New York, NY - Whether it's to sound off about the
traffic on West Street,
or put forth ideas for a memorial - people have a
new community planning web tool to help them get involved
in the rebuilding of downtown in the wake of the September
11th terrorist attacks.
Rebuilding A Community' (www.downtownnyc.org) is
an initiative of the Civic Alliance, a coalition of
more than 75 business, community and environmental
groups representing a cross-section of New York and
the Region that is providing a broad "umbrella"
for civic planning and advocacy efforts in support
of the rebuilding of downtown New York.
Information and ideas from the site will be used
by the Civic Alliance to inform its recommendations
and reports to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation,
the joint State-city Corporation that is overseeing
the revitalization of Lower Manhattan.
We're talking about specifics says Julie Caniglia
of Project for Public Spaces - Civic Alliance member
and one of the driving forces behind Rebuilding A
Community'. We're asking people who know and use
downtown intimately - residents, workers and others
- to contribute their local knowledge to help build
a vision for a revitalized downtown. The website will
evolve both as a major information resource, and a
place where people can publicly discuss the issues
while visioning, planning and rebuilding takes place.
In the larger context of planning efforts, the Rebuilding
A Community' website acts as a "nuts and bolts"
counterpart to "ImagineNY," another project
that solicits narratives and pictures from the public,
in that it allows the public to provide a high level
of detail in commenting on specific places, issues,
and proposals. The goal is to get people involved
in creating a new downtown - not simply react to plans
that are presented to them as a fait accompli.
The tool has been created and will be maintained
on a pro-bono basis by Project for Public Spaces,
as its contribution to the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan.
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REBUILDING COMMUNITY OBJECTIVES
- Allow residents, workers, business owners, planners,
and a range of other stakeholders to share information
and ideas about rebuilding downtown through ideas,
input and responses related to specific lower Manhattan
sites, and through online discussions on related topics
- Provide a range of information and resources related
to rebuilding, on topics such as traffic-calming,
streetscape amenities, user-friendly design of plazas,
and more - Keep the lines of communication open among
Civic Alliance partners, community members and stakeholders,
and ultimately, the decision-makers, planners and
builders
PROJECT FOR PUBLIC SPACES
PPS is internationally known for its innovative approach
to public-space planning. Community visioning is an
essential part of our process, involving workshops,
surveys of key constituencies, focus groups, collaborative
envisioning, and observations of the current use of
an area. We work with government agencies, arts organizations,
downtown development groups, neighborhood associations,
merchants' associations, and corporations. We invite
you to visit our website, www.pps.org, for a more
comprehensive understanding of our work.
THE CIVIC ALLIANCE
The Regional Plan Association has convened The Civic
Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York to develop strategies
for the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan in the aftermath
of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.
The Civic Alliance is a coalition of more than 75
business, community and environmental groups representing
a cross-section of New York and the Region that is
providing a broad "umbrella" for civic planning
and advocacy efforts in support of the rebuilding
of Downtown New York. The Alliance will work closely
with the Empire State Development Corporation, the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the
City of New York to create a bold vision for a revitalized
downtown.
