Southwest Airlines Joins Project for Public Spaces to Activate Parks

In a similar vein of community building efforts by Airbnb, Leigh Gallagher reports on a new program called the “Southwest Airlines Heart of the CommunityPprogram,” a joint initiative with Project for Public Spaces (PPS) to reactivate underused parks in Detroit, Providence, and, recently, San Antonio. Through the joint initiative, Southwest has been working with city departments to makeover older parks by providing grants for items such as “a sandbox, umbrellas, moveable tables and chairs, and public programming including fitness classes, free movies and game tournaments.”

Southwest Airlines “saw a grassroots, bottom-up, egalitarian approach—placemaking projects engage members of the community from conception to finish, and solutions are often low-cost and common-sense, like using chalk and and moveable lawn chairs— that Southwest felt blended well with its culture and esprit de corps.”