“Placemaking is a dynamic human function: it is an act of liberation, of staking claim, and of beautification; it is true human empowerment.” (See a list of what visitors to PPS.org said Placemaking means to them.)

From the Heart of a Community

Placemaking is not just the act of building or fixing up a space, but a whole process that fosters the creation of vital public destinations: the kind of places where people feel a strong stake in their communities and a commitment to making things better. Simply put, Placemaking capitalizes on a local community’s assets, inspiration, and potential, ultimately creating good public spaces that promote people’s health, happiness, and well being. As our survey responses suggest, this process is essential–even sacred–to people who truly care about the places in their lives.

True Placemaking begins at the smallest scale.

When you focus on place, you do everything differently

For us, Placemaking is both a process and a philosophy. It takes root when a community expresses needs and desires about places in their lives, even if there is not yet a clearly defined plan of action. The yearning to unite people around a larger vision for a particular place is often present long before the word “Placemaking” is ever mentioned. Once the term is introduced, however, it enables people to realize just how inspiring their collective vision can be, and allows them to look with fresh eyes at the potential of parks, downtowns, waterfronts, plazas, neighborhoods, streets, markets, campuses and public buildings. It sparks an exciting re-examination of everyday settings and experiences in our lives.

Unfortunately the way our communities are built today has become so institutionalized that community stakeholders seldom have a chance to voice ideas and aspirations about the places they inhabit. Placemaking breaks through this by showing planners, designers, and engineers how to move beyond their habit of looking at communities through the narrow lens of single-minded goals or rigid professional disciplines. The first step is listening to best experts in the field—the people who live, work and play in a place.

Experience has shown us that when developers and planners welcome as much grassroots involvement as possible, they spare themselves a lot of headaches. Common problems like traffic-dominated streets, little-used parks, and isolated, underperforming development projects can be avoided by embracing the Placemaking perspective that views a place in its entirety, rather than zeroing in on isolated fragments of the whole.

For more than 35 years, PPS has acted as an advocate and resource center for Placemaking, continually making the case that a collaborative community process that pays attention to issues on the small scale is the best approach in creating and revitalizing public spaces.

Cities ultimately fail or succeed at the "place" scale

The Bedrock Foundation of Placemaking

A Placemaking approach provides communities with the springboard they need to revitalize their communities. To start, we draw upon the 11 Principles of Placemaking, which have grown out of our experiences working with communities in 26 countries and nearly every state in the U.S. and province in Canada. These are guidelines that help communities integrate diverse opinions into a vision, then translate that vision into a plan and program of uses, and finally see that the plan is properly implemented.

Community input is essential to the Placemaking process, but so is an understanding of a particular place and of the ways that great places foster successful social networks and initiatives. Using the 11 Principles and other tools we’ve developed for improving places (such as the Power of 10 and the Place Diagram, below) we’ve helped citizens bring immense changes to their communities–sometimes more than stakeholders ever dreamed possible.

The Place Diagram is one of the tools PPS has developed to help communities evaluate places. The inner ring represents key attributes, the middle ring intangible qualities, and the outer ring measurable data.

Improving public spaces and the lives of people who use them means finding the patience to take small steps, to truly listen to people, and to see what works best, eventually turning a group vision into the reality of a great public place.

Placemaking is not a new idea

The concepts behind Placemaking originated in the 1960s, when visionaries like Jane Jacobs and William “Holly” Whyte offered groundbreaking ideas about designing cities that catered to people, not just to cars and shopping centers. Their work focused on the importance of lively neighborhoods and inviting public spaces. Jane Jacobs advocated citizen ownership of streets through the now-famous idea of “eyes on the street.” Holly Whyte emphasized essential elements for creating social life in public spaces.

Applying the wisdom of Jacobs, Whyte, and others, PPS gradually developed a comprehensive Placemaking approach for helping communities make better public spaces beginning in 1975. The term can be heard in many settings–not only by citizens committed to grassroots community improvement but by planners and developers who use it as a fashionable “brand” that implies authenticity and quality even when their projects don’t always live up to that promise. But using “Placemaking” to label a process that really doesn’t focus on public participation or result in lively, genuine communities dilutes the true value of this powerful philosophy.

Placemaking is at the heart of PPS’s work and mission, but we do not trademark it as our property. It belongs to anyone who is sincere about creating great places by drawing on the collective wisdom of those who live, work and play there. We do feel, however, it is our responsibility to continue to protect and perpetuate the community-driven, bottom-up approach that Placemaking describes.

We believe that the public’s attraction to the essential qualities of Placemaking will ensure that the term does not lose its original meaning or promise. Making a place is not the same as constructing a building, designing a plaza, or developing a commercial zone. When people enjoy a place for its special social and physical attributes, and when they are allowed to influence decision-making about that space, then you see genuine Placemaking in action.

Placemaking Grows into an International Movement

As more communities engage in Placemaking and more professionals call their work “Placemaking,” it is now essential to preserve the integrity of Placemaking. A great public space cannot be measured simply by physical attributes; it must serve people as a vital place where function is put ahead of form. PPS encourages everyone–citizens and professionals alike–to focus on places and the people who use them.

Placemaking strikes a balance between the physical, the social and even the spiritual qualities of a place. Fortunately, we can all be inspired by the examples of many great Placemakers who have worked to promote this vision through the years. Placemaking belongs to everyone: its message and mission is bigger than any one person or organization. PPS remains dedicated to spreading the message of Placemaking, offering our resources and experiences to all the other Placemakers out there. Teaching them to preserve and create successful places is the most important part of our mission.

What Placemaking Is–and what it isn’t

Placemaking IS:

• Community-driven
• Visionary
• Function before form
• Adaptable
• Inclusive
• Focused on creating destinations
• Flexible
• Culturally aware
• Ever changing
• Multi-disciplinary
• Transformative
• Context-sensitive
• Inspiring
• Collaborative
• Sociable

Placemaking ISN’T:

• Imposed from above
• Reactive
• Design-driven
• A blanket solution
• Exclusionary
• Monolithic development
• Overly accommodating of the car
• One-size-fits-all
• Static
• Discipline-driven
• Privatized
• One-dimensional
• Dependent on regulatory controls
• A cost/benefit analysis
• Project-focused
• A quick fix

PPS Placemaking Resources mentioned in this article:

11 Principles of Placemaking

The Power of Ten

Placemaker Profiles

“What is Placemaking?” – Top Survey Responses

By SooToday.com Staff
SooToday.com
Monday, August 30, 2010

NEWS RELEASE

CANADIAN FEDERATION
OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS

*************************
Sault Ste. Marie local government’s performance barely adequate in the eyes of small businesses

The results of a survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) reveal that small businesses in Sault Ste. Marie feel their local government has room for growth in the area of serving their needs.

With municipal elections just around the corner, now is the time for local candidates to speak up about what they would do to support the job-creators in Sault Ste. Marie.

“Small businesses are the backbone of their local communities”, explained CFIB’s vice-president for Ontario, Satinder Chera, adding that “these results are a wakeup call for local leaders who have been accustomed to treating their small business constituents as nothing more than cash cows."

A total of 241 businesses in Sault Ste. Marie took part in CFIB’s face-to-face survey between July 2009 and June 2010.

When asked 'How do you rate the local government where your business is situated on the following issues?' here’s how these business owners responded:

Overall awareness of small business sector

- 2 percent Good
- 34 percent Adequate
- 64 percent Poor

Reasonable property tax levels

– 4 percent Good
- 38 percent Adequate
- 58 percent Poor

Fairness of by-laws and regulations

– 11 percent Good
- 65 percent Adequate
- 24 percent Poor

Control of government wage levels

– 3 percent Good
- 35 percent Adequate
- 62 percent Poor

Value-for-money of public services

– 5 percent Good
- 47 percent Adequate
- 48 percent Poor

“It is important for all levels of government to be attuned to the concerns of small business, especially in the wake of the recent recession”, reasoned Plamen Petkov, a senior policy analyst with CFIB. “The purpose of these results is to bridge that gap.”

To view the results of other municipalities in the region and across the province, please visit www.cfib.ca

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Title

Air Quality Forum

When

Friday, September 24, 2010 7:00 PM 20100924T230000Z

Details

Jeff Arbus, Candidate for City Council in Ward 6, will host a public forum on air quality, this coming Tuesday August 24. The event will be held at the Sault Theatre Workshop, 121 Pittsburg Ave., beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Those attending will hear from local experts on recent developments to improve air quality, including the Health Canada study of air quality in the city conducted this summer.

Residents will also have the opportunity to share their thoughts about air quality, and what they think needs to happen to continue the progress we have seen recently.

“I’ve been active on the air quality issue for several years, “says Arbus. “There has been a lot of good will, leading to some improvements. We can do more. I want to ensure that residents have chances to be heard. By reaching out, I can be more responsive to the area residents.”

While this forum is of special interest to residents of Bayview and the West End it is open to the whole city.

“Air quality is of immediate concern in the West End, but it is also a city-wide issue,” notes Arbus. “I am hoping this forum will be informative and will encourage residents to add their voices in support of efforts to improve air quality. This is an issue that affects tourism and local business. Most importantly, this is a matter of everyone’s health.”

Where

Sault Theatre Workshop

121 Pittsburg Ave
Sault Ste. Marie, ON P6A 0A1

Three weeks ago I had the awesome privilege of facilitating an open space event for the first time. Called ChangeCamp, it was held in my home town of Sault Ste. Marie. This is my reflection on the day as an organizer and facilitator, in the hopes other ChangeCamp groups can learn and be inspired by our local experiment.

ChangeCamp Sault is both the fulfillment and start of a personal dream. I attended the first ChangeCamp at Toronto in January of 2009, then my first experience of open space. Over 200 participants actively engaged in answering the question: how can we re-imagine how government and citizens engage each other in an age of participation? It was an exciting day, full of shared ideas, new connections and belief that we can act to shape our collective future. I knew then that I wanted to create that same experience in my own city, which would be something entirely new. In open space, the people who come set the agenda and engage in open participatory dialogue. At the time the idea felt risky – how would people respond?

The event was held at Sault College in the Native Student Centre, a circular room with plenty of glass windows to let in the sun, a perfect gathering spot. The College was very supportive, providing the facilities at no cost and even covering some of the food cost. We had a lunch catered by their food provider, provided free to participants.

We were pleased to have over 50 people register for the event, given a busy weekend of events and the start of summer holidays. The group had a healthy mix of old and young, men and women, newcomers and long-time residents. To my surprise, I knew hardly anyone there. Due to other events a number of people left early or came late, which made facilitating a little more challenging.

We chose to keep the day shorter by having 3 rounds of sessions, including a ‘getting to action’ time at the end of the day, and a brief lunch. My experience with PodCamp is that people run out of energy mid-way through the afternoon. This turned out to be a good choice. A number of people had left before the end, and those that stayed still had energy for the closing circle.

Setting the stage during the opening circle felt like the most important part of facilitating the day. I shared some of the history that led up to ChangeCamp, including Ignite Sault and Soo Podcamp, two smaller event ‘experiments’ that were tried to test the waters. I asked people to get up and sit beside two people they didn’t know and, without instructions, people started introducing themselves – a healthy sign. The rules of open space: 1/n, bumblebee and butterfly were covered, and the grid explained. People were challenged to make the conversations they came to have happen.

What was the result?

Mark Kuznicki, founder of ChangeCamp likes to say that there are two outcomes: the connections made and the content created. Both are valuable. Through being connected, people felt encouraged, with greater hope for our community’s future. One newcomer remarked that she now felt a part of the community.

My great epiphany is that these connections are the seeds of change. No matter our cause, our ambitions, our hopes and our passions, to bring about change, we must also invest in building community, for a connected community is at the root of all the change we seek. I’ve spent time on many causes and issues over the years, often feeling like little progress is being made, or that bringing about change is hard, at times grueling work. ChangeCamp showed me a different path. I’m having more fun and feeling more successful by nurturing community, through which change will occur.

Tips for organizers

These were essential ingredients for us having a successful event:

1. Live the ChangeCamp experience as you organize the event. When the organizing team works in an open, participative way, where individual passions are nurtured and talents harnessed, you have the nucleus for a successful event. I used my Agile experience to help with team formation, planning and facilitation.
2. People matter. This was the most diverse group I’ve ever worked with. We had marketing, technical and political savvy. One person had a lot of spare time to do a lot of necessary grunt work. Combined we had numerous key connections in the community. A group of 7 people felt about right for us.
3. Tools matter. We’re all busy volunteers who need to work together effectively with the limited time we have. Digital tools are necessary, but only work if there is buy-in. Our group found a “sweet spot” of simplicity and feature-set that amplified our efforts significantly. Next week, we’ll be presenting our tool set at a ChangeSalon event. We’ll post a follow-up to that event to let you in on our tool stack.
4. Event design matters. Mark Kuznicki, ChangeCamp papa helped a lot with shaping our event. Combine expert knowledge from someone like Mark with knowledge of the community and your goals for the event to help determine the best format. We were fortunate to have learned from an earlier event in designing this one.

I feel like I could easily write 4 more posts on our experience, but we’ll see. My commitment to blog writing is not what it used to be.

Good luck with your next event. Hopefully I’ve shared something useful. Come back in about a week to learn more about tools that can help your team succeed.

Tagged as: changecamp, open space, organizing