A neighborhood is defined by much more than its physical boundaries. The people who live there, the rhythms of their lives, and the history of those who once lived in the neighborhood all contribute to making a place special. When you learn how an area's public spaces, community assets, and residents work together to create this special place, you understand the concept of placemaking.
Placemaking is both a sophisticated societal model that takes a huge amount of information into account when improving a neighborhood and a brilliantly simple hands-on plan for improving that region. The city government may play a role by posting informative signs about items of historical interest or updating directional signage on streets, but City Hall can't do the most important neighborhood building. For that, residents need to get involved by starting community gardens, beautifying public green spaces, and sharing stories about why their neighborhood is unlike any other.
Adding Value to Homes
A community that cares about its current residence is more welcoming to future ones, so placemaking plays a vital role in increasing property values. Adding safety signage to tell pedestrians about a sidewalk that gets slick in the rain or directional signs to help new families find the local school's bus stops may feel like small changes, but they create a sense of place that transcends individual differences and builds a thriving community.
The implication of designated paths for children or sidewalks will make the neighborhood appear more accessible for outdoor activities and highly visible gathering areas. By creating a safe environment for children to gather at designated school bus stops, drivers passing through the neighborhood will feel more inclined to drive slower and pay closer attention to safety signage marked along the roads therefore decreasing the risk of accidents occurring within the neighborhood.
Placemaking at the Ground Level
Whether a city has a few hundred thousand residents or millions, it's made up of neighborhoods that hold just a few dozen families. How those families interact with each other and with the neighborhood help define the sense of place they experience. As the Project for Public Spaces describes it, placemaking is a grass-roots effort, not a city-wide phenomenon. It separates one place from another while bringing the people who share that place together. Community input helps define where parks should go, which streets are best for shopping and how safe people feel when strolling home from a local restaurant at night. Making a city organized and safe from the top down is an incredibly challenging task, but making a neighborhood a better place to live is achievable for any community.
Strong ties to a locale and community are empowering for everyone, but they're especially important for people who might otherwise miss connections with others, suggest researchers with the South Carolina state government. For elderly people and families with young children, finding transportation and sharing public spaces can be a challenge that leaves them feeling isolated from their community. People from all walks of life can contribute meaningfully to placemaking by creating a shared history or building the kinds of public places they want their children to experience as they grow.
Defining a Neighborhood
Some neighborhoods are well defined because of age, history or some other unique characteristic. The French Quarter in New Orleans, Greenwich Village in New York and the Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco have such a strong sense of place that they're unmistakable. Their colorful histories, interesting architecture and lively culture have converged to make these places unique. Not every neighborhood can stand out like these icons, but every community can develop its own local personality and pride.
Does a resident artist live around the block from you and have a yard filled with whimsical sculptures? That sculptor could be one of the people who helps give your community its identity by placing carved figures in other places around the neighborhood. Imagine if more homes were adorned with personalized art. Do you take your kids on a nature walk no one outside your area knows about? Customized directional signage pointing the way to sites of local interest could make that hidden treasure a fixture in your community. Who is the oldest resident in your neighborhood? That person could have fascinating photographs and stories of how the area used to look.
Creative placemaking starts with a single act that improves the community and fosters a stronger sense of a place's personality. Be a part of revitalizing your neighborhood and enhancing its character by helping clean a public park, replanting your garden or just getting in touch with neighbors you haven't seen in a while. Every great community starts somewhere. Yours could begin with you.
About Author:
Alison Johnston is a writer who enjoys visual communications.She is based out of Denver and when she isn't writing, she enjoys venturing throughout the neighboring mountains.
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