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Route to Recovery: Walk/Bike/Places 2021 Report | Placemaking Weekly

Posted August 8, 2021 - 13:30

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.

The Route to Recovery: Walk/Bike/Places 2021 Conference Report
This week, Project for Public Spaces released the report for its Walk/Bike/Places 2021 conference, an exciting hybrid event held in Indianapolis, Indiana, and available virtually to participants around the world.

This gathering of walking, biking, and placemaking practitioners revealed the potential of streets and other public spaces to transform the systemic injustices laid bare by the pandemic into avenues of healing for cities. In the words of keynote speaker and social psychiatrist Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove, “One of the reasons to walk and bike is that we need to live differently. We need to stop guzzling gas, we need to go see places for ourselves.” Read more.
 

More Events & Opportunities


August 9, 2021 • Grant: Love Your Block, Cities of Service

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

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

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

Public Space News
Infrastructure Bill Near the Finish Line. The U.S. Senate is on the verge of passing a bipartisan infrastructure bill. After unveiling the full text on Tuesday, negotiators are attempting to vote on the final passage before the chamber's August recess. The package calls for $550 billion in new spending on a range of physical and digital infrastructure projects, from roads and transit to broadband. (Brookings)

However, some critics contend that the bill is too small, and prioritizes the wrong projects. For example, much of the proposed funding for roads is for new construction, not the maintenance or improvement of existing roads. Democratic leaders are still planning to pass an additional—and likely larger—bill later in the legislative session. (StrongTowns)

Surveillance in the Suburbs. Privacy advocates are expressing concern over the growth of digital surveillance tools marketed by private companies. A recent entry into the marketplace, Flock, markets license-plate readers to homeowners and neighborhood associations as a crime-fighting tool, often with the support local police. In addition to concerns over privacy and governance, civil liberties advocates worry that the devices, which are concentrated in wealthier areas, will compound existing inequities in policing. (CityLab)

New Research on Urban Mental Health. A new study questions the popular wisdom about cities and depression. Researchers attempted to quantify the impact of cities on mental health, and they found that the casual interactions of urban living help to fight the sense of isolation that can worsen depression. The findings suggest that smaller towns or rural areas could benefit from designing for more interaction. (CityLab)

Do Plant-a-Tree Campaigns Work? A recent report questions the effectiveness of urban tree-planting campaigns. Touted as a climate change solution and lifestyle issue by cities around the world, the programs often fail to plant the promised number of trees or to adequately support them after planting. (CityLab)


 

Placemaking Playbook
As always, here is a roundup of 10 inspiring placemaking ideas from the week:
  1. Some encouraging results from Atlanta's remake of Peachtree Street (Urbanize)
  2. A map that shows which uses of urban space are most valuable (StrongTowns)
  3. This community-led effort to add more trash cans to city streets (NextCity)
  4. A community improving traffic safety by adding art to its roads (Philly Inquirer)
  5. This podcast examining unintended consequences of adding benches to a local park (StrongTowns)
  6. A city in Washington that is promoting more diverse neighborhoods through zoning (Planetizen)
  7. A holistic reentry program designed by formerly incarcerated people (NextCity)
  8. The value of persisting through difficulties inherent to community engagement (StrongTowns)
  9. This effort to map informal neighborhoods around the world (CityLab)
  10. A historic Chicago building that was moved to make a path for transit improvements (Urbanize)

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