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The Atlantic Antic in Brooklyn is one of the sole New York street fairs today that truly reflect the local community.

Reimagining New York City’s Street Fairs as Community Showcases

By Craig Raphael on Jun 21, 2010 | 1 Comment

The street fair is a hallmark of summer and a powerful means of inviting people to share the city’s most ubiquitous public space. But for most New Yorkers, the sight of fried dough and Italian sausage carts inspire little more than an eye-roll and a step in the opposite direction. Once vibrant gathering places that [...]

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Nearly one-third of the approximately 170 train stations in New Jersey, like Netherwood Station in Plainfield, New Jersey, are registered as historic places.

Uncovering the Tracks: Reconnecting Historic Train Stations to the Communities They Serve

By Craig Raphael on Jun 17, 2010 | 2 Comments

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

The nation’s [...]

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WhatMakesYourPlaceGreat_Email

Announcing the “What Makes Your Place Great? Your Secret Corner of Chicagoland” Contest

By Megan MacIver on Jun 10, 2010 | Add Comment

PPS is excited to announce a new contest hosted by the Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC) aimed to uncover and celebrate Chicago’s most beautiful and vibrant “undiscovered” places.  The Chicago region is known for well-used plazas, parks, sidewalks and gardens that bring it to life. Many of these special places are tucked away in the hearts [...]

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Lambertville, New Jersey. Photo credit: Caroline Armstrong

Putting the Livability Agenda Back in Place

By Gary Toth on Jun 8, 2010 | 5 Comments

Gary Toth, Senior Director of Transportation Initiatives at PPS, discusses the Obama administration’s livability platform that is currently being miscast as exclusively favoring high-density development.

We are entering a dangerous era in the history of transportation.  Our existing infrastructure is crumbling, and the public has lost its willingness to fund transportation improvements. Investment in [...]

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petrosinosq

Circling the Square: A First-Hand Account of Placemaking in Action

By Craig Raphael on Jun 2, 2010 | Add Comment

PPS works with thousands of people every year to help them improve their communities, and one of our most powerful tools is the place game. A short survey used to evaluate public spaces based on four criteria–access and linkages, uses and activities, comfort and image, and sociability–the place game generates valuable insights about how to [...]

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Massimo Vignelli's classic 1972 map of the New York City subway

Furthering Long Tradition, New York Unveils New Subway Map

By Craig Raphael on May 28, 2010 | Add Comment

What’s the most viewed map in the world? It’s hard to say, but the New York City subway map must be up there! Which is why, to much fanfare this week, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority–the body that manages New York’s subway system–announced an updated version of the city’s subway map to be unveiled next month.

[...]
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champselsyessfarm

Champs-Elysees Transformed Into Giant Farm

By Craig Raphael on May 24, 2010 | 7 Comments

Paris’ most famous street has become a moo-ving thoroughfare.

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

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Community outcomes can be achieved by reframing key transportation conventions, such as street capacity. Photo credit: Dan Burden

Transportation Investments: The Key to Creating Livable Communities

By Craig Raphael on May 21, 2010 | Add Comment

For many people, the words “transportation spending” conjure images of orange construction signs and fresh asphalt, and the platitudes of an easier commute. Transportation investments, however, can be leveraged beyond the simple task of repairing and constructing new roads: they can truly improve the quality of life by creating livable communities–in urban, suburban and rural [...]

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Phoenix, Arizona in 1885, a far cry from its present state

How Can Transportation Support Rural Livability?

By Craig Raphael on May 18, 2010 | Add Comment

One of the most critical issues facing the transportation industry is how to design and implement transportation networks in rural communities. As Gary Toth, Senior Transportation Director at PPS and Hannah Twaddell of the Renaissance Planning Group explore in a blog post for PBS’ Blueprint America series, defining rural life (as well as livability [...]

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Toward a Robust and Accountable Transportation Planning Process

By Gary Toth on Oct 16, 2009 | 1 Comment

Gary Toth following up on his reflections on the USDOT webinar, Forum on Livability.
As a career transportation geek, I found it particularly encouraging to hear talk about a new transportation planning process attached to performance measures which go beyond the overused and myopic focus solely on auto oriented [...]

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Streets of San Francisco

By Project for Public Spaces on Oct 1, 2009 | Add Comment
Last year, PPS helped set up the San Francisco Great Streets Project modeled after our New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign. Now, with the successful launch of two municipal projects that allow greater pedestrian use of road space, San Francisco is showing its commitment to Placemaking as a strategy for creating more vibrant public life.
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The Changing Face of Transportation in America

By Gary Toth on Sep 24, 2009 | 13 Comments

Communities and advocates have been pressing the US transportation industry to be more proactive about achieving livability goals for decades. Yet, the transportation industry continued to pursue the notion that the safety and mobility of the motoring public was paramount.  Prior to the Obama Administration, these calls fell on deaf ears; now, it seems, we [...]

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