Media Clips

Mar 31, 2004
Dec 14, 2017

PPS joins with Vatican to create public squares outside churches around the world

Reprinted from L'Osservatore Romano

Pope John Paul II (left, seated) looks on during a placemaking workshop in St. Peter's.

VATICAN CITY, March 9 -- Pope John Paul II announced today a surprising inititiative to create new public squares next to most Roman Catholic churches around the world. The Catholic Church will be joining with Project for Public Spaces, a New York-based organization with 30 years experience in creating better public places around the world, to accomplish this ambitious goal.

"Our goal is to have a public gathering spot in nearly every community in the world, where people, Christian or not, can gather to talk, laugh, and enjoy God's bounty," the Pontiff said in remarks. He symbolically chose St. Peter's Square, one of the world's great pedestrian plazas, to make the announcement.

Some were surprised by the Vatican's choice of partners, a small secular organization based in the United States. But not to inside observers. Over recent months, PPS has entered into similar projects with the two largest synods of African-American churches; patriarchs of the Orthodox church in 26 countries; Hindu, Jain, and Muslim religious leaders in India; 200 Buddhist temples across Asia; worldwide Lutheran organizations; and the Reconstructionist Jewish movement. They are currently in negotiations with other mainline protestant churches in Europe and North America; Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Hasidic Jewish organizations; Islamic leaders in 32 countries; Shinto and Confucian organizations; as well as neo-pagan, Native American, and atheist organizations.

New Study Shows Bus Riders Have ESP

Reuters/AP

The American Medical Association and Federal Transit Authority announced startling results from a nationwide survey of thousands of transit passengers, providing conclusive evidence that people who ride the bus have significantly greater psychic abilities than people who don't. (Initially designed to uncover potential differences in HDL cholesterol and blood pressure levels between those who take mass transit and those who don't, the study revealed some genuinely unexpected findings.)

"Communicating with the dead is easier than digging up a bus schedule in this town."

Interviewed at bus stops in 5 major metropolitan areas--New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Denver, and Washington, D.C.--transit riders were able to predict with 89% accuracy when their bus was scheduled to arrive. Accuracy soared to 99% when asked what route a particular bus was to follow. "They did this all without the benefit of schedules or route maps," exclaimed an FTA spokesperson, "these people are really gifted!"

Another unanticipated finding was that transit users listed their employment in fields related to the "paranormal" arts (i.e. psychic readers, mediums, fortune tellers, practitioners of palmistry, shamans, and parapsychologists) in levels drastically higher than the national average.

Maria Esposito, a psychic nutritionist from El Monte and a regular on the #33 bus to downtown L.A. explained it this way: "You have to be a mind reader to ride the bus in LA. It's the only way to figure out what time your bus is coming or where it's going. Communicating with the dead is easier than digging up a bus schedule in this town."

US Postal Service announces new stamps honoring placemakers

Reprinted from the St. Louis Republican-Democrat

Some of the Americans who have done the most to create great places around the land are being honored with a new series of postage stamps issued by the United States Postal Service. The "All-American Placemakers" series debuts this summer with seven 37-cent stamps honoring:

  • Frederick Law Olmsted, noted park designer who created Central Park, Boston's Back Bay Fens, and the Stanford University campus
  • Jens Jensen, a Danish-born landscape architect, who shaped the Chicago park district
  • Lewis Mumford, an architectural critic and author who helped Americans think differently about urban places
  • Jane Jacobs, author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, who challenged the disastrous urban renewal projects of the '60s and beyond
  • William H. Whyte, a famous journalist who devoted much of his career to how we can create better public places
  • Christopher Alexander, an outspoken architect and theorist whose book A Pattern Language, revolutionized how people think about spaces large and small."We are very excited that the Postal Service is recognizing the important contributions of these placemakers to American culture and history," said PPS Marketing Director Shin-pei Tsay. "And we hope that in the future, other important figures who are expanding on their work can be honored: Tony Hiss, Roberta Brandes Gratz, Dan Burden, Jan Gehl, Donald Appelyard, Claire Cooper-Marcus, Alan Jacobs and Ray Oldenberg."
  • Jane Jacobs will soon replace Alexander Hamilton on the ten dollar bill.
  • The new series features larger than usual stamps, so that both the placemakers and their major works can be featured. Frederick Law Olmsted, for instance, is depicted with a scene of Central Park, and Jane Jacobs with some of her best-known books.
  • In a related development that further shows appreciation for placemakers at the even the highest level of government, PPS has learned from a unnamed source at the Treasury Department that it is likely that Jane Jacobs will soon replace Alexander Hamilton on the ten dollar bill. This would be an historic occasion. Jacobs would not only be the first woman to appear on U.S. currency, but also the first living person. It is even more suprising in the light of the fact that Jacobs moved to Canada during the Vietnam era.

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