5 Things That Inspire Me

During these harsh economic times I've read about some of the most creative and inspiring planning and design projects in my career. Whether they are the product of the underemployed looking for a creative outlet or a resetting of our values and goals, something magical is happening in the world of planning. Below are 5 things that have inspired my inner planner.

1.   Mobile grocery. Fresh Moves is a Chicago City
bus which has been retrofitted as a rolling farmer's market for communities
which do not have access to fresh produce. While similar neighborhoods across
the United States struggle to attract brick and mortar supermarkets in these
"food deserts" with elaborate incentives and market analysis, a Chicago based
community group conceived of a quick and efficient alternative which could
provide a more effective method of delivery. The mobile grocery is really a
brilliant idea which modernizes the old fruit and vegetable vendors which my
parents grew up with and which still exist today in other parts of the world.
Chicago's mobile grocery serves two neighborhoods, four days a week. http://freshmoves.org/

2.    
Pop up playgrounds. This summer, the City of New
York, which continues to offer inspiring planning work, initiated 12 temporary
playgrounds in streets to promote exercise and provide active games for
children in low income neighborhoods with high instances of childhood obesity.
In an age of budget cuts in which municipalities are strapped for cash and land
purchasing is not an option, the NYC Health Department along with the city's
federally supported NYC Strategic Alliance for Health, have created a cheap and
innovative approach to enabling people living in underserved communities to be
more active. Streets are temporarily closed during the day for physical
activities like yoga, tennis, running, and games and surveys showed a high rate
of usage for families who would otherwise be indoors, on average one to two and
a half hours! http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/opinion/sunday/presto-instant-playgro…

3.  
Pavement to Parks. The City of San Francisco has
initiated a program to convert underutilized intersections and right of ways
into temporary plazas or parklets. A collaboration among the Mayor's Office,
the Department of Public Works, the Planning Department, and the Municipal
Transportation Agency, the initiative has resulted in eight test parklets which
will be evaluated to be reclaimed for permanent open spaces. Besides the novel
approach to adding open space by essentially swapping land which is already
publicly owned, the parklets create engaging spaces to activate street corners
and sidewalks. Ideal areas for new parklets have little existing public space,
have community support, are surrounded by uses that will attract people to the
new space, are advocated by local businesses, and can improve bicycle and
pedestrian safety.  The results are
fun and informal spaces which are unexpected and pleasantly surprising. http://sfpavementtoparks.sfplanning.org/

4.    
Storefronts on Loan. For property owners in
Newcastle, Australia's Central Business District, it was cheaper to let stores
remain vacant and allow their buildings to decay while waiting for
redevelopment, rather than rent the spaces out.  After years of decline, resident Marcus Westbury convinced
property owners to license their storefronts to artists, creative uses, and community
groups on rolling 30 day intervals to his non-profit "Renew Newcastle". As the
non-profit holds the license they offer cheap space for creative uses until the
properties become commercially viable or redeveloped. The results are really
quite astounding as the spaces have helped incubate various creative
enterprises which have brought real activity to this forgotten street. http://renewnewcastle.org/about

5.    
DIY Community Outreach. Public involvement is
the mantra of every planner, but it's such a daunting part of our work.
Participation is never as high as we'd like and we often wonder if we were
inspiring enough to provoke thoughtful comments. Enter Candy Chang who creates
interactive public art projects which elicit public input with
fill-in-the-blank style instruments. A chalkboard painted on the side of an
abandoned building in New Orleans invites people compete the end of the
sentence "Before I die____________". Clever name badge stickers are reconceived
from "Hello, my name is_____" to "I wish this was ________" and are left
throughout New Orleans to encourage people to think about how their city could
be different and to share their ideas by placing the stickers anywhere and
everywhere. Tenant post-its, which allow New Yorkers to fill in information
about their housing stats like cost, size, number of bedrooms and share it
anonymously on a giant post-it board. A sign on an abandoned historic building which
says "Looking for Love" offers two chalkboards at the building's base for
people to share memories and comments on the building's future. Other projects include chalk stencils on the sidewalk
with thought provoking statements like "This would be a nice place for a tree"
and my favorite-Career Path, a fill in the blank chalk installation on a Finish
bike path which encourages children and adults to share their changing career
aspirations. http://civiccenter.cc/