Making Communities Livable for People of All Ages | Placemaking Weekly

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.

Webinar: Making Communities Livable for People of All Ages
The AARP Community Challenge grant program is part of the nationwide AARP Livable Communities initiative that helps cities, towns, villages and rural areas become great places to live for residents of all ages. The program is intended to help make immediate improvements and jump-start long-term progress in support of residents of all ages.

Join our friends at AARP Livable Communities for a webinar to learn about the grant program, and how you can apply this year. Register now.

June 15-18, 2021 • Conference: Walk/Bike/Places
North America's premier conference for walking, biking and placemaking professionals is back! Our early bird registration rate ends March 29, 2021. Learn more.
 

More Events & Opportunities


Feb. 23, 2021 • Webinar: Park Bench Chat: Preserving Black history for a more equitable future, Trust for Public Land

Feb. 24, 2021 • Webinar: Learning from Place: Placemaking and Philanthropy in a Pandemic, The Boston Foundation

Mar. 9, 2021 • Grant: Canada Healthy Communities Initiative, Community Foundations of Canada

Mar. 12, 2021 • Request for Applications: Rural Design Workshops & Learning Cohorts, Citizens' Institute on Rural Design

Monthly Professional Development Webinar Series, Association of Pedestrian & Bicycle Professionals
 

From the Blog
How a Library is Reimagining Public Wi-Fi During COVID-19
February 7, 2021 • by Aaron Greiner

Our Top 10 Articles of 2020
December 17, 2020 • by Nate Storring

Winter Placemaking During a Pandemic: Six Ideas from Around Canada
December 11, 2020 • by Alyson Dobrota & Gail Armour
 

Public Space News
Soul City. The demise of a Black utopian town from the 1970s reveals [TK] about the struggle for racial equality today. (The Atlantic)

The Big Potential of Many Little Plans. The new U.S. DOT, says urban planner Steven Higashide, understands that street-level changes, repeated at scale, can add up to a country that is greener and more just. (City Monitor)

After the Highway Comes Down. With U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg talking about funding a national highway removal initiative, William Fulton, Director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, explores what we can learn from previous projects that knit the urban fabric back together after a highway tear down. (Common Edge)

The Urban Play Framework. A new framework designed by Arup for the Real Play Coalition aims to support the design of play-based interventions in urban spaces to maximize the chance for children to engage in play as part of their daily routine. The framework includes three key dimensions: Facilitation, time and choice, and spaces and facilities. (Brookings)

Ending the Loneliness Pandemic. Isolation has been increasingly identified as a byproduct of COVID-19 restrictions, with potentially serious health effects. Recognizing this, some Canadian cities are moving to counter its effects with grants, outreach programs and virtual events. (Globe and Mail)

Meet America’s 63rd National Park. The New River Gorge in West Virginia got the federal government’s highest protection, thanks, in part, to the latest pandemic relief bill. (New York Times)
 

Placemaking Playbook
Here is a roundup of 10 inspiring placemaking ideas from the week:
  1. Fifteen parks honoring Black history (Trust for Public Land)
  2. The Washington, D.C., park that hopes to stop gentrification in its tracks (Next City)
  3. Toronto's program to enliven outdoor ice rinks with placemaking (Evergreen) 
  4. A pod that can lock up seven bikes in one parking space (Streetsblog NYC)
  5. The neighborhood visits that are saving food trucks in Washington, D.C. (Washington City Paper)
  6. Baltimore's dozens of cleverly painted salt boxes (Baltimore Sun)
  7. The creative repurposing of plywood from boarded-up stores in American cities (CityLab)
  8. A second life for Christmas trees as an ephemeral forest in Montreal (Park People)
  9. A Calgary park that introduced Canada's first skating trail with "ice bike" rentals (CBC)
  10. Montreal's contest to find the best snowman in the city (Montreal Gazette)

Copyright © 2021 Project for Public Spaces, PPS, All rights reserved.

 

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