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Open Streets for Every School | Placemaking Weekly

Posted September 12, 2021 - 11:05

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

An Open Street for Every School
New York City’s nearly 1.1 million public-school students start school on Monday. And with the easily transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19, things will be anything but "normal."

While some parents are calling for a return to remote learning, Project for Public Spaces' Interim Executive Director Ellen McDermott and Senior Director of Programs Kelly Verel wrote an op-ed for Streetsblog NYC offering a creative solution that keeps communities safe while allowing in-person learning: an open street for every school. Read more.

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More from the Blog


Flyover Park: Empowering the Next Generation of City Builders in Calgary
June 25, 2021 • by Ximena González

Social Alchemy: Jim Walker on Placemaking as Utopian Experiment
May 12, 2021 • by Jim Walker

Six Trends in Placemaking & Active Transportation from Walk/Bike/Places
May 6, 2021 • by Nate Storring
 

Events & Opportunities
September 15, 2021 Webinar on Models and Practices for Meaningful Community Engagement, The Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design

September 19, 2021 • Award: 2021 Farmers Market Celebration, American Farmland Trust & Farmers Market Coalition

September 21–24, 2021 • Placemaking Week, Flint, MI USA, What’s Up Downtown Project

September 27–October 3, 2021 • Porch Placemaking Week, Fourfold Studio  
 

Have an event or opportunity you would like to share? Email us at [email protected].
 

Public Space News
Another Confederate Statue Comes Down. Earlier this week, Virginia finally removed the Robert E. Lee monument, a symbol of the Confederacy and white supremacy, from downtown Richmond. Local nonprofit leader David Bailey says, “This city belongs to all of us, not just some of us. Now we can try to figure out what’s next.” (New York Times)

Monuments & Surveillance. Last summer, the Trump administration issued a controversial executive order giving the Department of Homeland Security the power to surveil people near monuments. While Biden revoked this order, a Senate intelligence report revealed that DHS never stopped spying on U.S. citizens, including journalists. (Bloomberg)

The World's Most Polluted Air. While Utah has been building a reputation for its outdoorsy lifestyle of skiing and mountain biking, toxic air from California's devastating wildfires is threatening to push people out of public space. Salt Lake City has now officially registered the most polluted air of any major city on Earth, making it all the more urgent to address climate change now. (New York Times)
 

Placemaking Playbook
As always, here's a roundup of five placemaking projects and ideas that inspired us this week:
  1. An alternative to demolition for a modernist social housing community in Toronto (Azure)
  2. New York's Chinatown gets a night market, poising the neighborhood for an equitable renaissance (Next City)
  3. Transportation advocacy Streetfilms releases thousandth film, and founder Clarence Eckerson lists his top 10 favorites (Streetsblog NYC)
  4. A parking lot in Beijing's Songzhuang Art District becomes a community park (Azure)
  5. Philadelphia is infusing ordinary bus stops with activities for kids (Next City)

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