Placemaking as Community Development

How better public spaces can boost local economies and improve civic engagement

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Local Economies and Local Food Systems

In 2002, the Ford and Kellogg Foundations sponsored new PPS research into public markets and their multiple roles as social gathering places, economic engines, and sources of food security. The first phase of our research bore fruit in 2003, in the form of our report: Public Markets as a Vehicle for Social Integration and Upward Mobility.

Based on interviews with 671 customers and 157 vendors from eight markets, the findings show how public markets function as incubators for small businesses and training grounds for independent entrepreneurs. The incredibly low start-up costs make it easy for vendors to finance their new businesses, often doing so without the aid of lending institutions. And the spin-off benefits for nearby businesses are huge: Sixty percent of market customers also visit neighborhood stores on market days. The findings suggest that public markets could move into the mainstream economic development agenda, with the full support of organizations with deep pockets like transit and redevelopment authorities, health centers, educational institutions, and federal agencies. PPS and other market development experts are now expanding our partnerships with these institutions and developing an economic impact study of public markets.

Public markets function as incubators for small businesses and training grounds for independent entrepreneurs.

As we investigated the social and economic benefits of markets, we simultaneously conducted companion research on public markets and local food systems for the Kellogg Foundation. PPS studied three farmers markets that focus on providing food security to the communities they serve. We found that community-based food systems advocates can successfully utilize markets as the centerpiece of the food system, with the market driving customer demand and catalyzing local production. Our report, Public Markets and Community-Based Food Systems, distilled the reasons behind this success into concrete elements that similar markets can learn from and repeat.

Connecting Technology and Place

Public markets are not the only area where placemaking and community development intersect. Community Technology Centers, or CTCs--the lone survivors of the "community technology" movement--are currently struggling to survive in low-income communities where access to technology is scarce. They are important not only for their work to span the digital divide, but also because they have the potential to act as key public spaces in areas where such places are scarce.

In 2002, PPS partnered with the New School for Social Research and BCT Partners, with funding from the Ford Foundation, to research how CTCs can function more effectively as public spaces and as forces for positive social change at the community level. In 2003, we supervised and provided technical assistance to seven CTCs, selected by the Ford Foundation, to participate in a strategic planning grant program to take the centers past their technology programs to take on broader community agendas, with specific emphasis on funding and partnerships that would broaden both their mission and traditional sources of funds. The key to this effort is a strategic analysis of the CTC as an effective community place. The strategic plans, which were completed in December, 2003, are now being reviewed for implementation grants by the Ford Foundation.

Promoting Civic Engagement in Eastern Europe

Looking abroad, the success of our international program spurred interest in placemaking from cities that are transitioning to democracy and free markets. Many of these cities face immense pressure to develop US-style highways and shopping centers, but the introduction of placemaking skills is helping local organizations learn viable alternatives that preserve and improve their historic places.

Placemaking is an ideal tool to develop a culture of civic engagement in countries where Western-style development now threatens to overwhelm places.

PPS has long had a presence in the Czech Republic, where we collaborated with the Czech Environmental Partnership to preserve historic towns from reckless development and actively involve citizens in the creation and management of their streets, parks, squares, and other public spaces. Last year a few lucky Americans were able to see these innovations first-hand on our Great Places Hike and Bike Ride, a low-cost, high-energy journey through the greenways and villages of the Czech Republic. Participants saw up close and personal how the preservation of historic places boosted tourism and improved local economies.

In 2003 we introduced our methods to a whole new slate of countries in the region, including Poland (Cracow), Hungary (Budapest), Croatia (Zagreb, Rijeka, Pula), and Serbia (Belgrade). Placemaking is an ideal tool to develop a culture of civic engagement in these countries, where Western-style development now threatens to overwhelm places that are worth preserving, and skepticism towards public participation prevails due to decades of heavy-handed Communist rule.

An uplifting example comes from Gyumri, Armenia, where PPS led a community workshop to reinvigorate the town's central squares. The result of that workshop was the New Gyumri Festival and Placemaking Expo, which took place in the town's Freedom Square and All Savior's Square the weekend of September 26-28. The legacy of the Soviet era and a devastating 1988 earthquake combined to leave these two squares almost completely lifeless, but on the first day of the festival, they were mobbed with people taking part in various activities: enjoying a cup of coffee or beer in one of the cafes, watching performances on a large outdoor stage, or shopping in an open air market. 35,000 people attended during the full three days, extraordinary considering that Gyumri has a population of only 150,000. Observers from 18 other Armenian cities attended the event and planned to use the placemaking approach and methodology to help revitalize their own public spaces.

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