Sparking Creativity in Walkable Places

PlaceShakers has been running a series on a proposed Urban Happiness Index or Healthy Place Index. Hazel Borys turns an eye toward her own inspirations in great cycling cities, cycling through nature, gardening, retail streets, travel, living outdoors, cottage living, and art, and goes on to say:

"For me personally, places that generate the highest levels of mental and social well-being are the outcomes of creative placemaking, a discipline recently getting an injection of capital from ArtPlace. It’s a private-public consortium providing 'a means of investing in art and culture at the heart of a portfolio of integrated strategies that can drive vibrancy and diversity so powerful that it transforms communities.'"

Borys goes on to review a public art piece that opened last week in Winnipeg, From Here Until Now. Her parting warning:

"One of the pickets in the bridge reads, 'Affluence creates poverty,' a quote from the great Canadian philosopher of communication theory, and former area resident, Marshall McLuhan. While we have a long way to go to mitigate the gentrification inherent in creative placemaking outcomes, it’s worth figuring given the other significant value-driving benefits to health, environment, and economy. Not to mention the simple satisfaction of the experience."