In an effort to attract more traffic to downtown businesses, one New Jersey downtown partnership planned for a diverse farmer’s market in a plaza, just off of the city’s main traffic artery. Surveys show that 80 percent of the 1,000 weekly market customers, also visited local businesses while at the farmers’ market.
Designers are working to create spaces and situations to encourage and promote interaction in a time where people are living closer together physically, but farther apart socially. Community cannot be built; what can be built are spaces and situations to draw neighbors together. These spaces come in all forms. Multi-family complexes can center on a water feature, a nearby park, a common yard, a special tree or a barbecue patio.
The 2007 Growth and Transportation Survey shows that Three-fourths of Americans surveyed believe that developing communities that reduce the need to drive and improving public transportation are both better long-term solutions for reducing traffic congestion than building new roads.
PPS Vice President Ethan Kent was one of the presenters at the Sustainable Tourism Development Forum held in Pawtucket, RI on Thursday, October 25, 2007.
The Providence Journal
PAWTUCKET— Policymakers, city planners and tourism officials from Rhode Island and neighboring Connecticut and Massachusetts gathered downtown yesterday for a forum on “place-making” sponsored by the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council.
“Place-making is taking a place that you can’t wait to get out of and making it into one that you never want to leave,” explained guest presenter Ethan Kent, vice president of the Project for Public Spaces, a consulting and design firm based in New York.
The half-day of presentations and small-group discussions was geared toward those interested in sustainable tourism, which the tourism council describes as development that enhances a place by using its cultural, natural, historical, human, educational and built resources to differentiate it from other destinations.
Read the full article here.
In essence new urbanism is really historic urbanism. If you look at how city centers were established pre-1900 you will notice that almost all downtown areas were bustling economic centers with a high level of density. Looking further back in historical times to the towns across Europe you will find this urban model mimics itself over and over – - why? Because it was a successful way to build new urban centers for commerce and ultimately sustainability.
Here are the 10 New Urbanism Principles:
1. Walkability
2. Connectivity
3. Mixed-Use & Diversity
4. Mixed Housing
5. Quality Architecture & Urban Design
6. Traditional Neighborhood Structure
7. Increased Density
8. Smart Transportation
9. Sustainability
10. Quality of Life
The Spitzer administration has released plans for a rebuilt Penn Station, complete with natural light pouring in and a “grand public space” in a new, rezoned business district on Manhattan’s far West Side.
The new plans would also create 7.5 million square feet of mixed use development, including a commercial district that would link to a plan to redevelop the Hudson railyards closer to the river.
The faces of San Antonio’s parks are beginning to change as work has begun on several new greenbelt parks along the city’s major creeks and rivers. This is big news for the “park-starved” community. The parks will be along creeks and rivers, many of them connecting – each specifically for hiking, biking and preserving beauty.
Lawmakers in Illinois are recognizing what is becoming common sense across the country — that our roads need to serve everyone using them, whether they are driving, walking, bicycling, or catching the bus. There was a unanimous vote under which the Illinois Department of Transportation must include safe bicycling and walking routes in all planning for urbanized areas immediately and in construction by August 2008.
The Farmers Market Federation of New York, a 2006 PPS grantee, received a $125,000 grant from the Humpty Dumpty Institute to encourage Electronic Benefit Transfer (food stamp) recipients in upstate New York to use their benefits at their local farmers markets. The pilot program hopes to expand the use of EBT cards at 43 farmers markets in upstate counties.
Beginning in the 2008 market season, EBT customers will receive a $5 coupon for every $5 they spend using EBT on fruits and vegetables at a farmers market. This will not only double their purchasing power, but will also double the amount of healthy, local produce they take home. ﾓThis program has double impact. It not only encourages food stamp recipients to purchase more fruits and vegetable, but also benefits New Yorkﾒs small family farmers,ﾔ said Constance Milstein, chairman of the Humpty Dumpty Institute.
Incentives programs for attracting EBT clients to farmers markets have been successful in markets across the nation, including in Lynn, Massachusetts and New York City, where the cityï¾’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is partnering with farmers markets to distribute Health Bucks, $2 coupons for fresh produce, to EBT customers spending $5 in local produce at the markets.
When USA Today asked Alice Waters, co-owner of the famed restaurant Chez Panisse, to compile a list of some of the country’s best farmers markets she made sure to include PPS grantee City Seed, located in New Haven, CT.
One of only two East Coast markets cited, the City Seed Wooster Square Farmers Market was noted for their focus on accessibility. The market accepts Farmers Market Nutrition Program coupons, as well as Electronic Benefits Transfer (food stamps), making it easier for low-income New Haven residents to shop and enjoy the market.
Jennifer McTiernan, executive director of City Seed, was pleased with the recognition,“We were thrilled with the USA Today article, not just because it mentioned the market that we run, but because it specifically listed that we were accessible to the community. Though I think that there’s definitely more we could do to make that more of a reality, it was exciting to see the work that we have done in that area being recognized.”
Click here to read the full USA Today article Top Ten Markets for Cultivating Organic Growers
PPS Senior Fellow Jay Walljasper discusses The Great Neighborhood Book at the The Micro Revolution: Neighbors Making a Difference event held in Chicago on September 20, 2007.
Neighbors Making a Difference
By Jay Walljasper
“My hope that day was to showcase inspiring examples of how everyday citizens made tremendous improvements in the place they call home by putting their heads together with neighbors to conceive new ideas for their neighborhoods and then rolling up their sleeves to put these into action.”
A sunny, near perfect September day took me to Chicago, where the Metropolitan Planning Council had graciously invited me to talk about the role neighborhoods play in social change. That’s the message of my new book The Great Neighborhood Book (New Society Publishers), written in partnership with my colleagues at Project for Public Spaces (PPS). “The citizens are the experts,” has long been the PPS mantra, based on their 30 years of experience helping communities achieve their dreams of becoming safe, lively, livable, lovable places. This phrase reinforces the idea that architects, traffic engineers, public officials planners and other professionals have valuable contributions to make towards neighborhood revitalization efforts, but when their plans turn a deaf ear to a community’s own aspirations for the future, the results often fall far short of the goals.
Come to “Streets as Places”, PPS’s new training seminar, and learn how Placemaking can build great streets and great communities.
The course will introduce participants to new ways of thinking about streets as public spaces. It is intended for anyone who is interested in creating a great street, including transportation professionals who want to learn more about how streets can help to build communities, civic and elected officials who realize that greater economic impact can result from changing the way that roads are designed, and citizen activists who understand that the time to change is now.
Presentations and discussion will center on how streets, roads, and transit facilities can be designed and managed to benefit communities, in addition to serving mobility needs. Practical tools for assessing a variety of street typologies and case studies of cities which have moved beyond solving mobility problems to community building will be presented, and participants will be encouraged to discuss their own projects as well as share experiences and ideas with each other.
The training session will include a walking tour and discussion of some of the recent street improvement projects in New York City, an on-site Placemaking street audit, seminar-style lectures, and open discussions about current transportation issues and challenges facing cities today.
For more information and to register, visit the event homepage.