can placemakers work with the people most affected and most at risk to move beyond normal?

Placemaking Playbook: Finally, here's a roundup of 16 recent innovative placemaking projects making headlines:

1. A Philadelphia bodega prints the contents of its shelves to allow outdoor browsing (Philadelphia Inquirer)
2. Golf courses in San Francisco are now public parks (Quartz)
3. A painted handwashing stations in Oaxaca City, Mexico (Instagram)
4. A brilliantly arranged physically distanced street market in Salatiga, Indonesia (Kompas)
5. Hygeine resources for addressing homelessness during COVID-19 (Next City)
6. Paid parking lots are pivoting to become public places (The Hustle)...
7. ...including restaurant parking lots becoming movie theaters (Better Homes & Gardens)
8. The art of sidewalk chalk makes a comeback (Curbed)...
9. ...and Little Free Libraries oblige by stocking up on chalk (Goldstream News Gazette)
10. Woman declares the sidewalk in front of her house the property of the Ministry of Silly Walks (My Modern Met) 
11. A contest to build a better bike lane barrier (Smart Cities Dive)
12. A toolkit for advocating to open streets during COVID-19 (Rails to Trails Conservancy)
13. A map reveals sidewalks too narrow for social distancing in New York City (New Yorker) 
14. Tips for safely reopening Main Street (National Main Street Center)
15. An arts grant in Newark retools to respond to COVID-19 (Next City)
16. An international group of public space researchers investigates how COVID-19 will change the future of public space (OSF Preprints)