 |
|
Due December 9, 2020
Many of the events that took place throughout 2020 only revealed and intensified issues that have had long-standing and devastating influences on our society, from systemic racism to climate change.
We’re calling on public space and active transportation advocates during this critical moment to share their work, experiences, stories, and lessons learned with us, so that we can build a program that speaks to what the "Route to Recovery" might look like.
Walk/Bike/Places 2021 will be a hybrid event, taking place on June 15-18, 2021, in Indianapolis, Indiana, as well as virtually, so we invite you to join us from wherever you are! Apply now.
Dec. 1 • Webinar: Mapping Your Markets: First Step Towards Becoming a Market City
Get a walkthrough of how to map an area’s public market system with free tools from our Market Cities Initiative team and market leaders from Seattle and Kampala, Uganda. Register now.
Dec. 10 • Webinar: Telling the Story of Place: Branding for Public Spaces
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.
More Events & Opportunities
Recording • Webinar: Winter Places: Creating Outdoor Spaces in Colder Months, Main Street America, featuring Project for Public Spaces' Elena Madison (Use Passcode: MainStreet2020!)
|
|
The Emotional Toll of COVID-19. Even before the pandemic, the United States was facing a slow-motion mental health crisis, in part due to social isolation. Now, health experts say Americans are experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression made worse by pandemic-related stressors, including job loss, evictions, remote learning, travel restrictions, and limits on gathering (NBC News).
Drive-In Boom, Megaplex Tombs. Designed for the suburbs of 1950s America, the drive-in theater found a new role in the summer of 2020 as a Covid-safe site for collective entertainment (CityLab). But what will happen to all of their dying indoor counterparts (CityLab)?
Will a New Administration Bring a New Urbanism? With the Biden-Harris transition now fully underway, Robert Steuteville takes a look at their urban policy platform. Their plan mentions code reform, transit, smart growth, underserved communities, and generally big investments in affordable housing (Public Square).
File Under Equal vs. Equitable. According to LA equity activists, well-intentioned transportation projects during the COVID-19 pandemic to slow or remove traffic from city streets tended to serve mostly wealthy and white neighborhoods. Meanwhile lower-income neighborhoods, where many people still have to travel to work, preferred street interventions that supported local businesses, like outdoor dining (Government Technology).
Canadian Ideas for a COVID-19 Winter. The City of Toronto, Ontario, announced a new initiative to help residents continue living outdoors during this pandemic winter. It incorporates a wide range of strategies, from converting golf courses into public walking routes to providing winter maintenance for 100 parks to supporting over 80 outdoor ice rinks, both natural and artificial (BlogTO). Meanwhile, some parks in Calgary, Alberta, will be adding fire pits and free firewood this winter (CBC). |
|
Here is our roundup of 10 inspiring placemaking ideas from the week:
- The adaptation of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade—a 3.5 million-person event—to COVID-19 (Variety)
- The reasons why civic infrastructure, including public space, is as important as roads and bridges (Strong Towns)
- The many ways that social media bots can muck up a participatory planning process and what to do about it (Planetizen)
- The Chicano urbanism of East Los Angeles (Common Edge)
- Transit-oriented development, the next generation (Fast Company)
- The first responders that offer a better alternative to police when working with people facing mental health or substance abuse crises (Brookings)
- The real problem of the 21st century: not that we’re too urban, but that we’re not urban enough (Fast Company)
- A street art renaissance for our times (CityLab)
- A new study in Los Angeles that finds increased park acreage can increase life expectancy (Parks & Recreation)
- The case for rewilding our cities for the benefit of children (Dezeen)
|
|
 |
|
Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
Stanford Town Center has long been a busy campus crossroads, however, until recently, it remained a space people go through, rather than a destination.
Project for Public Spaces conducted site research and held visioning workshops with students and representatives from many university departments. The workshops made clear that celebrating Stanford’s vibrant campus life with a new programming and management approach would be vital to making the space feel more welcoming. Read more. |
|
|
|
Printer-friendly version
