City planners in Pittsburgh broadened their conventional public participation process and worked with local kids to get their feedback and ideas about the new community plan for the South Side neighborhood.
"In Stephanie Moran's perfect park, a child would never get bored. Tired maybe, but never bored.
She was one of more than 60 fourth- and fifth-graders at Phillips Elementary whose input the South Side Planning Forum will incorporate into the latest revision of its neighborhood plan.
Yesterday, the students presented their ideas at a public assembly in the school gym on Sarah Street.
Josette Fitzgibbons, the city's principal planner, and Judy Dyda, manager of community planning for the South Side Local Development Corp., worked with the children for the past three weeks.
Ms. Fitzgibbons said she had attended Career Day at Phillips, her daughter's school, to speak about being a planner. She sought their ideas as junior planners, "and there were such good comments that I told Judy we should do a session with them." "
