Click this photo to download the report!

In 2009, the Project for Public Spaces (PPS), with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and in partnership with Columbia University, undertook a study to examine what market characteristics successfully attract low-income shoppers. The study also explored the obstacles that may prevent low income individuals from shopping at a farmers market when one existed nearby, and how youth-oriented market programming affects healthy eating habits among kids and teens. Today, we are thrilled to share with you the results of this study, and to offer recommendations for everyone working to get more healthy food into their communities through farmers markets.

For the study, our team examined eight markets across the United States that served low- to middle-income communities with higher than average ethnic and minority compositions. Each market had unique attributes that identified them for selection. In addition, each market was a previous recipient of a PPS grant, funded by the Kellogg Foundation, which offered technical assistance between the years 2006-2008 in addition to funding.

Out of our analysis of market management data, tracked over several years and surveys of market shoppers and non-market shoppers, we were able to identify two key trends. First, we found that price is not a barrier. Among the survey sample, almost 60% of farmers market shoppers in low-income neighborhoods believed their market had better prices than the grocery store. Among those who did not shop at farmers markets, only 17% cited price as a barrier to shopping at their local farmers market. Second, we learned that information is key. Unlike a grocery store, markets typically lack permanent structures and are therefore more ephemeral by nature. Shoppers need better access to information about schedules and seasonal changes in order to become more regular market shoppers.

One of the most important lessons learned from the focus groups with youth interns at the markets was that the end goal was to produce excellent citizens, not necessarily urban farmers. While eating well, advocating for food justice, and increasing the youths’ knowledge of the local food production process were all taught, it was the emphasis on leadership, personal development, and responsibility that ultimately made the programs successful and left the strongest impact on the youth surveyed.

A summary of the recommendations included in the report:

1.      Location, Location, Location – A common reason cited by non-market shoppers for not patronizing a farmers market was the need to complete their shopping at one location. While it is unlikely that farmers markets will be able to serve that function, positioning markets in locations that give the appearance of one-stop shopping may overcome this access barrier.

Also, given our experience with the transformative power of successful Placemaking, we advocate that market operators who are serious about long term sustainability turn their market into a destination. The market should not only be a place to buy produce, but should incorporate programming that integrates the market into the fabric of the surrounding community.

2.      Know your shoppers – One of the most interesting emerging trends from our data was the varying intensity in market use depending on the income of shoppers. What this tells us is that knowing your most frequent shopper, as well as the shopper demographic who purchases the highest percentage of their produce at the farmers market, is important for markets to achieve financial sustainability and develop a more stable consumer base. Knowing your shoppers has implications for both the kind of marketing and the location of marketing that the market should produce.

3.      Markets targeting a low-income customer base must partner with organizations that share the market’s goals – Partnering with neighborhood organizations helps facilitate better outreach efforts to the intense-use shopper, as previously identified. Furthermore, if the market could operate through an existing organization that shares its mission there is a potential cost sharing component in terms of office space, co-promotion and community recognition.

4.      Farmers Markets need to expand marketing and outreach efforts to reach consumers – We recognize that many market organizers are already well aware of the importance of successful marketing for the success of their farmers market.  However, the data from this study re-affirms the need for constant marketing and outreach to local consumers to educate them about the location, time, and acceptance of SNAP and WIC benefits.

It is our hope that the results of this study will help people to move the dial on creating healthier places through the creation of more effective, engaging farmers markets. Markets are wonderful public gathering spaces that put an emphasis on community health. They make it easier for people to make better dietary choices, while simultaneously bringing neighbors together to form the strong, supportive social networks that are critical to success in leading healthy lifestyles in the long term. And so, without further ado:

Click here to download a PDF of the publication!

The conference begins with the premise that the world is at a crossroads. We have a choice: cities can continue to grow haphazardly, without regard to human social needs and environmental consequences, or we can embrace a sustainable and equitable process that builds community, enhances quality of life, and creates safe and prosperous neighborhoods. We are convinced that in the future, the cities that utilize the social capital-building potential of their public spaces to the fullest will be the ones with the most dynamic local economies. The Future of Places will survey the field, and map out a path to a more people-centered urban development model for the globalized future.

Habitat III, the third United Nations (UN) conference to be held on Human Settlements, will bring together actors from across the globe, including local governments, national governments, the private sector, international organizations, and many others. This gathering, the largest of its kind in the world, will build on the first Habitat conference in Vancouver in 1976 and the Habitat II conference in Istanbul in 1996. The conference will re-evaluate the Habitat agenda and look at the role of UN-Habitat and sustainable urban development in the upcoming decade. It is therefore vital that the dialogue that will influence the Habitat III outcomes—and thus the future global urban agenda—commences today.

As many of you already know, the timing of the launch of this conference series is particularly exciting as, just three weeks ago, we announced the formation of the Placemaking Leadership Council, which will meet for the first time this April in Detroit to begin developing a global agenda around Placemaking in cities. To ensure a diverse, multifaceted group of attendees for The Future of Places conference in June, each of the three organizing partners for that event will be bringing a delegation of leaders from their respective realm of expertise. As such, PPS will be selecting members from the Leadership Council to attend the Future of Places conference.

This allows us to form a truly international Council by providing those who cannot travel to Detroit in April with an equally exciting opportunity to gather with peers for the discussion of the transformative agendas that are at the heart of this evolving movement. While the Detroit meeting will lay the groundwork for the Council’s future work, the role that Council members will play at The Future of Places conference will be critical in expanding the understanding of that work on the global stage. Due to this unique perspective, we will be looking for delegates with experience working internationally, and particularly in the cities of the developing world—people with a passion for addressing human, social, and community needs in ways that transform long-struggling areas into sustainable neighborhoods defined around vital, welcoming, and affirming public spaces.

If you believe that you would be a good fit for the Placemaking Leadership Council, and you are interested in attending either or both of the meetings in Detroit and Stockholm, we encourage you to review the criteria for joining the Leadership Council. Once you are up to speed on the agendas and criteria, you can then click here to tell us why you feel you’d be good addition to the Placemaking Leadership Council between now and April 1st, 2013. (Please note that, if you have already filled out this form, you do not need to do so again.)

If you want to stay up to date with news about the Stockholm conference, you can follow @FutureofPlaces on Twitter. We look forward to hearing from you. Perhaps we will see you soon, in Stockholm!

The first meeting of the Placemaking Leadership Council will take place in downtown Detroit, Michigan, home of the wonderful Campus Martius Park / Photo: PPS

For those of us who are passionate about the public spaces in our communities, this is an extraordinary time. The general awareness of the importance of a strong sense of place—to the economy, to our social fabric, to human health—is growing stronger every day. Placemaking is, at this moment, being transformed from a useful tool to a vital cause by people throughout the world. As one of those rare processes that can bring people with different objectives together under the same banner, Placemaking is uniquely suited to help us grapple with the complex challenges that we face in a globalized society. After almost four decades of working in this field, we are reaching out to peers new and old to form a Placemaking Leadership Council to consolidate and strengthen Placemaking as an international movement.

The goal of the Leadership Council is to build a culture of mutual support amongst the do-ers and deep thinkers at the forefront of the Placemaking movement, creating a community of practice around this important work. Through our work, we know many people who are actively engaged in creating great places today; many of these people—the ones we refer to admiringly as “Zealous Nuts”—have already agreed to join this Council. But there are also people we don’t yet know who should be involved. If you are one of these people, you already know who you are; you’ve achieved something beyond most peoples’ imagination, created one or more successful places, and are looking for an opportunity to share your stories and learn from others about how you might be able to raise the bar even more. If this is you, please read on.

At the inaugural meeting of the Council this April 11-12th, we will gather in Detroit, Michigan, the North American capital of resilience (Background on how Detroit and Michigan are leading the way on Placemaking), to debate, discuss, celebrate and develop a strategy for creating a global agenda around Placemaking in cities. Another gathering will take place in Stockholm this June, through our partnership with UN-Habitat and the Ax:son Johnson Foundation. The Detroit gathering will be centered on case studies and demonstration projects, publications, films, and social media as ways of demonstrating the true power in place. Discussion will be structured around four agendas that we feel have the potential to transform cities if the focus is on the idea of place and Placemaking.

• Creating healthier communities and improving streets by redefining transportation planning;
• Improving our built environment by advocating for people- and place-centric design through an architecture of place;
• Supporting sustainable local economies by highlighting the central role of public markets;
• And strengthening communities by creating new urban development models that re-orient our cities and towns around great multi-use destinations.

The Council will be organized around four sub-committees, each of which will focus on one of these critical aspects of place-centered development. (Click here to read about the Transformative Agendas in greater detail). Their agenda-defining discussions will be guided by the three strategic themes of Place Governance, Place Capital, and Healthy Communities. Outcomes for each sub-committee will include research topics, benchmarks, potential partners, and implementation strategies that will drive progress and innovation amongst Council members and the wider global community of Placemaking practitioners and community change agents over the coming year.

If your interest is piqued, please review the five criteria below to see if you might be a good fit for the Placemaking Leadership Council. If you meet several of these criteria, we encourage you to reach out and tell us more about what you do, and why you’re passionate about the idea of place.

1.) You know about and understand Placemaking. You’re well-versed in the movement’s history, and can appreciate the uniqueness of the current moment. You understand that Placemaking is a process, not an outcome. Ideally, you’re also familiar with the Project for Public Spaces and the way that we work.

2.) You understand and agree with what we are trying to achieve. You get that the Council isn’t about making money or networking, but working with like-minded individuals to drive large-scale culture change to put place at the heart of public discourse.

3.) You have substantial experience with on-the-ground projects and initiatives. You’re driven and you’ve got a few success stories under your belt–and probably even some failures that you’ve learned a great deal from. We’re looking for people who don’t just think about how to create great places–they roll up their sleeves, head on out, and do it themselves.

4.) You think holistically about place. You’ve worked on a variety of different projects, and you understand how various (sometimes unexpected) pieces fit together to create a great public destination. The term “silo-busting” gets your feet tapping.

5.) You have your own networks and organizations. You’re not a rock, or an island. You have a track record of working with people from different backgrounds, disciplines, and communities, and you understand how important unlikely partnerships are to successful Placemaking.

If you are interested in joining the Placemaking Leadership Council and attending our first meeting in Detroit this April, please click here to fill out a questionnaire that will help us to learn more about who you are and what you do.

We welcome inquiries for this first round up until March 1st, 2013, and will work internally to shape a Council that will represent a diversity not only in professional experiences, but also in age, gender, cultural heritage, and international backgrounds. Please also indicate whether travel costs will be an issue, as we will be able to provide assistance to a limited number of Council members, based on need, through the generous sponsorship Southwest Airlines and contributions by other members.

We’re very excited to announce this new initiative, and look forward to working with more of the passionate Placemakers who make this movement so dynamic.

Larry Lund

A great public market doesn’t usually just happen–there are a lot of smart, dedicated people behind the scenes who work to make sure that markets are set up to serve their surrounding area. Like any public space, markets work best when they reflect the people who live nearby. They are places for buying and selling food, yes, but they’re also places for meeting and learning about neighbors, accessing services, and becoming part of the daily life of a community.

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Larry Lund, a long-time Placemaker and head of the Chicago-based Real Estate Planning Group (REPG). Larry is an expert on markets, particularly in regard to how they scale up and down to fit the communities in which they are based. If you’d like to meet Larry and learn more about this subject, there is still time to register for the 8th International Public Markets Conference, which will take place in Cleveland, Ohio, just two weeks from now, from September 21-23rd, 2012.

How did your interest in markets begin? How does it relate to what you do now, with real estate planning?

I got involved with markets back in the mid 1980s, when Fred Kent pulled together a group to discuss how we could use Public Markets  to rejuvenate town centers. Our emphasis was on looking at markets as a model for rebuilding activity in the downtown area. Since then, the Public Market movement has evolved from a focus on Placemaking to include a better delivery system for fresh food Now, PPS is talking about how markets can be more than just a center for food—they can deliver other goods and services to communities, as well.

I started the Real Estate Planning Group in 1990, so I had already been working on markets before that, but most of my market projects  have been with PPS. I have now worked on more than 50 Public Markets throughout the country. My primary role working with PPS is to do the economic and market analysis. Even though markets have been around for hundreds of years, the nature has changed and we have had to find new methods to estimate potential using sophisticated tools like gravity models and survey techniques to estimate market shares. It’s very important to try to get the scale right for the market setting and to have some rational basis for estimating sales potential and tenant mix. There is lots of  talk  about sustainability from an environmental standpoint, but we also try to bring the concept of  sustainability from an economic standpoint: is there enough money here so that vendors can be successful and the market can operate in a sustainable fashion. Markets need to meet customer expectations, vendor needs, and operate in a sustainable fashion for whatever entity develops the market.

How important are the characteristics of the surrounding place? Can markets drive development, or are there components that need to be in place already?

There are some characteristics that you absolutely need for a market to work well, like visibility and accessibility. Historically, markets were always in or near the center of trade routes, and there’s an intrinsic need for that even today. If there’s a strong sense of place already, before a market locates somewhere, that obviously helps. However, in some cases, putting in a market can help develop a place if the market is large enough and visible enough. We’ve seen, in the US, how a market hall strengthens the center of towns and can complement other uses such as retail, office, and residential.

A bustling street market in Markets Conference host city Cleveland / Photo: PPS

What’s always a challenge is trying to get the scale right, and that’s something I’m going to be talking a lot about at the Markets Conference in Cleveland later this month. There’s an equation here in terms of sustainability, making sure there are enough people and enough vendors to support your market. Markets have a great appeal in just a visceral sense, but not all of them turn out to be successful. You still need a good location for them, and you need enough people who have access to the area. The larger the market, generally speaking, the larger the draw. There has to be a relationship with the population around the market; it’s important to understand who your customers are: their interest in fresh foods, their sensitivity to prices, and what the competition looks like.

What a lot of people don’t recognize is that there’s also a big difference between farmers’ markets and year-round public markets. The economics around both of them are radically different. It’s important to understand that, if you have a successful farmers’ market, changing that to what I call a public market building is a big leap for everyone, and a lot of analysis has to be done before making that decision because the nature of the market changes.

One of the attractions of farmers’ markets, besides outstanding food products, is the ephemeral nature of it. These markets are one or two days a week, and they’re seasonal; the ‘event quality’ is a very strong attraction for people. That changes when you start institutionalizing it into a market building, where the economics require you to start running the market six or seven days a week. For farmers to turn themselves into permanent vendors changes their business model, too. I often say that my role is to make sure that the visioning process doesn’t turn into a hallucination, and that there’s economic support in changing the business structure.

Can you explain more about scaling markets to their context? How are markets different in big cities versus more rural communities? How are they similar?

Most of my work is related to repositioning existing enclosed markets and responding to  the desire of successful farmers’ market wanting to become a  year-round event. In either case it is usually  more challenging in rural areas than it is in urbanized areas, and I have to say it’s even a challenge in urbanized areas in being able to find vendors today who can handle that year-round schedule. It’s difficult to find butchers and fishmongers, for instance. It’s even especially difficult to find  produce vendors—the main driver in most markets—who can operate full-time. When you want to run something on an annualized basis the seasonality draw begins to disappear.

That’s not to say  markets cannot run year-round and sell in the winter time, but it’s difficult if you don’t have a wide variety of food. Today there’s a whole issue of commitment to the local food movement and what that means for the customer. That’s something that has to be considered if you’re aiming to create a local-food market versus allowing food to be imported to your area and offering a full scope of services. I always caution that market managers have to understand their goal in building a public market building. I think a lot of people don’t give that enough consideration. Different kinds of markets meet different objectives.

What I’m seeing now is a series of market buildings people are developing that only have maybe three or four tenants. They’re not farmers, but you’ll find a bakery and a charcuterie and a coffee place, and they develop into third places. People are looking at these places as community-builders. You can see this happening in Seattle, for example, outside of the Pike Place Market. There are a series of buildings that have sprung up around the market that are more about creating an enjoyable place for public gathering than delivery of fresh local food—they’re great third places built around the food movement.

These storefront buildings have developed into a food cluster that offers something for each part of the day. In the morning, that the bakery serves coffee; the charcuterie starts serving sandwiches at lunch; in the evening, you may have a wine bar that’s part of this cluster. There are things to activate the space throughout the day, which makes it a nice neighborhood attraction for people to come to.

A mix of uses ensures that the area around the Pike Place market is always bustling / Photo: PPS

For our last question, how do you expect the upcoming markets conference in Cleveland to shed light on these issues?

In one of the sessions, we’re going to be talking about the scalability of markets extensively and getting people to focus on what the sponsor’s objectives are. We’ll show examples of different kinds of markets & what people have been doing around the country to meet various needs and community goals. We’ll help people identify and think through that process to make sure they have a project that’s successful.

Markets have to adjust themselves as they see who their customers are, and this is part of the discussion we’ll be having: how markets evolve even after they open. An exciting thing about markets is that they allow for change, and they adjust to their customers. The whole thing is about getting the scale and mission right. It’s always easier if you can do that up front, but frankly all retail has to go through that transition and evolution of understanding their customers and vice versa. The needs and demands of consumers are always changing. Our goal is to help people meet their objectives and be economically sustainable in delivering all the good things that  markets can deliver to their communities.

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Celebrating 25 years since its first gathering, the 8th International Public Markets Conference will set a new direction for the vital role markets play in transforming local economies and communities. Click here to register today!

The breathtaking central hall of Cleveland's West Side Market, a major hub in the host city for this year's International Public Markets Conference (Sept. 21-23) / Photo: PBS NewsHour via Flickr

Picture yourself at the supermarket, awash in fluorescent light. You’re trying to stock up for the next couple of weeks, since it’s a busy time of year. You grab some granola bars (and maybe even a box of pop tarts), some frozen dinners, a box of macaroni with one of those little packets of powdered cheese stuff. And oh, they’re running one of those promotions where you can get ten cans of soup for, like, a dollar each. Perfect! Dinner for the next two weeks. On the way to the register, you swing by the produce aisle to grab a bunch of bananas. Like many people these days, you’re trying to eat healthy, and breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

Now imagine that your neighborhood had a public market–the kind of place that’s easy to pop by on the way home from work to grab fresh food every couple of days. Before you reach the open-air shed, you’re surrounded by produce of every shape and color; you can smell oranges and basil from half a block away. As you follow your appetite through the maze of bins and barrels, you bump into your neighbors, and make plans to head downtown to the central market over the weekend to take a cooking class and pick up some less common ingredients. You may even make a day of it and check out the new weekly craft fair that takes place the next block over.

A boy and his mother examine produce at a farmers market in East New York / Photo: PPS

The contrast is stark. In most places today, at least in many Western countries, shopping is a chore; our food system has stopped being about food, and has become entirely about convenience. Food spoils, meaning that we used to have to shop at markets every few days; freezers and preservatives have freed us from those constraints, but in the process food has become disconnected from the natural cycle of daily life–and, thus, the communities of people that we shared our markets with. “There’s a lot of talk about food deserts today, but what many neighborhoods really have are place deserts,” says PPS’s Steve Davies. “As a result, we’re seeing a movement back to this idea of the Market City, with markets acting as catalysts for creating centers in neighborhoods that have lost their sense of place.”

Market Cities (and Market Towns) are places with strong networks for the distribution of healthy, locally-produced food. They have large central markets that act as hubs for the region and function as great multi-use destinations, with many activities clustering nearby; moving out into the neighborhoods, these cities contain many smaller (but still substantial) neighborhood markets that sell all the necessities for daily cooking needs; in between, you’ll find small corner grocers, weekly farmers markets, produce carts, and other small-scale distribution points. Market Cities are, in essence, places where food is one of the fundamental building blocks of urban life–not just fuel that you use to get through the day.

Today, Barcelona is often held up as one of the truest examples of a Market City system in action. “They have an incredibly thriving network of around 45 permanent public markets,” notes PPS’s Kelly Verel, “because when they planned out the city in the late 19th century, they considered markets the same way that you consider all utilities–like, where does the water go, the power, the garbage, etc.”

A map showing the locations of public markets around Barcelona, and the areas they serve.

Barcelona’s markets, many of which now incorporate modern grocery stores, prove that contemporary urban food systems do not necessarily need to use the big box supermarket as their base unit, and that markets are more than just nice extras or luxuries. In fact, with people growing increasingly suspicious of modern agricultural practices, the idea that the paradigm could flip is looking less and less far-fetched. “Markets are viable,” argues PPS’s David O’Neil. “They’ve always been viable, but their viability is especially apt today because the global economy has skewered our sense of being able to support ourselves. Markets are very reassuring places, because they give you a sense of responsibility for your own health. People are experimenting, and reinventing what it means to have a good life.”

According to O’Neil, there is Market City ‘DNA’ still hidden around most cities. Our cities grew up around markets and, while many of the old buildings have been dismantled, inexpensive and lightweight farmers markets have been making a comeback. By 1946, there were just 499 markets left in the US; that number rose to 2,863 by 2000, and then shot up to 7,175 by 2011. Many of the great public markets we know today started out as nothing more than roadside exchanges, so there is reason to believe that some of these new markets could very well put down more permanent roots if they become reintegrated into the life of their surrounding neighborhoods.

Up in Nova Scotia, where Davies and O’Neil have been working with the Halifax Seaport Farmers’ Market, Operations Manager Ewen Wallace notes the importance of his market (which does have its own permanent building) in the local community. “Throughout my involvement in this project and spending so much time face-to-face with the community at large” he says, “the thing that’s really hit home is that the people of Halifax really do consider this their market.”

Shoppers peruse the booths at the Halifax Seaport Farmers Market / Photo: Nicole Bratt via Flickr

And while the market is truly a stalwart (they’ve never missed a Saturday in 262 years!), the role that it plays in the regional economy contributes greatly to the sense of community ownership, since most residents of Atlantic Canada are just a generation away from a farmer or fisherman. “At the end of World War II,” Wallace explains, “we had around 35,000 independent farms in Nova Scotia. Now we have around 3,800. This market is intended to serve as a hub from which money in the urban core is being channeled back into rural areas around the province. This is all tied to food security.”

In Portland, Oregon, Director Trudy Toliver’s Portland Farmers Market benefits greatly from  a strong local food culture. “In Portland, for the most part, we really care a lot about food,” Toliver says. “It’s just important to us; the population has strong values about eating healthy food. We also don’t have many commodity farmers in Oregon–we grow food here. In a way, we’ve hit on the perfect storm.”

When food and agriculture play an important role in local culture, a market becomes an easier sell. But with many cities disconnected from the greater food systems that serve them, ancillary uses become important for longevity. This bodes well for places; as Davies explains: “Great markets are created through the clustering of activity. They require the intentional aggregation of local food production, but also of other services and functions. The food is the central reason for why people gather, and that gathering creates a hub for community life.”

Since markets are centered on the sale of nutrient-rich, natural foods, one smart way to add value to these locations is to focus on creating “healthy food hubs,” which cluster health-related activities around markets to encourage visitors not just to eat more fruits and vegetables, but to take a more proactive approach to their own well-being. Some markets include things like health clinics, fitness classes, nutrition information, or classes that teach healthy living principles. Healthy food hubs are especially useful in low-income areas where the need is more acute because of the high cost of regular preventative medical care.

Markets can also serve to amplify cherished aspects of local culture. Says Verel, “The idea of a marketplace is pretty open to what the talents and interests are in a given region. Food will always be the core, but how you build off of that depends on local needs. What if one of Detroit’s markets was for classic cars? Every Saturday you could set up the food stands in a parking lot, and line classic cars for sale up along the edges. If you’re open to it, a market can be anything.”

Relaxing with a view of the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene / Photo: Eli Duke via Flickr

For a success story of a market not only building off of, but strengthening local identity, Verel taps the Brooklyn Flea, which has served as a major driver behind Brooklyn’s well-documented boom in artisanal food and craft goods. “The Flea gave all of these people who had ideas for a product a market, when they couldn’t have gotten it into a store because they were too small. There are so many permanent businesses here that started out of the Flea, and together they give Brooklyn this interesting character.”

This hits on one of the major strengths of the Market City in today’s economy, especially in down-at-heel cities where the things that they used to be famous for making are no longer made. Along with industry, many cities have lost their sense of identity. Markets offer a Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper way to start rebuilding some of that identity and economic activity (as some of our recent work in Detroit has shown). Food is something that every city and town has the resources to produce locally–if a place as densely-built as New York can become an urban agriculture leader, any city can.

In Halifax, Wallace can rattle off a long list of activities that the Seaport Farmers Market has added to its programming, from a library book-drop to serve far-flung farmers, to student art exhibits, to community org booths. These efforts are all aimed at turning the market into a “modern agora,” in his words. Most exciting are the partnerships with businesses in the surrounding area that highlight the market’s vendors, hinting at the potential for markets to serve as economic anchors.

“In the community,” he explains, ” our landlord has put together a committee to get neighbors involved to promote the area as a district. In August of 2011, the market partnered with the Westin Hotel across the street, and they built the concept for their restaurant around the idea of a 100-mile diet–now they’ve got it down to a 50-mile diet. They are sourcing as many ingredients from the market as possible. They’re listing all of the producers from around Nova Scotia on their menus.”

Seattle's Pike Place Market is the hub of a model market district / Photo: PPS

In a Market City, the most vibrant places are these types of market districts: places where market activity spills out into the surrounding streets and businesses. Using the Power of 10 framework, we can identify market districts as neighborhoods with at least ten market-related activities all within close proximity to each other. Zooming out, a great Market City or Market Town needs at least ten market districts, where local activity spreads out from the neighborhood marketplace.

If you want to see a Market City in action, you may want to consider attending the 8th International Public Markets Conference in Cleveland this September. Chosen as the host city because of the role that food is playing in its remarkable turnaround, Cleveland illustrates many of the aspects of a Market City, according to O’Neil.

The West Side Market tower, seen from the nearby Ohio City Farm / Photo: PPS

“From agricultural production areas, to smaller markets, to bigger markets, you can really see things changing in Cleveland,” he says. “For a long time, Cleveland was a Market Town, and now institutions like the West Side Market are leading its post-industrial revival. The WSM isn’t a suburban market, but it’s not right downtown–it was always a neighborhood market. It’s a good lab for seeing the power that a market can have on its town or district. The Ohio City district has become an attractive place to open up a business because of the market. The effect is becoming so positive that it’s affecting the larger city of Cleveland, itself. The market is becoming a sun, and the city is leaning toward it for oxygen, light, and life.”

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Don’t forget — early bird registration for the 8th International Markets Conference ends on July 31st. Act now to lock in the lowest rates!

Here in the US, we are part of several new partnerships and programs that will have us working in all 50 states, from big cities to small towns. The formation of major partnerships like Livability Solutions and CommunityMatters; PPS’s absorption of the National Center for Bicycling and Walking and the re-focusing of its Pro Walk/Pro Bike conference on the theme “Pro Place”; new work with federal and state agencies, including the EPA, NEA, and DOTs in multiple states–all of these events indicate a shift in the way that people are approaching their work, as they come to understand how focusing on place changes everything.

We are also working with the Ax:son Johnson Foundation and UN-Habitat to convene an international group of Placemaking leaders in Stockholm, Sweden, next summer. This event will be structured around the transformative agendas at the heart of our work, and will be the first of three major conferences leading up to Habitat III in 2016. We’re also bringing together the best and brightest place-centered minds for a Placemaking Leadership Council, which will meet for the first time at the end of the year, and will be instrumental in shaping our work as the Placemaking movement continues to grow.

These initiatives are the culmination of our work up to this point. We look forward to collaborating with our new partners on re-centering the discussion about sustainable, prosperous cities on Place, and to creating a “Town Square of Placemaking.” Below, we’ve rounded up photos from some of the most exciting work that we’re doing right now. There will be many opportunities in the coming months to plug into the growing global network of Placemakers. We’re looking forward to connecting with you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out!

We traveled to Nairobi this spring as part of Transforming Cities through Placemaking & Public Spaces, our joint program with UN-Habitat. We continue to work closely with our friends there, and are looking forward to bringing Placemaking to a global audience at the World Urban Forum in Naples, Italy, this September. (Photo: PPS)

Just last week, we announced the exciting news that PPS will be leading the National Endowment for the Arts' Citizens' Institute on Rural Design as part of our work with the Orton Family Foundation and its new CommunityMatters partnership. We're looking forward to putting lessons learned from recent work in rural communities, like the above-pictured plan for the future of Windham, NH's Village Center, to good use! (Photo: PPS)

We’ve had the pleasure of working on some of the most treasured places in Detroit, including Eastern Market, the largest public markets in the country, where we developed a comprehensive outreach program to foster closer links between the market and the community. Michiganders have taken to championing Placemaking, as well, from the grassroots to the real estate community the governor's office. (Photo: PPS)

You’ll be able to learn from farmers markets and public markets around the world at the 8th International Public Markets Conference, which will take place in Cleveland, OH, this September 21-23. It will be a great opportunity to explore how “market cities” are revitalizing their neighborhoods by focusing on creating healthy places. (Photo: PPS)

Inspired by PPS’s work, Philadelphia’s University City District has created “The Porch,” a Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper public plaza at a major transportation hub downtown. Philly is one of ten communities to receive free technical assistance from the Livability Solutions partnership on major Placemaking projects thanks to an EPA Technical Assistance Sustainable Communities Grant. (Photo: PlanPhilly via Flickr)

We’re looking forward to traveling to one of our very favorite places, Vancouver’s Granville Island, with a group of civic leaders from Salt Lake City to help Utah’s capital develop a leadership agenda around key destinations. We’ll also be hosting another round of Placemaking trainings at our office in New York City this fall—dates coming soon! (Photo: PPS)

Our team of transportation experts has been very busy working with cities and towns around the world. You can meet and chat with them at this year's Pro Walk/Pro Bike: Pro Place conference in Long Beach (Sept. 10-13, 2012), which will put a fresh spin on North America's premier event for bike/ped advocates and enthusiasts by focusing the conversation on how transportation can help create great places. (Photo: PPS)

San Antonio’s appetite for Placemaking has made turned it into what we like to call a “popping city.” We’ve recently worked on recommendations for Alamo Plaza (pictured above during the Luminaria festival), participated in the Downtown Transportation Study, worked with Rackspace on a public space plan for their headquarters, and participated in planning for the revamp of HemisFair Park—all within the past few months! (Photo: PPS)

We’ve been working on the Perth Cultural Centre in Australia, helping the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority to re-think the campus as a true cultural hub by focusing on Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper tactics (like the concert pictured above), busting silos and bringing art out into the streets. The results have been astounding! (Photo: MRA)

Families peruse stands offering a variety of fresh foods at a farmers market in downtown Milwaukee / Photo: Ethan Kent

According to Dr. Richard Jackson, a pioneering public health advocate and former CDC official now serving as the Chair of Environmental Health Sciences at UCLA, the idea that buildings, streets, and public spaces play a key role in the serious public health issues that we face in the US “has undergone a profound sea change in the past few years. It’s gone from sort of a marginal, nutty thing to becoming something that’s common sense for a lot of people.”

That’s good news, but as a profile of Dr. Jackson in the Chronicle of Higher Education notes, today’s click-driven media climate means that the message of public health advocates like Jackson is “often pithily condensed to a variation of this eye-catching headline: ‘Suburbia Makes You Fat.’” And while these pithily-titled articles may do some good in alerting more people to the problems inherent in the way that we’ve been designing our cities and towns for the past half-century, they oversimplify the message and strip out one of the most important factors in any effort to change the way that we shape the places where we live and work: social capital.

Highways, parking lots, cars, big box stores–these are merely symptoms of a larger problem: many people have become so used to their surroundings looking more like a suburban arterial road than a compact, multi-use destination that they’ve become completely disconnected from Place. Real life is lived amongst gas stations and golden arches; we have to visit Disneyland to see a thriving, compact Main Street. To question a condition that’s so pervasive, as individuals, seems futile.

Bikers and walkers chat at a market in Portland, OR / Photo: npGREENWAY via Flickr

That’s why, if we want to see people challenging the way that their places are made on a larger scale, we need to focus first on developing the loose social networks that are so vital to urban resilience. This is the stuff Jane Jacobs was talking about when she wrote, in the Death and Life of Great American Cities, that “lowly, unpurposeful, and random as they appear, sidewalk contacts are the small change from which a city’s wealth of public life must grow.” When people are connected enough to feel comfortable talking about what they want for their neighborhood with their neighbors, it’s much easier to muster political will to stop, say, a highway from cutting through Greenwich Village–or, in contemporary terms, to tear down a highway that was actually built.

In Dr. Jackson’s words: “The key thing is to get the social engagement. Community-building has to happen first; people need to articulate what’s broke, and then what they want.” Serendipitously, gathering to discuss a vision for a healthier future is an ideal way to build the social capital needed to turn the understanding that our built environment is hurting us into action to change the existing paradigm. At PPS, we have seen first-hand how the Placemaking process has brought people together in hundreds of cities around the world with the goal of improving shared public spaces; it’s a process that strengthens existing ties, creates new ones, and invigorates communities with the knowledge of how they can make things happen.

The Healthy Places Program (HPP), which began last year as a collaboration between staff members working in PPS’s Public Markets and Transportation programs. “There are many different elements that make up a healthy community,” says Aurash Khawarzad, an Associate in PPS’s Transportation division, and a key player in getting HPP off the ground. “There are social factors, environmental factors, etc–and what we at PPS can do is take these people in our offices who are focusing on their own areas and bring them together.”

Aurash Khawarzad leads a Healthy Places workshop in upstate New York / Photo: PPS

With that collaborative mission in mind, Khawarzad and Kelly Verel, a Senior Associate in PPS’s Public Markets division, set out on a trip across New York last fall to facilitate a series of day-long Healthy Places workshops with local, regional, and state public health officials and a host of community partners. In partnership with the New York Academy of Medicine’s DASH-NY, the PPS team visited a range of communities, from rural towns, to suburban stretches, to major and mid-sized cities. The workshops were designed to help participants understand how multi-modal transportation systems can be better designed to create a network that links a series of destinations, including healthy food hubs and markets, to create a built environment that promotes well-being by making healthy lifestyle choices (like walking, biking, and eating fresh food) more convenient and fun. They focused not just on what wasn’t working, but on brainstorming ways that participants’ communities could become truly healthy places.

Any expert worth their salt will tell you that maintaining good health is not just about exercise or diet, but both together. In much the same way, addressing the problem of bad community design and its impacts on Public Health requires that we not just promote better transportation or better food access alone, but that we focus on both simultaneously. “The reaction we got from the the Healthy Places training attendees was really good,” notes Verel. “I think people have been really siloed in their efforts. We would ask people what they were doing and they would say ‘access to food in schools,’ or ‘rails to trails,’ and that they focus exclusively on that area.”

Understanding public health within the context of Place is essential, because the problems created and reinforced by our built environment are so broad in scope. HPP takes that case directly to local decision-makers and creates a learning environment where they can build their understanding of how Place effects health together, in a cross-disciplinary setting. This “silo-busting” is absolutely critical; as Dr. Jackson writes in the introduction to his latest book, Designing Healthy Communities (a companion to the four-part PBS special of the same name):

“For too long we have had doctors talking only to doctors, and urban planners, architects, and builders talking only to themselves. The point is that all of us, including those in public health, have got to get out of the silos we have created, and we have got to connect—actually talk to each other before and while we do our work—because there is no other way we can create the environment we want. Public health in particular must be interdisciplinary, for no professional category owns public health or is legitimately excused from it.”

The emphasis, there, is added, as this phrase strike at the heart of the problem we face. To shift the default development model from “low-density, use-segregated, and auto-centric” to one that promotes healthy, active lifestyles and more vibrant communities will take strong leadership from people who aren’t afraid to work across departments, and “turn everything upside-down to get it right side up.” PPS is certainly not the only organization to recognize this, and we’re thrilled to be part of a growing movement. In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has its own Healthy Community Design Initiative program. Internationally, Urban Age made designing for public health the subject of a major conference in Hong Kong held late last year (from which a full report is now available).

New bike lanes are just one part of Pro Walk / Pro Bike: "Pro Place" host city Long Beach, CA's strategy to become "Biketown USA" / Photo: waltarrrrr via Flickr

Of course, individual citizens have hardly been waiting around and twiddling their thumbs. Active transportation, healthy food, and community gardening advocates have been working for decades on the ground, pushing for incremental changes to the way our cities and towns operate. Just through the robust conversations taking place online around issues like #completestreets, #biking, and #urbanag, it’s easy to see how well-organized and resonant these movements have become. Mounting public awareness is pushing more public officials toward programs like HPP, to learn about how focusing on Place can facilitate inter-agency collaboration around the common cause of improving public health.

Whether you’re looking at this issue from the top-down or the bottom-up, there will be several opportunities to gather with active transportation and public markets professionals, advocates, and enthusiasts from around the world this fall for debate, discussion, and more of that vital social capital development. As part of the Healthy Places Program, PPS is hosting two conferences, just one week apart: the 17th Pro Walk / Pro Bike: “Pro Place” conference in Long Beach, CA (Sept. 10-13); and the 8th International Public Markets Conference in Cleveland, OH (Sept. 21-23).

Cleveland, which will host the 8th International Public Markets Conference in September, is home to the historic, bustling West Side Market / Photo: Catherine V via Flickr

If you’re approaching Healthy Places from the transportation world, Pro Walk / Pro Bike (#prowalkprobike) will explore how efforts to advocate for safer and better infrastructure for active transportation modes are being greatly enhanced as more and more people learn about the benefits of getting around on their own two feet (with or without pedals). If you’re more of a “foodie,” the Public Markets conference (#marketsconf8) will highlight the burgeoning local food scene in Cleveland and throughout Northeastern Ohio, and will spotlight the iconic West Side Market, arguably the most architecturally significant market building in the US. Both events will focus on how supporters of active transportation and public markets, respectively, can grow their movements by busting down silos and thinking h0listically about how their chosen cause can be part of the effort to create Healthy Places.

If you can’t make it to Long Beach or Cleveland, there are plenty of Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper steps that you can take to get your neighbors together and talking, out in public space, building local connections. “Something like a playstreet or a summer street shows people that, not only do they like this kind of varied activity and flexibility and want more of it in their community’s streets, but that they can actually make it happen,” Verel explains. “It takes more basic manpower–putting up tents, handing out flyers–than actual lobbying or money to get the DOT to shut down a street for one day and focus on social interaction and healthy activity.”

And you can start even smaller than that. PPS mentor Holly Whyte once wrote that “We are not hapless beings caught in the grip of forces we can do little about, and wholesale damnations of our society only lend a further mystique to organization. Organization has been made by man; it can be changed by man.” If our problem is that we have become siloed and isolated, at work and in our neighborhoods, then the most immediate way for us to start re-organizing is to reach out to the people around us, with something as simple as a friendly “hello” on the street. An interaction like this might seem ‘lowly, unpurposeful, and random’–but at the very least, it will make you feel happier and more connected to your community. And guess what? That’s good for you, too.

So, here’s to your health!

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Click here to register for Pro Walk / Pro Bike: “Pro Place”
(Early Summer rate available until June 29)

Click here to register for the 8th International Public Markets Conference
(Early bird rate available until July 31)
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A Playstreet-style fundraiser for cicLAvia in Los Angeles / Photo: waltarrrrr via Flickr

Entire families came by bike to the food truck festival. Usually empty, this lawn in Grey Park was transformed into a great community destination.

“If you want to seed a place with activity, put out food. Food attracts people who attract more people.”  William H. Whyte in the Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

People of all ages like food trucks! Flirty Cupcakes sold out within hours.

A Fundraiser to Improve the Park that Improves the Park

Big problems don’t always need big solutions.  The answer may be as simple as cupcakes and empanadas. The community-led Evanston Parks Coalition (EPC) organized a food truck festival to raise money so that PPS could help lead a community-based visioning process. But the fundraiser did far more than just move them toward that goal: it changed the community’s perception of the space by transforming it into a great destination that brought hundreds of neighbors out to enjoy a park they usually just hurry past—all without costly, permanent infrastructure changes.  It’s a great “lighter, quicker, cheaper” way to test out longer-term changes to the park.

“In our case,” explained Belén Ayestarán from EPC, “a key principle is: ‘if there is something in the park to attract a critical mass of other people, the mentally ill will just be part of the crowd and no one will find them intimidating.’ In fact, at the event there were more Albany Care residents than any other day. They didn’t just blend in, they were part of the community.”

The EPC is led by a few “zelous nuts” (our highest praise for a local, dedicated Placemaking leader). Belén is chief among them and she is committed to a vision of a park with “features and activities that are common, that everyone—children, the mentally ill, parents, professionals, etc.—can enjoy.” Right along with her organizing the event were volunteers from The Center for Independent Futures, a non-profit for people with disabilities, and some residents from Albany Care. Belén says “we are big believers in the power of food” to create common ground.

Belén said many people who attended the festival asked, “Why don’t we do this every week?” Many of the vendors recruited for the day quickly sold out and the park was packed with families from the neighborhood. But it wasn’t just about the food: the festival also featured bands, a Spanish/English sing along, and a zumba class—all of which neighbors donated.

Local performers, like Everybody Move, donated their time.

From Food Trucks to a Permanent Kiosk

The event also allowed the group to test out the viability of a permanent food kiosk that they envision could function as a kind of management center for the park. The kiosk could give out games (like bocce or chess) and “provide a sense of that the park is supervised which would alleviate unfounded fears neighbors have of the mentally ill.”

Belén and other organizers see great potential for a food kiosk to turn the park around. In addition to food, Belén, explains, “a kiosk could provide employment for some of the more functional residents of Albany Care. It could man folding café chairs and tables that visitors could move with the shade from the large maples. From the chairs, they could watch children twirling in and out of a large interactive sculpture or wading in a water feature in front of the existing amphitheater.”

Dogs and kids played together during the festival.

Grey Park’s Great Place Potential

The park has a lot of potential to become a great neighborhood gathering place.  It has what PPS calls “good bones:” it’s large, green, and surrounded by a number of important destinations that people visit every day.  Grey Park is right on an important north-south road that’s a main artery for the town and is at the entrance to the business district. Two blocks away are an L and Metra stops, a major transportation hub, and then there are four schools (an elementary school, middle school, catholic school and school for children with disabilities). Charles Grey, who gave the park, bought the land at that location because of its proximity to the schools and downtown.

The park's playground on a typical day. Neighbors say it's usually a “de facto smoking area” with no kids.

The same park during the festival is packed with families enjoying the playground.

Next steps
Already there are plans in the work for another Food Truck Festival next year.   Organizers say they’re thinking of expanding the festival by stationing food trucks in different parks throughout Evanston. Belén also wants to put out bike rentals so people could bike around Evanston. 

When used strategically, putting out affordable, good food can actually create an inclusive, comfortable setting that welcomes many different kinds of people. Evanston shows how food trucks can be a “lighter, quicker, cheaper” strategy to transform a maligned, deserted park into a hub of neighborhood activity that sets the stage for future changes, local investment, and even new friendships.

6 Tips for a Great Food Truck Festival 

Belén shared with PPS some important tips about hosting a great event that can “re-brand” and improve your park:

• Show Solutions: Big problems don’t necessarily need big solutions. Redesign is often thought of as tearing up the park and adding lots of new features. In our case, the park is beautiful. Some programming and some key new features will go a long way.
• Triangulate: Blur the line between playground and kiosk. We wanted to show that it is very easy to supervise children playing as a collective of adults. If all the adults are eating or picnicking, children will just play together in close watch. And children don’t need playgrounds! (Playgrounds are expensive!).
• Observe where people picnic: They’ll choose promising parts of the park! Picnics are a great way to find out the most desirable spots. People will put their blankets down in promising parts of the park. Surprisingly, people laid blankets in close proximity to the tables where the mentally ill always sit––the infamous tables at the heart of the controversy!  People won’t set up camp if they feel uneasy.
• Schedule events throughout the park to test the performance of various existing features. We learned a lot about our amphitheater by observing the way people used it. We had planned to do daytime performances there but it turns out it was way too sunny (even though it was a cool day). Lesson learned: No performances at lunch time, unless there is a tarp. Upside: We discovered the amphitheater would make a great space for water shoots for kids. Adults could sunbathe and children waddle. In the evening, when the water is off, performers could set up shop.
• Park Trucks Strategically: Experiment with Traffic Calming. People generally perceive most of the space in Grey Park as unusable because it is at the intersection of two main streets. We purposely put the trucks close to the busiest streets, to show that the park is so big that the traffic is actually quite far away. It is safe to use those parts of the park, even for children.
• Think Like A Truck. Food trucks have followers on Twitter. Use their social networks to attract large numbers of unprejudiced users to your park. Also make sure your trucks get there early. Otherwise you will have permanent lines. Remember, truck foodies arrive ahead of time!

For more on efforts to turn Grey Park around:

• Partners Share Vision for South Evanston Park (Evanston Review)

• Food Truck Festival Rolls into Grey Park (The Daily Northwestern)

A marketplace in Cairo

For many women and girls around the world, just passing through a public space- a market, a crowded street or riding the bus – is cause for great anxiety: the threat of sexual harassment can be terrifying and have lingering psychological impacts and consequences.  Unfortunately, patterns of sexual abuse in urban public spaces are often seen as an unavoidable part of urban life and generally speaking, not therefore recognized as a problem either by local governments, enforcement agencies, or the public.

Cynthia Nikitin

As part of PPS’ ongoing relationship with the UN-Habitat, I flew to Cairo to join over 100 participants from more than 12 countries who are working together to bring an end to sexual harassment and violence against women and girls in public spaces at the 2011 UN Women Designing Safe Cities with Women and Girls Stakeholder Planning Meeting. UN Egypt reported on the event.

In what spaces do women suffer most from sexual harassment?
Many, many topics were covered during the planning meeting- but what I found most startling was the emphasis about public space as places where women suffer most from sexual harassment and gender based violence.  While most public spaces in North American cities and those of the West in general – markets in particular – are usually where one is most likely to find police, an on site management presence, guards, and watchful neighbors, in the Global South and developing countries, public spaces are the most dangerous places to be for women and girls, and the least supervised as well.

At a marketplace in Cairo

How can Placemaking Help Prevent Sexual Harassment in Public Spaces?

Streets, squares, and parks, the focus of our initial work at PPS, are often chaotic, poorly planned and maintained places (if they exist at all in disadvantaged and under-resourced communities).   Once transformed, however, public spaces are anchors to safe, inclusive and thriving urban centers.

Moreover, an improved public environment can have a catalytic impact on a city: enhancing the delivery of basic social and infrastructural services, driving the creation of economic and cultural activity, expanding mobility options, and nurturing a cohesive, civil society based upon mutual respect between men and women.  Finally, as a grassroots process, Placemaking provides a way to concretely engage people – especially women and youth – in planning and implementing pubic space improvements in their communities.

Traffic in Cairo

Change the Physical Environment to Change Behavior

What became clear to me over the 4 days of the conference was how important it was to and perhaps even easier it might be to make changes to the physical environment in order to influence behavioral patterns and minimize the fear factor of sexual violence that haunts women the world over. Instead, the goal of the conference organizers and the Safer Cities for Women and Girls program is to change the mindset of men and boys, advocate for and protect the rights of women, build the capacity of women to voice their views,  raise awareness of the seriousness of this issue (98% of all foreign female visitors to Cairo cite being sexually harassed for example), change cultural patterns and legal systems, educate police and local governments to be more responsive to women’s concerns and build public trust in these institutions.

Using a grassroots process to redesign the public spaces where women live could be a much faster way to bring about the changes necessary to make cities safer for women.

But, by the end of the conference, and impacted by my presentation and conversations over the course of the 4 days event, there seemed to be an emerging recognition of the need to also address the built environment and its impact on women’s feeling of safety and security as a way of achieving on the ground immediate resolution of and means to begin to deconstruct long held systemic belief systems and insensitive legal structures.  Redesigning bus stops and stations, train stations, public markets, and all the places where women live and go through a grass roots process which includes and empowers them could prove to be a much faster way to bring about the changes that will make cities safer for women.

Cairo

Rethinking Design to Include Safety Concerns

Partnerships with architects, urban planners, transit authorities, landscape architects and planning agencies and educating the design professions about ways to build projects from the outset that consider women’s safety as a key element of their design program could set the stage for and induce the psycho-social, behavioural, and cultural changes that need to take place before women are truly able to enjoy public spaces and engage fully in the civic life of their cities.

Breaking Down Silos for Stronger Safer City Initiatives

It is a question then of social movements geared towards making on the ground, visible changes, lead by empowered grassroots women, (which our friends at the Huairou Commission has been championing and achieving for the past 15 years) vs. a more considered, quantitative approach towards collecting analyzing and disseminating data around women’s safety to federal and state governments, local authorities and decision and policy makers.  Both are valuable, necessary approaches. However, when linked with designing, building, programming, managing and supporting the upgrading of public spaces, the safer cities initiatives themselves can become more effective more quickly .

Placemaking Dispatches from Cairo

I got to share Placemaking with a lot of amazing people involved in Safer Cities Initiatives.  Great walk around the markets and new parks with UN-HABITAT gals and a Cairo urbanologist/architect whose staff is crazy about us: Dina Shehayeb has done housing upgrade projects working with local residents and was part of the team that turned a landfill in Cairo into an amazing park, called Alazhar Park. Perhaps one of the best in the Arab world? See for yourself.

L to R: Cecilia Anderson, UN Habitat, Nairobi; Katja Schaeffer, UN Habitat, Cairo; Me; Dina Shehayeb, Researcher, Community Planner, Author; with Ahmad, whose father owns the shop behind us, and his friend.

Why does it take a hurricane, a terrorist attack or a revolution to get people to cooperate with their neighbors?

PPS is thrilled to announce that we’ve been awarded a grant from the Kresge Foundation for our program, “Rebuilding Detroit Neighborhoods through Placemaking and the Power of 10.”

PPS hopes this new project will lead to more markets like Detroit’s Eastern Market, which has become a community center as well as a hub for fresh, healthy food.

The program will be piloted in two neighborhoods this year, and hopefully expanded to other neighborhoods in the future.   The planning process with each community will support a broader city-visioning process funded by the Kresge Foundation called “Detroit Works.”

Place-based Governance in Michigan
This work will continue to advance Michigan’s groundbreaking commitment to Place-based Governance, established by the state’s new governor, Rick Snyder, through his first Special Message to the State Legislature which established Placemaking as a state-wide economic development strategy.

Movable seating in Campus Martius, Detroit

About The Kresge Foundation
Headquartered in metro Detroit, The Kresge Foundation is a $3.1 billion private, national foundation that seeks to influence the quality of life for future generations through its support of nonprofit organizations in six fields of interest including arts and culture, community development, education, the environment, health, and human services.

The Kresge Foundation’s commitment to its Detroit Program reflects the organization’s deep roots in the city.  Since its founding in 1924, Kresge Foundation has provided continuous philanthropic support to the area’s nonprofit organizations and community initiatives. In the 1990s and early 2000s, this support was coordinated by our Detroit Initiative, which focused primarily on strengthening civic institutions and building new public gathering spaces, such as the RiverWalk and Campus Martius Park, a project for which PPS worked with the community to develop a vision for a park that would become, in the Mayor’s words, “the best public space in the world.” PPS’ design suggestions envisioned an entire district of public uses to tie the park into a larger, city-wide revitalization.

A cafe at Detroit's Eastern Market

For almost eight years, PPS worked with the city of Detroit and stakeholders at the city’s renowned Eastern Market on revitalization strategy.  The Kresge Foundation has been a leading supporter in the renovation of the market’s historic sheds and of the market’s ongoing community programming.   Today the Eastern Market is once again one of the largest and most vibrant market districts in the US.

Kresge uses a values-criteria to guide their grantmaking, which aims to create access and advance opportunity for marginalized populations, promote community impact in ways most needed by residents, cultivate innovation and risk taking, support interdisciplinary solutions, reach under-served locales, foster environmental sustainability, and encourage nonprofit boards and their staffs to reflect the racial, ethnic and gender diversity of the people they serve. PPS is honored to have been selected.

For more information about this project feel free to contact Steve Davies at sdavies@pps.org.

Are you in Detroit? Tell us about how to improve your local markets in the comments below.

A market in Hong Kong confers many benefits to its neighborhood.

New research on public marketplaces and their potential to spur local economic, social and political development cites many PPS studies and is closely in line with PPS’ approach to markets, which emphasizes that successful public markets achieve these three goals:

• they’re great community gathering places
• they’re economically sustainable
• they have a  broad impact on their community’s development.

This convergence is what makes successful public markets not only good for vendors and customers but also for good the market’s surrounding community.

Marketplaces as Tools for Planning and Public Policy
The report, Marketplaces: Prospects for Economic, Social and Political Development (free PDF, registration required for download) by Alfonso Morales of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “shows how marketplaces were once tools of nascent planning and public policy, describes the reasons they should be again, and shows how planners and policy makers can advance public purposes through markets.”  For Morales, “…the marketplace represents one route to community redevelopment in the broadest sense.”

The research cites PPS studies throughout, including:

• Public Markets as a Vehicle for Social Integration and Upward Mobility, prepared with Partners for Livable Communities for the Ford Foundation, 2003

• Public Markets and Community-Based Food Systems: Making them Work in Lower Income Communities, prepared with Partners for Livable Communities for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 2003.

• Public Markets and Community Revitalization, published jointly with the Urban Land Institute and PPS, 1995.

Markets Can Release a Community’s Creativity
The report focuses on the many, varied impacts marketplaces can have on the public realm and explains that “markets release the creative, recreational, civic, and economic energies between the community and the individuals who compose it…. Markets connect the natural world to the urban environment, and the two-way connection raises hopes in both that communities will develop economically, that farmland and food systems will be protected, that individual health will be improved, and that the natural and local will supplement the engineered and global urban environment.

…The market provides a ‘halo effect’ in a community, and a vibrant market is auto-catalytic, producing positive feedback loops in civic, economic, and social life. Although the market represents the community, its connections, and its aspirations, it takes relationships between outsiders and insiders to catalyze these aspects of community and to make operational symbolic hopes individuals have for themselves and their community.”

Want to learn more?
PPS has a number of resources on markets that can help you get started creating a great community place- in addition to a number of useful books and publications like SNAP/EBT at your Farmers Market: 7 Steps to Success.

Attend our next training course!
How to Create Successful Markets in New York City this month (May 20 and 21).

At PPS, we think Placemaking is the nexus between sustainability and livability: by making our communities more livable, and more about places, we also are doing the right thing for the planet. Placemaking provides concrete actions and results that boost broader sustainability goals such as smart growth, walkability, public transportation, local food, and bikes, yet brings it home for people in tangible, positive ways.  Creating lively town centers and neighborhoods that enhance pride of place and promote local economic development is critical to improving local quality of life as well as quality of the environment.

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What’s “Sustainable”? By Dave Stauffer

Dave Stauffer

If your commission is like the one in my town, more developers and applicants are loading their project designs with features intended to impress you because they’re “sustainable.” But ask them what they mean by sustainable and you’re likely to get responses ranging from a blank look to a treatise on every person’s obligation to help save the planet.

The most common definition seems to be that offered by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development’s 1987 Brundtland Report, stating that sustainable development “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

The International Institute for Sustainable Development quotes the U.N. definition and adds, “The concept of sustainable development … helps us understand ourselves and our world. The problems we face are complex and serious — and we can’t address them in the same way we created them. But we can address them.”

According to the contributors to Wikipedia, “Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for future generations.”

Others reach back in history to cite, for example, the “Great Law of the Iroquois” American Indian tribe, which supposedly commanded sustainability by declaring, “In every deliberation we must consider the impact on the seventh generation.”

For the past few years, as chairman of a regional business group, the Yellowstone Business Partnership, whose below-the-logo tag-line is “Advancing Sustainable Enterprise,” I’ve read and heard a lot about sustainability and sustainable development. Among my conclusions:

• We’re a long way, in consensus and time, from universal agreement on a definition of sustainability.

• It’s nice, but not crucial, that we agree on a definition.

• What is crucial is that we who are asked to weigh claims of sustainability come up with a practical definition that we can use day-to-day to make the decisions that come before us.

That’s no simple task. Opinions on a project’s sustainability will often range widely among commissioners. Moreover, assessing a project’s attributes will seldom be a matter of black or white, but rather a frustrating gray. But gray terms are nothing new for us; we toil in a realm of squishy definitions. What’s the pay range, for example, of a “well-paying job”? What project attributes constitute “responsible” development?

We shouldn’t — and in my opinion can’t — shy away from our own determination of whether project features really are sustainable.

How might we do that?

• Make developers or applicants do the heavy lifting. When they tout their project’s sustainability, ask how they define that term. Then ask them to explain how their sustainable features meet that definition. Don’t settle for generalities: get names of processes, materials, and methods. Also be sure to ask what additional up-front amount they’re spending, beyond regulatory requirements, to achieve long-run sustainability.

• Give an “A” for effort. Sustainability means different things to different people, has no widely accepted metrics, and — truth to tell — few projects that come before us can be called sustainable. So (without ignoring any stated requirements for project approval) cut some slack for applicants who show you they’ve made a commendable effort to fashion a project that conserves resources, respects its surroundings, and is built to last.

• Devise and think through your own list of sustainable project features. My current list (always subject to change) includes attributes of:

-Scale — a good fit with neighbors, neither ramshackle nor grandiose.

-Access and mobility — it’s easy to get into, out of, and around in.

-Consumption & waste — efforts to minimize are evident and effective.

-Re-use — makes use of recycled building materials when feasible.

-Location & siting — makes the most of orientation to sun, topography, wind, natural and man-made infrastructure.

-Absence — preserves open space and is no larger than necessary for its functions.

Stay flexible in defining sustainability. There’s nothing wrong with a changing concept of what sustainability is or how a project achieves it; sustainability as its own field of study is far from mature. As you review more applications that claim sustainability, stay open to refining your own criteria.

Given the state of our world today, especially our accelerating depletion of natural resources and rising costs of man-made resources, sustainability is certain to gain ever-increasing attention. It may be hard to define, but it’s vitally important to our communities.

Register now for PPS upcoming training session, “How to Create Successful Markets,” May 20-21 in New York City.

 

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While the number of new markets in Maine continue to grow, most of what I heard people talk about at the conference was how their established market is being asked to expand operations and take on a larger role in the life of the community.

Markets across the state are expanding the number of days they are open and adding second locations, accepting SNAP/EBT, selling local products online, and even operating year-round. While this growth is exciting it also is challenging, especially because so many of the state’s markets are operated by volunteers.

As markets in Maine and across the country are increasingly recognized as important community assets, they need help taking on larger responsibilities. No matter whether your market is new or established and undergoing growing pains, these principles can help make it succeed both as a market and as a great community place.

4 Guidelines for Creating a Great Public Market

A market on Rue Mouffetard in Paris

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Meg MacIver contributed to this post.

Cleveland’s historic West Side Market is an incubator for over 100 locally-owned food businesses

We’re excited to announce that Cleveland has been selected to host the 8th International Public Markets Conference.

The 3-day event, planned for September or October of 2012, will bring together over 300 participants including noted planners and designers, accomplished market managers, and visionary leaders in a unique opportunity to focus together on the past, present and future of markets worldwide.

Exact dates and locations will be announced this autumn. For more information, please contact Kelly Verel at kverel@pps.org.

One of 20 cities to compete for the chance to host the conference, Cleveland has been selected from a group of five finalists including London, England; Toronto, Ontario; Seattle, Washington and Charleston, South Carolina.

The conference will align with the City’s celebration of the centennial year of the historic West Side Market. “Cleveland should be proud of the longevity of the West Side Market – one of the few remaining historic public markets in the U.S,” says PPS Senior Vice President Steve Davies, “and conference participants will also learn a great deal from the region’s expanding farmers markets which are sparking revitalization, job growth and healthy living.”

Cleveland and the Market were singled out by the Travel Channel as the best culinary secret in America, and the West Side Market was named by the Food Network  as the “Best Food Lover’s Market”  in the country in September of 2010. Even Travel and Leisure Magazine says “Cleveland shines brightly on the map of new American food destinations” and highlights the Market as a must-see destination.  The American Planning Association designated the market as one of America’s “10 Great Public Spaces,” and it is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The exterior of Cleveland’s historic West Side Market, circa 1912

City leaders in Cleveland have become known as champions for local food, urban agriculture and healthy living, passing legislation to allow backyard chickens and bees, leading the country in vacant land reuse and urban agriculture. As recently as this month, they joined forces with local hospitals to tackle city-wide health through healthy eating.

PPS will co-host the conference with the Ohio City Near West Development Corporation as the organization dedicated to developing, preserving, and promoting Ohio City, the neighborhood anchored by the West Side Market.

Cleveland’s local press has enthusiastic coverage of the announcement:

• Cleveland to Host 8th International Public Markets Conference in 2012
• Cleveland Picked for Public Markets Conference
• Cleveland, West Side Market, Tapped to Host International Public Markets Conference in 2012
• Cleveland Beats out National and International Competition to Host the 2012 PPS Conference
• West Side Market Cleveland to Host International Public Markets Conference

The East Lake Farmers Market is one of Birmingham's existing centers for fresh food

PPS has long known that public markets play a key role in alleviating these health concerns. Partnering with Main Street Birmingham and, supported by funding from the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) program, PPS led a Placemaking workshop last summer and worked with local residents to help them build a vision for markets in their city.  The community’s participation will inform a study, which had two primary objectives:

• Increase the number and accessibility of quality markets in “food imbalanced” neighborhoods
• Coordinate and connect many market-related activities through a local Market Alliance

PPS’ markets team has proposed what we call “Healthy Food Hubs” throughout the city of Birmingham.  These hubs are places where people can do much more than just buy fresh, affordable food.  Food Hubs are vibrant community centers where neighbors can meet each other, attend cooking classes, learn about nutrition, and get health care.

Based on feedback from residents and the city’s various demographics, several concepts were proposed, including community garden-based farmers markets and the expansion and integration of the peddler and farm stand systems into retail and civic areas.

A plan for a Healthy Food Hub on Birmingham's Main Street.

For a city like Birmingham, recently named America’s second most obese city according to Forbes, where 31.3% of Birmingham’s residents have a BMI of 30 or higher, there can be no “silver bullet” solution. Providing all neighborhoods with access to healthy, fresh food is one way to start to mitigate obesity-related health concerns.

Download this guide for free.

The next step in implementing these initiatives in Birmingham is to find sponsors who will fund the the Market Alliance to begin work to start new Healthy Food Hubs, to connect community groups to the movement, and to set up a process for markets to accept SNAP (food stamps) and other Federal nutrition assistance coupons.

Main Street Birmingham’s Sam Crawford believes that “PPS has given the City of Birmingham and its many partners an excellent tool that will be used to establish a network of ‘public spaces’ that can become catalysts for further economic opportunity and where residents can work, play and access healthy foods in a safe friendly environment.”  We at PPS are also optimistic about the prospects of changing food and public space access in Birmingham and using public markets to improve the public health of the city.

Looking to set up SNAP at your market? Download a free copy of PPS’ Guide “SNAP/EBT at Your Farmer’s Market: Seven Steps to Success.”

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To learn more about setting up a great market in your neighborhood, come to PPS’ Spring Training session “How to Create Successful Markets,” May 20-21 in New York City.

• Check out the Livestream coverage of our February 8 event with Marcus at our New York City offices.

Lessons from Newcastle, Australia: An Interview with Marcus Westbury

Marcus Westbury

“We have changed how space behaves for creative people and they in turn have brought their creativity and innovation to the problem of bringing the city back to life.” -Marcus Westbury

Place-by-place interventions are emerging as a powerful way to create new life for an entire district, especially in cities where great economic hardship encourages innovation and entrepreneurship.

Nowhere have Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper interventions been more elevated to a city-wide, cohesive revitalization strategy than in Newcastle, Australia. Decades of decline left the city’s CBD riddled with vacant properties and lacking vibrant public life. Yet, less than two years after interventions facilitated by Marcus Westbury’s Renew Newcastle campaign, the city has been catapulted to Lonely Planet’s List of Top 10 Cities to Visit in 2011. PPS has also lead Placemaking training in Newcastle in late 2010 where we witnessed some of Marcus’s impacts. Newcastle’s success points to signs of a growing international movement towards iterative, creative development strategies that harness the creative power of the local community.

• Create dynamics that foster experimentation rather than expecting solutions to arrive fully formed.

• Do the leg work required to be familiar with right kind of legal agreements, management structures, and governance needed to bring about LQC projects in your city

• A “network of networks” approach to outreach is a really effective way to recruit the merchants and artists necessary to enliven a district. Use multiple means to reach a broad group of people:  Facebook, the local media, public meetings, and Etsy.com

• Don’t overlook large property companies. They can be unlikely but powerful partners and, because they often own a lot of land, can provide access to the critical mass of places necessary to revitalize a whole district

• Healthy, dynamic public spaces are very important for healthy cities. However, you need to be careful to get beyond the idea of cosmetic improvements and actually create new dynamics that generate more interesting and engaging public spaces.

• Part of the challenge is to see your liabilities as opportunities and find the fastest, cheapest, most effective way to get them activated.
• By all means dream up all the great, fantastic, capital intensive schemes but make sure than while you’re doing that you don’t neglect the small stuff. Do enough of the small stuff and the big stuff starts to take care of itself.

PPS: Tell us about the transformation Newcastle has undergone. What does it feel like to walk down the street today compared to two years ago?

Westbury: The area where we have been mainly working – which is a 3 or 4 block stretch of the city centre around the Hunter Street mall has changed dramatically. When we began at the beginning of 2009 the strip had more than 20 empty shops in that area – a number that had been growing every year since the 1980s. Today there are only a handful still empty. In the last two years we have used those spaces and the spaces around them to incubate 60 new creative projects and enterprises of various kinds – many of which are still in the area.Newcastle has galleries, fashion designers,  studios, small publishers, and dozens of other arts projects and creative enterprises that would not have otherwise been there as a result of Renew Newcastle. That is building a vibrant creative community that is in turn building new creative and economic life in the city.
Today if you visit the Hunter Street Mall area it is full of new commercial tenants that have moved back in following the foot traffic that has been generated by Renew Newcastle. One estimate was that the foot traffic had tripled.

LQC Interventions are a creative means to transform vacant storefronts from liabilities to assets

PPS: How do you foresee the project evolving in the next 2, 5 and 10 years?

Westbury: As for the long term, I have always described Renew Newcastle as “a permanent structure for temporary things” – we aren’t aiming to own properties or even make a claim over a particular area. The Renew Newcastle model is to constantly provide new spaces for experimentation and incubation- as we have done more than 60 times already. Some of those projects will succeed some will fail, but the point is to unleash experimentation. Our role will expand and contract with the number of empty spaces available – some of our project will be there in 10 years time but many probably won’t be.
As an organization we are actively moving into new parts of town, trying to build new clusters in new precincts and hopefully launching many new projects and initiatives. We have a reasonable amount of turnover so it’s always a rapidly changing dynamic. Further afield, I’m personally working with other cities and towns to see if we can repeat the same process there and there is evidence from some other parts of Australia at least that it can and does work.

PPS: How were you able to build faith for the implementation of your vision?

Westbury: I’m not entirely sure of that. I accidentally backed into it in many respects! The key thing was working quietly behind the scenes to get the details right. We had to get the right kind of legal agreements, the right kind of management structures, the right kinds of governance figured out. From there we went about convincing key stakeholders from the local media, the business chamber, the creative community and elsewhere to sign up to the same project. A lot of that was about breaking down the “zero sum game” idea that had often polarized people with very different ideas of what was appropriate development in Newcastle. We had to convince a lot of people that for someone to win someone else didn’t necessarily need to lose.

PPS: Where did the merchants/artists come from? How did you recruit them?

Westbury: A variety of places. Most broadly it was a network of networks. Both myself and Marni Jackson (Renew Newcastle’s General Manager) had a background as festival directors so that gave us some good networks but in reality very few of the people who took up the opportunities were ones that we actually knew. Most came out of the woodwork through public meetings, through the media, through facebook (our group has over 3000 members), through contacting local sellers from Etsy.com – it was a very broad approach and very deliberately so.
Many of our projects were what I call “digital cottage industries” – people who were making clothes and selling them at markets, people who were running online enterprises from a spare room, some were online communities – such as local photographers who had been connected on Flickr previously – that came together around a physical space when offered.

PPS: What unexpected partners made the biggest contributions?

Westbury: Our most unexpected big contribution came from the GPT Group, a large Australian publicly listed property company. They gave us the keys to dozens of properties that were lying empty as a result of the financial crisis stalling a major development they had planned. Their properties gave us an immediate critical mass that made a huge difference. They have reaped the benefits on several fronts – they’ve turned a liability into an asset, their other properties in the area have become far easier to rent, they have gotten great publicity and the genuine respect of the people we have been working with, we have jointly won several awards, and they – and now some of their competitors – are actively looking at how they can deploy the same model elsewhere.

PPS: What were your initial biggest hurdles regarding government, property owners, etc? How did you overcome these challenges?

Westbury: Badly designed incentives. There are a myriad of incentives for property owners not to make available their empty properties – Newcastle had more than 150 empty buildings in the two main streets in large part because owners were better off to board them up and write off the losses than use them as going concerns. Essentially, Renew Newcastle exists as an intermediary designed to change how that process works – we use some clever but legal contracts and risk management processes to make that work a lot better. We manage risk and remove complexity which is essentially the key to it.
In many respects, on the surface, Renew Newcastle looks like an arts and cultural project – and it is – but from my end it is really a series of mechanisms for changing access to and governance of space. We have changed how space behaves for creative people and they in turn have brought their creativity and innovation to the problem of bringing the city back to life.

PPS:  Many places around the world boast pockets of creative activity. What makes Newcastle stand out?

Westbury: In many respects Newcastle is very similar to a lot of former industrial cities around the world. It has about half a million people in the area, it was once home to heavy industry that is gone. On the upside I think Newcastle has always had a strong DIY creative culture which helps. It has some great features – it has old city centre still relatively intact, it’s on the beach – an old mining and port town, it has a bit of the “second city syndrome” compared to Sydney which is two hours down the road. Also, in an odd kind of way it has long been politically and practically ignored – which means it’s a good candidate for finding its own way of doing things.

PPS: How did you go about catalyzing creative collaboration amongst the artists and the surrounding community?

Westbury: Strictly speaking, we don’t. Renew Newcastle isn’t in the business of organizing collaborative projects or actively engaging in running collaborative projects. We work with and facilitate people who do but the process is actually quite organic and spontaneous not driven by us. The projects that we work with and broker space for organize all kinds of projects and collaborations and we help them. We don’t run community arts projects in the traditional sense though.

In Newcastle, formerly vacant storefronts are now community destinations that support the local economy.

PPS: How has the revitalization impacted the surrounding public spaces? How do you see the role of public spaces in creating new energy in neighborhoods/cities?

Westbury: There is a greater degree of activation of and pride in public spaces although we don’t approach it from that end. The activation of public spaces is an outcome and a byproduct rather than a specific aim of our approach. We bring creativity, creativity brings experimentation and innovation, experimentation and innovation bring activity and that activity spills over into the public realm – both formally and informally. Healthy, dynamic public spaces are very important for healthy cities. However you need to be careful to get beyond the idea of cosmetic improvements and actually create new dynamics that generate more interesting and engaging public spaces. In Newcastle’s case there has been many millions of dollars spent on physical improvements to the public realm that made little difference to the underlying dynamic. The danger is that communities can end up with superficial improvements that paper over structural problems – I think public spaces work best when they are the outcome of vibrant communities.

PPS: What lessons have you learned through Newcastle and what advice would you give to zealous nuts who aspire to transform their communities?

Westbury: I keep going back to the need to think about and work with the underlying dynamics. How incentives work, how spaces behave, how practical initiative can take root – or what is preventing it from doing so. I tend to be suspicious of single grand visions and a big believer in experimentation. In Newcastle’s case rather than try and define “the answer” we have tried to create a dynamic where we seed a lot of experiments – more than 60 at last count – and see what works. I’m a big believer in creating dynamics that foster experimentation rather than expecting solutions to arrive fully formed.
Also, I’m a big believer in cheap. Part of the challenge is to see your liabilities as opportunities and find the fastest, cheapest, most effective way to get them activated. By all means dream up all the great, fantastic, capital intensive schemes but make sure than while you’re doing that you neglect the small stuff. Do enough of the small stuff and the big stuff starts to take care of itself.

PPS: How does your approach differ when dealing with artists, merchants, government officials, developers, etc. and how have you rallied these groups to collaborate around shared community vision?

Westbury: Mostly it doesn’t. We are very transparent when dealing with each party – I think it’s important that each party sees what the other is getting out of it and why. Obviously there are some differences in language and emphasis depending on whether you are talking to a publicly listed company, a small shop owner, an artist or a community group but fundamentally the proposition is the same. We take space  that is otherwise empty, we find creative people to care of it and activate it and give it to them rent free, those people incubate their own ideas and passions, through that we make places interesting and active, and if and when the owner wants it back they can take it. There’s no rent but no security – if the tenant wants security beyond our rolling 30 days they can start paying rent. It’s transparent, simple, and in many respects obvious but what we also do is manage the complexities of it: the liability, insurance, risk, the big complexities, the trivial management issues, curation of projects, the finding of the best possible projects and people, the permits, and all the rest of it. We make it easy and the process is one where it should be transparently obvious to everyone why people are doing what they are doing.

PPS: Who are you targeting through Renew Australia and what services will you be offering?

Westbury: We are establishing a national, not for profit social enterprise that will offer training and consultancy services. We are aiming to work with governments of all levels and with property owners, economic development agencies, developers and others to deploy creative initiative based projects in different communities around Australia – and perhaps further afield if people are interested.

Realtors know that when you create a place, you create social, civic and economic value

Realtors are often among a community’s most engaged and concerned citizens. They can quickly see how a Placemaking approach can generate local commitment and investment, short-term, low-cost improvements and long-term sustainability and resilience.

Realtors are often the pioneers to move into and help improve new walkable neighborhoods and downtowns. For our current project in St. Paul Square historic district of San Antonio, it is several Realtors that are taking a leadership role in a local Placemaking effort.

Realtors make good facilitators and social connectors- not only do they understand planning and design, but they’re also passionate about their communities and have the communication skills and initiative that can catalyze Placemaking.

This role as neighborhood public realm improvement leaders is mutually beneficial- it helps sustain the investment, interest and social capital that allows them to be more effective in their day jobs.

National Association of Realtors (NAR) Calls Placemaking a Leading Economic Development Strategy

The issue’s main article, “Placemaking: A Community’s Appeal Drives its Economic Prosperity” features PPS projects including Campus Martius and Placemaking Chicago and draws heavily on PPS’ 2010 Report: “Putting Our Jobs Back in Place”.

The third article in the magazine also covered our long running approach of using public markets as catalysts for public spaces and local economies.

The issue also highlighted some of our partners innovating around the practice of Placemaking, including:

• “Building on Small Town’s Heart and Soul,” on the Orton Foundation’s Heart and Soul Planning
• Celebrating the Local: A Community’s Diversity and Heritage Spurs Homegrown Economic Development
• “Attracting the Talent” on Renaissance Downtowns and the use of Crowdsourced Placemaking.

Placemaking can create a more desirable community

NAR asks, “‘is a city appealing because it’s prosperous or is it prosperous because it’s appealing?’ That may sound like a chicken-or-egg question, but in this case, there’s a right answer — or at least  a growing awareness that creating vibrant public spaces is a winning economic strategy.”

NAR quotes from our report “Putting Our Jobs Back in Place,” arguing that Placemaking is the best way to generate lasting prosperity at a time when technology gives people and companies greater freedom to work and do business wherever they please.

Placemaking Resources for Realtors:

• Technical assistance and Grants like the $10,000 Good Neighbor Award
• Tips on Smart Growth and Community Design and Density
• Information on the impact of transportation policy
• The Great Neighborhood Book: A Do-it-Yourself Guide to Placemaking

How Can Realtors lead change in communities?

With 1.3 million Realtors as Members in NAR, we look forward to their evolving role, and the increasing impact, as linchpins to the ongoing success of communities.

How are Realtors supporting Placemaking in your neighborhood?

How can the National Association of Realtors continue to support Placemaking?

The Rose Kennedy Greenway borders Parcel 7, which can be seen to in the background on the right.

The process for creating this indoor market began over a decade ago, and in 2008 PPS conducted a feasibility study to determine if there could be an expanded market district in the section of Boston adjacent to the Haymarket and City Hall.  Now that MassDOT and the Department of Agricultural Resources (DAR) are moving forward with the development of Parcel 7, PPS has been selected to create a conceptual guide for the market.

While in Boston last week, the PPS team held a focus group to begin assessing consumers’ needs and preferences.  Attendees were asked about their shopping habits and were shown a number of photos of existing markets around the world to gauge their responses.  PPS will likely hold public meetings during future site visits in order to receive additional input, which will help make the public market a vibrant destination that balances the needs of downtown residents and workers with those of tourists and people living in nearby neighborhoods and surrounding towns.

Now that the public market project is officially underway, PPS will begin constructing a framework for its management, design and product offerings.  Among other tasks, the markets team will:

• Propose an operational and governance structure suited to the market’s distinct needs
• Plan the physical design of the market, incorporating gathering spaces into the layout
• Interview local producers and vendors to better understand their operational needs and plan for the market’s possible product mix.

A number of key factors position the Boston Public Market to be an anchor destination (much needed) along the Rose Kennedy Greenway, such as its proximity to Faneuil Hall, the Haymarket, and multiple subway stops.  Although the project has just begun, PPS is optimistic that it will further enliven an already popular district by strengthening the social and economic capital of the surrounding area.

PPS Vice President Phil Myrick and Senior Vice President Steve Davies are both big fans of Vienna’s Rathaus Christmas market because it’s a destination that attracts people and encourages solidarity among the Viennese, regardless of the inclement weather.  Steve is particularly fond of the hot mulled wine offered at a number of kiosks, keeping patrons in good spirits despite freezing temperatures.

The Rathaus market attracts Viennese to the city center, even in the dead of winter.

Other PPS employees enjoy New York City’s Union Square Holiday Market, which is located just up the street from our offices.  Vendors from around the Northeast US sell artisanal items and seasonal beverages and food.  Union Square is one of the most popular meet-up spots for New Yorkers, and even in winter it is still a great place to congregate.

NYC's Union Square Holiday Market is a huge draw for an already bustling plaza.

Edinburgh, Scotland’s Winter Festival is one of the more ambitious outdoor holiday markets.  Combining a marketplace with a carnival, visitors can enjoy a number of activities that aren’t usually associated with wintertime, such as a carousel and merry-go-round.

Edinburgh's Winter Festival combines typical wintertime attractions with those you might find at a summer fair.

These examples show that there is no one way to curate a great winter market — what does your local holiday market offer that makes it unique?

City Dock is located at the heart of the Historic District alongside many of its original 18th century buildings, including the Market House. City Dock currently offers some activities, but needs more in order to attract more locals and tourists to the area. The Market House will soon be under new management after being vacant for seven years, but some locals worry that the community vision is not being included in the plans.

Annapolis City Dock (Photo: Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference and Visitors Bureau)

PPS President Fred Kent visited Annapolis in late August (watch his entire talk here), offering suggestions and perspectives from years of experience revitalizing waterfronts. He encouraged the city to take on a more public process for the redevelopment of both City Dock and the Market House and emphasized that it was up to the community to create a vision for the space. “Placemaking, by its nature, has to be done by people who are in that place.”

Annapolis Planning Department Assistant Director Virginia Burke agreed with the importance of the public voice in redeveloping City Dock. “If it works for the locals, if the locals will come down here, it will work for the tourists, so we put a great deal of stock in what do the locals want to see here.”

Moving forward, Annapolis Mayor Joshua Cohen showed excitement about the possibilities of revitalization. “Starting with the Market House, the city has a unique opportunity now to re-envision the whole of City Dock as a vibrant destination for residents, boaters and visitors alike.”

Mayor Cohen also appointed a committee of 25 members of the community from diverse sectors to advise the City Dock revitalization. To kick off the Commission, the Urban Land Institute provided a pro bono 24 hour blitz studies, providing recommendations to the City and the Commission that echoed Fred’s sentiments last August.

The challenge now for Annapolis is to continue to engage the public in a thoughtful way that helps develop a community vision for City Dock and Market House that best reflects the history and identity of the waterfront, while at the same time providing opportunities for activities that attract a wide range of people during all times of day and year.