The spectacular resurgence of markets, which have grown more than 80 percent over the last decade in the United States, is truly cause for celebration. Their rise [...]]]> Rows of brightly colored produce; freshly baked breads and blueberry pies; mingling of friends, neighbors and strangers: there’s no limit to the joys of a local farmers market.

The spectacular resurgence of markets, which have grown more than 80 percent over the last decade in the United States, is truly cause for celebration. Their rise has been fueled not only by greater public awareness of the joys of eating local food, but also the myriad spin-off benefits that markets provide–economic opportunities for immigrants and entrepreneurs, safe and vibrant social gathering spaces, decreased dependence on fossil fuels–and so on.

Free Download

In lower income communities, where healthy food and economic opportunity are often difficult to come by, the benefits of markets are even more pronounced. This week, PPS is excited to release a new free publication that assists market managers in accommodating the needs of all of their customers: SNAP/EBT at your Farmers Market: Seven Steps to Success.

The publication can be downloaded for free as a PDF or purchased as a hard copy through Lulu.com.

Buy Now

Citizens interested in becoming a vendor at a local market also have a new tool to guide them along the way: How to Start your Business at a Local Market: A Vendor Handbook, available for download in the PPS bookstore.

To see a thriving market in action, check out our brand-new video on East New York Farms in Brooklyn, NY.

For more information on National Farmers Market Week, visit the Farmers Market Coalition website.

What’s your favorite thing about your local farmers market? Any videos of a great market near you? Tell us, and share with other placemakers!

America once had hundreds of thriving market halls. Sadly, most were [...]]]> In honor of our new partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, PPS is revisiting a body of project work impacting historic places. Last week we looked at several historic train stations in New Jersey; today we’ll examine America’s market halls.

America once had hundreds of thriving market halls. Sadly, most were demolished or converted to other uses following the rise of the supermarket after World War Two. A handful of these places–too beloved to kill–survived and approximately 100-150 are still operating today. PPS has worked with many of them to help them renovate and restore their beautiful sheds and develop effective business models so that they continue to thrive in the future.

Interested in connecting with a PPS staff member in your city or town? Here’s a [...]]]> Every year, PPS travels all over the world in our mission to help communities improve their public spaces. In the last few weeks alone, we have been in Norway, Abu Dhabi, Hawaii, Vancouver, Alabama, Italy and Texas, among other places.

Interested in connecting with a PPS staff member in your city or town? Here’s a list of where a handful of our staff will be travelling in the coming weeks.

Fred Kent + Kathy Madden

Corpus Christi, TX: August 27-29

Waterfronts Synopsis Conference–Stavanger, Norway: September 15-17

Ethan Kent

Las Vegas, NV: July 20-22

Baltimore, MD: August 2-6

Aurash Khawarzad

ITE (Institute of Transportation Engineers) Conference–Vancouver, Canada: August 8-11

Cynthia Nikitin

Pretoria and South Africa in general: July 25 to 31

Baltimore, MD: August 2-4

Moscow: August 6-20

Portland Oregon: Week of September 13

Edmonton Alberta, Alberta Museum Association conference: September 25

Gary Toth

Hunterdon County Rural Transit Awards Breakfast–Clinton, NJ: July 29th

CDC PHHS Block Grant Coordinators’ Summit–San Francisco, CA: August 16-18

The traditional Main Street is one of the most iconic images of America. With [...]]]> In honor of our new partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, PPS is revisiting a body of project work impacting historic places. Last week we looked at historic train stations and public markets; today we’ll examine historic main streets.

The traditional Main Street is one of the most iconic images of America. With its unique blend of housing, retail and civic uses, Main Street served as the social and commercial hub of communities until World War II. Since then, suburban development favoring shopping malls and single-use zoning have driven resources away from these vital places. Road widening projects and the “forgiving highway” have also taken their toll: not only is fast-moving traffic less likely to stop, but speed kills a street’s sense of place and diminishes its environment for all users.

Thankfully, today various organizations and communities are working to restore the historic functions of main streets and reestablish them as the center of towns and cities. Many have achieved success by using the Main Street® approach, a unique tool combining organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring that helps build a complete revitalization effort.

Below, a small sampling of  PPS’ work with these historic places.

Madison, New Jersey

PPS has been involved with this small historic town west of New York City as early as 1980, when we worked on a downtown revitalization plan focused on design and management. Our work then included comprehensive surveys and time-lapse film analysis, a small portion of which is featured above. Most recently, we conducted a placemaking workshop centered on Lincoln Place, the street adjacent to the train station and a gateway to the historic downtown business district. The street houses the post office, train station and movie theater but lacks the public gathering points and inviting character that marks the rest of downtown Madison. To make these improvements to Lincoln Place, PPS to developed a plan for enhancing the street based on input from the community.

Lincoln Place could serve as a better gateway to downtown Madison.

A photo simulation of proposed improvements to the street.

Chapel Street, New Haven

Situated at the southern end of the Yale University Campus, Chapel Street was a thriving residential and commercial district as late as the 1960s. But by 1983, its vacancy rate had reached 95% and people found little reason to go there. A local developer began buying and renovating historic structures and hired PPS to help turn the street into a vibrant place once again. Drawing on the insights of merchants, community members and the city department of transportation, PPS came up with a plan to reclaim space for pedestrians and create a more favorable environment for retail and greater public use.

A corner of Chapel Street with its sidewalks under construction.

The new sidewalks and amenities made Chapel Street a place where people could feel comfortable having a conversation.

Arlington District, Poughkeepsie

Arlington is the historic heart of the Town of Poughkeepsie, New York, where shops, movie houses, and restaurants flourished in the past alongside banks, churches, libraries, schools, and other institutions, including Vassar College. In the 1960s, the district’s main street–Raymond Avenue– was widened to four lanes and landscaped medians were removed in the name of efficient traffic management. As a result, businesses suffered and the street lost much of its small-town character. In the late 1990s, a committee of businesses leaders, Vassar College, and public and private organizations worked with PPS to develop a revitalization strategy for the district to once again make it a vibrant place. Recently, many of PPS’ traffic calming recommendations were implemented by New York State DOT.

Raymond Avenue before improvements were made.

Raymond Avenue after construction: Wider sidewalks, bollards, street lighting and on-street parking. NYSDOT also added three roundabouts to slow and improve traffic flow.

Hillsdale Hamlet, Hudson Valley

At the junction of two state highways and close to major recreational attractions, historic Hillsdale hamlet has a huge opportunity to become a small tourist destination in its own right. Its rural landscape, pastoral setting and handsome architecture are also important starting points for its revitalization. PPS conducted a community-visioning process with the town, gathering information through interviews and focus groups and facilitating a workshop to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the Hamlet through the eyes of the people who live and work there. Together with the Hamlet Committee, PPS developed a vision that includes making it more walkable, creating great places, attracting new businesses and enhancing private properties. The plan is also intended to help Hillsdale Hamlet become a more vital center for the Hillsdale community, serving the needs of a diverse local population as well as attracting visitors from around the region.

The crossroads of Hillsdale: the intersection of Rt. 22 and Rt. 23.

PPS' proposed improvements for the above intersection. Other diagrams focus on traffic calming and improvements for 6 key destinations identified with the community.

More Main Street Projects:

Littleton, New Hampshire

Tuscon, Arizona

Flint, Michigan

PPS is pleased to formally announce our new partnership with the National Trust. The full press release follows below; for questions about the partnership, please contact Steve Davies.

Washington, DC (June 22, 2010)–The National Trust for Historic Preservation and Project for Public Spaces (PPS) are partnering to enrich towns and cities across the country [...]]]>

PPS is pleased to formally announce our new partnership with the National Trust. The full press release follows below; for questions about the partnership, please contact Steve Davies.

Washington, DC (June 22, 2010)–The National Trust for Historic Preservation and Project for Public Spaces (PPS) are partnering to enrich towns and cities across the country through the power of Placemaking. This collaboration unites two powerhouse community development strategies – the National Trust Main Street Four-Point Approach®, a proven tool and foundation for revitalizing commercial and neighborhood districts, and Project for Public Spaces’ Placemaking, a process that fosters the creation of vital public destinations by promoting collaborative community involvement. Creating Main Streets that are pedestrian-friendly with balanced transportation options will be a particular focus.

“Our partnership with Project for Public Spaces will bring new tools and resources to Main Street and the preservation community, breathing new life into public spaces that are rich in cultural diversity,” said David Brown, acting president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “We are particularly eager to spread knowledge among communities on how to work hand in hand with departments of transportation.”

After jointly developing Placemaking programming to empower and engage Main Street communities and preservationists, a pilot project will launch in a National Trust Main Street community. The town, which will be selected from a pool of applicants and named in July, will be aided in design and implementation of a transportation improvement plan that incorporates the principles of Placemaking.

“I believe that integrating the Placemaking process into the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street efforts is the next logical big step for an organization that has shifted its sights from individual buildings to whole communities,” said Robert Bass,  chairman emeritus of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Bass and his wife Anne provided the funding for this initiative.

The partnership launched in May with training of Main Street leaders at the 2010 National Main Streets Conference in Oklahoma City. Additional training for historic preservationists will be provided at the 2010 National Preservation Conference in Austin this October.

“Historic Main Streets and districts are some of the best places we have in this country today.” said Fred Kent, president of Project for Public Spaces.  “We need to help make these places even more successful, and apply that knowledge to creating new places that people will want to preserve in the future.”

The nation’s [...]]]> In honor of our new partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation (to be formally announced later this week), PPS is revisiting a body of project work impacting historic places. Below we’ll look at several historic train stations in New Jersey; later this week, we’ll examine historic market halls and main streets.

The nation’s third largest transit provider, NJ TRANSIT, has a system that includes 161 rail stations–1/3 of which are historic sites–in addition to 28 light-rail stops and more than 17,000 bus stops.   Every one of these transit facilities is a natural focal point for the community, a gravity point for activity that can help to revitalize adjacent neighborhoods, improve the image of the transit agency and increase ridership. PPS and NJ TRANSIT have worked together over many years to ensure that New Jersey’s bus stops and train stations live up to their potential as great public spaces. A handful of these projects (shown below) demonstrate the positive outcomes of reconnecting historic train stations to the communities they serve.

Inspired by the artisan food movement and seeking new opportunities in rough [...]]]>

Preparing fresh lobster rolls at the Brooklyn Flea market

They sell empanadas, rice balls and rhubarb pies, roof-grown produce and spicy jams.  They represent the latest trend of food entrepreneurs peddling homemade delights at local food markets, as profiled in yesterday’s New York Times article, “Their Future, Made by Hand.”

Inspired by the artisan food movement and seeking new opportunities in rough economic times, many young culinary enthusiasts have begun selling food at local markets. Some are just supplementing their income, while others have their eyes set on a brick and mortar store or even a national distribution deal.

Selling at a local market can be a financially and emotionally rewarding experience. It is also a challenging one that requires a heavy time commitment, a love of competition and plenty of business savvy. The vendors profiled in the article, for instance, were recently ordered to obtain food permits, a development which could compromise their profit margin. They’ve also discovered the importance of having a niche: as one vendor commented, “I’ve already seen that you do much better if you’re ‘that girl’ who sells ‘that thing.’

It may be a complicated and difficult endeavor, but those interested in starting a business at a local market have a new guide to help them along the way: “How to Start Your Business at a Local Market: A Vendor Handbook.” Available for instant download in the PPS bookstore in English and Spanish, the handbook provides clear and concise guidance on how to determine what to sell, how to pick a market, set up a stall, tips for customer service and attracting repeat customers, and more.

This handbook is just one way that PPS is reaching out to local entrepreneurs through markets. In Des Moines, Iowa, we helped vendors grow their businesses and diversify their product mix. We are also starting a project in Birmingham, Alabama to develop a new market system which will engage local residents to become entrepreneurs and use the market as a starting point for their local business.

In a stunning transformation of public space, nearly one mile of the Champs-Elysees has been converted into a urban farm with 8,000 green plots showcasing more than 150,000 plants, flowers and even fully-grown trees from across France. Cattle, sheep, goats and even the prized Lamousin pig [...]]]> Paris’ most famous street has become a moo-ving thoroughfare.

In a stunning transformation of public space, nearly one mile of the Champs-Elysees has been converted into a urban farm with 8,000 green plots showcasing more than 150,000 plants, flowers and even fully-grown trees from across France. Cattle, sheep, goats and even the prized Lamousin pig were also in attendance.

The temporary farm was staged by the union representing young French farmers in an effort to draw attention to the growing agricultural crisis in France. Jolted by falling prices and the rising cost of production, the union is using the two-day event to raise awareness of the crisis as well as the importance of farming in general.

By shutting down the ten lane highway, the French are also sending a powerful message that streets are not just places for cars, but people (and plants and animals) too.

More photos

Raleigh, North Carolina is one of the fastest growing cities in the south, but until recently, its downtown was largely deserted after 5pm. Now, local leaders are making bold strides to bring new life to the historic city center. At the center of this effort is Fayetteville Street, the once failed pedestrian [...]]]>

City Plaza on opening day. Photo credit: Jonathan Hawkins

Raleigh, North Carolina is one of the fastest growing cities in the south, but until recently, its downtown was largely deserted after 5pm. Now, local leaders are making bold strides to bring new life to the historic city center. At the center of this effort is Fayetteville Street, the once failed pedestrian mall that is now home to a growing number of restaurants, shops and residential buildings.

One of the street’s newest attractions is Raleigh City Plaza, the “public living room” of the city. The plaza features interactive fountains, four LED light towers, retail pavilions and events including ice skating in the winter, a farmers market in the spring, and the annual Raleigh Wide Open festival. PPS was involved in a visioning process for the City Plaza in 2006, when we encouraged stakeholders to plan for a mix of uses that would draw people into the site and encourage them to stay.

Fayetteville Street and City Plaza during Raleigh Winterfest. Photo credit: Jonathan Hawkins

Following the opening of the plaza last fall, we asked a local placemaker to evaluate the site using our Great Public Spaces tool. His initial report is encouraging—the site is well used during the day and draws large crowds during special events. Nightime uses are still limited and contingent on strong programming, as well as greater numbers of residents living downtown. Going forward, the success of City Plaza hinges on strong management to continually reevaluate the space and program it with diverse uses and activities. With the help of committed local stakeholders and a growing number of full-time residents, there is no doubt it will grow and evolve in the future.

To learn more about other happenings in downtown Raleigh, check out local blog The Raleigh Connoisseur.

Rising concern about these threats to public safety and health, ranging from dangerous streets to destructive zoning codes, has sparked new [...]]]> Malfunctioning products from manufacturers such as Toyota are not the only things being recalled these days. Many of our public places are defective, posing risks to individuals, local economies and community life in general.

The recent automobile crisis has led to a rush of recalls, many of which may help reshape a world previously planned to accommodate only Toyotas.

Rising concern about these threats to public safety and health, ranging from dangerous streets to destructive zoning codes, has sparked new efforts to fix the problems. While planning mistakes cannot be recalled in the same way that a car with faulty brakes is sent back to the repair shop, these actions are every bit as dramatic.

Project for Public Spaces has been working closely with government, professional, business and citizens groups to find the right solutions to ensure that people are safe and sound in the future. Here is a summary of the most recent wave of recalls that touch nearly every city, town and suburb.

Topics in this article:

Dangerous Roads Recalled by Transportation Department
Busy urban streets will be made safe and livable over next 10 years.

New York Targets Blank Walls
An end to dull, windowless buildings that suck the life out of our cities.

Make Paradise, Tear Down a Parking Lot
A massive recall on land illegally given to automobiles.

Landscape Architects Pull the Plug on Jargon
All metaphors, juxtapositions and other incomprehensible language banned.

New Lease on Life for Suburbs and Cities
Architects gather in Athens to bid farewell to single-use zoning.

…And the Walks Came Tumbling Down
The last major “skyway” system, in Minneapolis, will be demolished.

“City Center” R.I.P.
The faux phrase is now banned in 38 states.

A Victory for America’s Children
New rules make it possible for millions of kids to walk to school again.

A Green Light for Safer Streets
Stoplights to be phased out in many U.S. neighborhoods.

PPS President Issues a Recall on His Own Statements
Fred Kent softens his criticism of traffic engineers.

Dangerous Roads Recalled by Transportation Department

Busy urban streets will be made safe and livable over next 10 years

Pointing to a “clear and present danger” to the American public, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced today the “recall” of all urban and suburban arterial roadways in America. These are the familiar roads built since the 1960s that function more as speedways than city streets.

Wide, fast urban streets pose a major threat to safety, announces Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.

Every four-lane road in a metropolitan area with a population of more 50,000 will be examined by Department of Transportation (DOT) engineers over the next 18 months to determine whether they pose “an undue threat” to motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists.

Wide, fast urban streets pose a major threat to safety, announces Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.
The new plans, estimated to cost $180 billion annually over the next decade, are expected to pay for themselves in reduced Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security expenditures on people injured in car crashes.

LaHood made the announcement at an outdoor press conference on Detroit’s famed Woodward Avenue, which he vowed would be the first urban road reinvented to meet new standards for safety and livability. “It only makes sense that this street, which 101 years ago became the first in the world to be paved in concrete, a breakthrough that transformed transportation in the 20th Century, should be the street where we transform transportation safety in the 21st Century,” he said to a cheering crowd.

He cited a study conducted by the British government showing that a pedestrian struck by a vehicle traveling 20 mph has a five percent chance of being killed, but at 40 mph, pedestrians die 85 percent of the time. “That’s a sobering statistic,” LaHood said, “and we would show very little regard for the lives of Americans if we did not take bold steps to address this crisis.”

At 4th Avenue, an urban arterial in Brooklyn, pedestrian priority signs are often hit by traffic.

Streets receiving less than a “B” grade under new Safety and Urban Livability report card announced by LaHood will undergo extensive renovations. These will include rightsizing roadways, road diets, redesigns to ensure appropriate vehicle speeds, improved bike and transit facilities, better integration of transportation and land use planning, and greater attention to fostering good public spaces along these routes, he explained.

At issue is the “forgiving highway” philosophy that prevailed over the past 50 years. Traffic lanes were widened and trees and utility poles spaced farther apart along the roadside in a well-intended but ultimately misguided effort to make streets safer. That engineering philosophy has been increasingly challenged in recent years, and abandoned altogether in some countries such as the Netherlands, which has seen a marked decline in road fatalities as a result.

While wider and straighter roads eliminated some kinds of crashes, an unintended consequence was increased speeding on roads in populated urban areas, which resulted in higher crash rates and more severe crashes. This was documented in recent research from the Texas Transportation Institute and the University of Utah.

LaHood’s announcement seems to place Department of Transportation clearly in the camp of the “Livable Streets” philosophy, articulated by for many years by a wide coalition of community and environmental organizations.

Gary Toth, Senior Director of Transportation Initiatives at Project for Public Spaces, points to the Netherlands success in implementing new standards for road safety. “Based on the Dutch experience, we can safely say the new policy articulated by Secretary LaHood will save the lives of 20,000 Americans every year. This is great news, indeed.”

New York Targets Blank Walls

An end to dull, windowless buildings that suck the life out of our cities

A portion of the Museum of Modern Art’s blank wall will remain as a reminder of architectural hubris.

New York City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden issued a recall for all buildings in the city that offer only a blank, dull, windowless face to the street. She cited public safety concerns as well as the buildings’ detrimental impact on community life.

Many other cities are expected to follow New York’s lead as part of the growing realization that economic recovery and social stability depend upon providing lively, attractive urban environments.

Building owners have 12 months to file plans with the city about how they will restore or rebuild their properties. In an effort to stimulate the economy, the New York City Convention and Visitors Bureau and the New York State Economic Development Commission both have established multi-billion dollar loan funds to assist property owners in starting renovations as soon as possible.

Burden unveiled the plans in front of the blank wall of the Museum of Modern Art sculpture garden, which neighbors have long complained is a blight that harms the vibrancy of their neighborhood. A remnant of the MOMA wall will be left standing as a reminder of a passing historical era when architectural statements were deemed more important than communities.

In making the announcement Burden quoted her mentor, the late journalist and urbanist William H. Whyte: “Blank walls proclaim the power of institutions and the inconsequence of the individual, whom they are clearly meant to intimidate.”

Make Paradise, Tear Down a Parking Lot

A massive recall on land illegally given to automobiles

Cars illegally occupy prime real estate in Atlanta.

It was recently discovered that cars have been squatting on some of the most valuable land in America—sometimes for as long as seventy years. The land will now be returned to the American public.

Officials at the International Downtown Association discovered that landmark legislation from the 1930s has been misinterpreted since the day it was signed into law. Congress unanimously approved the 1937 Urban Improvement Act, which states that free parking in towns and cities must be taxed at an annual rate of 10 percent of estimated real estate value. But a General Motors lobbyist impersonating a Commerce Department official altered the document so that it appeared to offer tax breaks to businesses that provide free parking to their customers and employees.

Calculating that parking lot operators and shopping malls now owe the American people a staggering $986 billion in back taxes, the Treasury department decided it would be easier and more compassionate for parking lots to be turned over to local governments to create thousands of new parks, squares, public spaces and civic institutions.

Landscape Architects Pull the Plug on Jargon

All metaphors, juxtapositions and other incomprehensible language banned

A pedestrian caught in “an interstitial space” engages in “contemplative activity.”

In light of a new study showing that even landscape architects cannot understand what other landscape architects are saying, the profession is rethinking its attachment to abstruse lexicological phraseology.

At their annual convention held last month in Babel, New Jersey, The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) issued a strongly worded statement urging all members to “start using language that people can understand. Yes, that means you! The future of our profession depends upon working more closely with communities.”

The organization strongly discouraged the use of “elaborate metaphors that provide intellectual cover for projects that utterly fail at giving people the public spaces they want and need.”

PPS vice president Kathy Madden welcomed the announcement as a breath of fresh spring air. “No longer will we be forced to hear about ‘land forms’ and ‘contrasting materials’ being ‘juxtaposed’. And design mistakes will no longer be passed off as ‘contemplative spaces.’”

To show their commitment to change, ASLA is sending all its members, along with every student enrolled in a landscape architecture program, a care package containing a copy of Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style and directions to the nearest meeting of Toastmasters International.

New Lease on Life for Suburbs and Cities

Architects gather in Athens to bid farewell to single-use zoning

Power of One10: The recall of all single-use zoning codes will lead to a ten-fold growth in public activity.

A bold vision for the future of our communities was unveiled yesterday in Athens, Greece. Urban planners and architects from 172 nations gathered in the Agora (ruins of the marketplace at the heart of the ancient city) to formally rescind the Charter of Athens—a 1933 document that established the idea that homes, shops and workplaces should be physically separated.

“The charter of Athens has been nothing less than a catastrophe,” announced Steve Davies, PPS vice-president and leader of the American delegation. “It undermined the vitality of communities around the world by introducing the concept of single-use zoning. This has meant that many people have no choice but to live in residential pods, far away from stores, schools, workplaces, shops and entertainment. They can’t walk anywhere, and the kind of human interaction that characterizes healthy communities has significantly declined.”

A local crowd greeted the announcement with cheers of “opa!”, many of them noting that the original Charter of Athens was not even signed in their city. The charter, which has shaped urban planning since World War II, was written and signed by a small coterie of architects under the direction of Le Corbusier aboard a boat sailing in the Mediterranean.

Economic experts believe this action will boost the sluggish global economy. Scrapping outdated zoning codes will spark a construction boom of corner groceries, pubs, ice cream parlors, coffee shops, hardware stores and small-scale office buildings in neighborhoods around the world.

…And the Walks Came Tumbling Down

The last major “skyway” system, in Minneapolis, will be demolished

An out-of-town visitor was lost for three weeks inside Minneapolis’s skyway system.

A misbegotten era in urban planning came to close last week, when the Minneapolis City Council unanimously voted to dismantle the town’s downtown skyway system. The action follows similar steps taken recently in Calgary, Des Moines, St. Paul, Atlanta, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Skyways, also known as skywalks, were hailed in the 1960s as a “design breakthrough” to help northern cities become more lively and welcoming in cold weather—and they were later embraced in hot climate places such as Atlanta, Houston and Mumbai, India. But in practice, skyways had just the opposite effect. They snuffed out streetlife wherever they were built, creating eerie, empty sidewalks that gave the impression the city had been abandoned.

Famous travel writer Jane Morris once described downtown Minneapolis as “a perfectly interesting stewpot populated by well-clad business types and charmingly scruffy bohemians in the warm months. But they are nowhere to be found once the mercury hits 0 [32 Fahrenheit]. The town, sadly, becomes deader than a doornail. The baneful overhead passageways are chiefly to blame.”

Minneapolis, the city most associated with skyways, resisted the trend to declare them a failure until early this week, when it was revealed that an unfortunate visitor from Toronto, Jane Q. Jacobs, was lost in the city’s 80-block system for more than three weeks. She had left her purse and cell phone back at her hotel and was unable to find her way back to the street level.

Lost souls in the skyway system.

Jacobs survived by scrounging Starbucks coffee, Subway sandwiches and Cinnabons from trash cans until rescued by two college students, recently returned from relief work in Haiti.

“In the skyways, there was absolutely no interaction between people like you’d find on a city street. I never had the opportunity to ask anyone for help. They walked right past me without a glance,” she said from her hospital bed. Jacobs is well on her way to full recovery, doctors say, thanks to a rigorous regimen of walks in the fresh air.

“City Center” R.I.P.

The faux phrase is now banned in 38 states

As John Harold Kunstler, city manager of Normal, Illinois, was preparing to sign papers finalizing a deal to develop a new “City Center” shopping complex to revive the town’s business district, he decided to google the name “City Center.” Much to his amazement, he discovered at least 1000 other downtown developments called “City Center”, many of them in the Midwest. A quick look at “Town Center” turned up another 800.

Is it a real town center, or just window dressing for another suburban clone mall?”

This gave Kunstler pause—first about the name of the project and then about the project itself. Did Normal need really need another shopping mall, especially one funded by taxpayers with 850 parking spaces, as part of downtown redevelopment plan? Wouldn’t it be better to revitalize the actual city center—those versatile storefronts that housed everything from a haberdashery in the 1920s to a head shop in the 1960s to an organic gastropub featuring local foods from the farmer’s market today?

He halted the project and, when the developer tried to go around his back to the city council (using the notorious Law Firm of Dewey, Cheatham & Howe), he convinced the council to pass a law banning use of the word “City Center” for any new development resembling a suburban shopping mall. The state of Illinois soon passed a similar law, as have 37 other states and the District of Columbia.

“These pathetic fake city centers are an example of the geography of nowhere, which my cousin Jim is always talking about,” Kunstler says. “Here in Normal, we invested instead in the authentic, historical downtown, and it has paid off handsomely. It’s now the place to see and be seen.”

A Victory for America’s Children

New rules make it possible for millions of kids to walk to school again

New rules discourage building schools that sequester students away from the rest of town.

Life for American school kids took a turn for the better last month when an influential professional organization endorsed the idea that schools in traditional neighborhood settings provide the best education. The Council of Educational Facility Planners International (CEFPI) overturned its longstanding requirements that new schools must be constructed on vast tracts of empty land.

Under the organization’s old formula, a 2000-student high school must sit on a 50-acre site. In practice, this meant small communities were forced to build new schools in the middle of agricultural fields rather than right in town where kids could walk to school. It was the same story in urban areas, with new schools going into derelict industrial zones and other settings far from neighborhoods where kids lived.

“I’m elated,” declared Dr. Maxine Krakenbauer-Garcia, superintendent of the Fort Madison, Iowa, school district. “We’ve known for years that students do better in class when they have the chance to walk to school in the morning. All the data supports that. And they are happier all around when the school is their neighborhood. They can use the playground on weekends and in the summer.”

CEFPI changed the rules under pressure from educators and parents across America who argued that the requirements cost cash-strapped schools millions each year in school bus expenses and forced kids to endure long rides to school.

A Green Light for Safer Streets

Stoplights to be phased out in many U.S. neighborhoods

Vibrant streetlife flourishes in communities after stop signs replace traffic lights.

For years the stoplight has been seen as a symbol of modern progress, most notably in frequent journalistic references to a rural area being so remote or backward “there is only one stoplight in the whole county”. Yet that’s about to change.

The National League of Cities, representing mayors and other top leaders of 18,000 U.S. communities, issued a statement yesterday urging the recall of stoplights on all but the busiest intersections in towns and cities. Numerous studies show that four way stops have fewer accidents than stoplights. Philadelphia, for instance, found that pedestrian injuries decline 49 percent when it eliminated 800 stoplights on city streets.

“This is one simple but powerful step we can take to ensure public safety and improve the travel experience for motorists,” said Kathleen Ziegenfuss, newly elected mayor of Somerville, Massachusetts. “We all know the temptation to speed up in order to beat a yellow light. It makes the streets more dangerous and driving more stressful.”

Over the next few months, hundreds of thousand of U.S. stoplights will either be replaced by four-way stop signs or reprogrammed to flash red all day except for rush hour—the equivalent of a four-way stop.

PPS President Issues a Recall on His Own Statements

Fred Kent softens criticism of traffic engineers

The PPS president chuckled at the irony of this sign—and later targeted urban planners who make it difficult for people to walk places.

“If you listen to a traffic engineer and do exactly the opposite, then you can be pretty sure you’re doing the right thing to strengthen your community.”

Fred Kent used that line literally hundreds of times in dozens of countries, and it almost always brought an eruption of laughter. But now, in a surprising turnabout, the Project for Public Spaces president sees growing signs that traffic engineers are beginning to realize that making great places for people is more important than building fast roads for cars.

“No one is more surprised than I am that this profession is beginning to understand the principles of Placemaking,” Kent admitted in a recent interview with the AASHTO Journal (published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials).

“For years, I would suggest at meetings around the country that local traffic engineers needed to have frontal lobotomies,” he added. “And oftentimes a surgeon would come up to me after the talk and volunteer to perform the operation for free.”

But Kent insists he is not taking back any of his sharp comments about certain architects and landscape architects.

Market Square is a unique jewel situated at the center of the business and cultural districts in downtown Pittsburgh. The square has played a central role in Pittsburgh’s history, once housing the Alleghany County Courthouse and the “Diamond Market,”  the largest city market to which Pittsburgh residents came to shop, eat, and even roller skate on the top floor, [...]]]>

The 1784 plan of Pittsburgh, with Market Square clearly visible at the center. Photo Credit: Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership

Market Square is a unique jewel situated at the center of the business and cultural districts in downtown Pittsburgh. The square has played a central role in Pittsburgh’s history, once housing the Alleghany County Courthouse and the “Diamond Market,”  the largest city market to which Pittsburgh residents came to shop, eat, and even roller skate on the top floor, until it was demolished in 1961. But in recent years, largely because of minimal uses throughout the day and a virtual shutdown after 5pm, the square has become a haven for criminal activity. With the goal of recapturing the square’s potential to once again become a vibrant  gathering place,  in 2007 PPS worked with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership and several local agencies to facilitate a community process to develop a vision and activation plan for the square.

A diagram of short-term uses for Market Square, now under construction

The downtown partnership has made impressive strides since then, drawing on substantial support from public, private and non-profit agencies, as well as developers and local foundations. After securing initial funding to test design and programming recommendations developed by PPS, the partnership conducted a series of short-term experiments to inform the physical reconstruction and ensure that permanent changes would be well-received by the public. These experiments included eliminating bus traffic, expanding space for sidewalk cafes and constructing seasonal plantings. Three designs for reconstruction were then generated and made available for public comment. The final design (pictured below, night configuration) is a blend of the two most popular options. It references the history of the space, incorporates both green and hardscape elements and creates one continuous elevation, generating the feel of a piazza.

Construction is currently underway, and in the meantime, the partnership is conducting focus groups to determine what types of programming local citizens want for their square. On the whole, the redesign process provides an excellent model of  how to successfully create a vibrant place through ongoing, meaningful engagement with the surrounding community. We look forward to Market Square’s reopening and are eager to see how the square evolves in the future.