The art of placemaking

There has been much written about urban planning and how t o make communities truly livable spaces. Jane Jacobs wrote the bible on the subject in 1961—The Death and Life of Great American Cities. When she chose Toronto over New York as her new home she moved into a neighborhood I would later live in. While it might sound like a topic unrelated to the County as we know it, there are a number of thoughts stemming from her work that can apply to places anywhere, regardless of population size.

Author and activist Jacobs, who has been hailed as one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century, claimed that “everyday citizens are the true neighborhood experts.” Those who view a place from a distance cannot be trusted to make wise choices on its behalf.

I believe at the core of urban planning is our willingness to acknowledge the human potential of our creative powers to invent, reinvent and invent further the qualities of the places we share; and to be willing to do it over and over through ongoing trends and generational shifts. Without that recognition, we lose ourselves in the day-to-day stuff of simply living while forfeiting opportunities to learn and thrive as a society. Humans are social beings nurtured by contact with others. In the same breath, humans also require a private life shielded within the sanctuary of our homes.

What appeals to people about city life is that they have many nearby public spaces to enjoy friendship and camaraderie that don’t involve a car to get there. By having public spaces to enjoy, they have fewer people butting into their private lives as is common in many small towns.

But what of the most important of public spaces that every size of urban setting—village to cities—share? Sidewalks: Pedestrian throughways, concrete modern-day trails that connect us and imbue a sense of place and communication. Sidewalks that tie into parks, town squares, street cafes and public places like libraries or theatres allow a fertile ground for folks to experience outward contact, collective gathering while leaving the sanctity of their homes as part of their inner expression and domesticity.

Public spaces like sidewalks are nurturing; central to the vibrancy of a place. This is not a new idea. History records the power of the connector pathway as a fundamental part of social development that began in earliest civilizations.

But in recent history, say post-WWII onwards, our addiction to the automobile has fragmented our worlds, big and small. Urban designers of the 1950s created cul-de-sacs, replaced sidewalks with curbs, built multilane roads and considered cycling and walking a loser’s form of conveyance. Meanwhile, the advent of the strip mall meant that the parking lot trumped everything, especially architectural design and aesthetic relationships within streetscapes. Sidewalks simply became obstacles to easy access to one-acre car pads. Our communities were impaled.

As a sidebar comment, the thinking was Western capitalism at its best as General Motors in Detroit originated the concept of car-buying on credit and quickly surpassed Ford as the largest auto outfit in North America. In fact, the concept of credit worked so well that GM expanded into mortgages. GMAC would also finance your new fridge and television and motorboat or whatever else the consumer belly craved from the mall. After GM itself went belly-up in 2009 through inept management, the company would need the Japanese and Germans to demonstrate how to build cars.

From the text of Project for Public Spaces (PPS—the central hub of the global Placemaking movement, connecting people to ideas, expertise and partners who share a passion for creating vital places), placemaking is defined as “the art of creating public ‘places of the soul’ that uplift and help us connect with each other.” An ethereal concept some might say. Trust human sensibility, I say. If you make a space for people to pause within the realm of daily life and just spend time engaging and enjoying each other and the surrounds of public spaces, they will take advantage of it. And our places will be the better for it.

The County is undergoing a sea change of experiences. It has been incorporated as a city for two decades now. Perhaps it is a city made up of small towns, villages, settlements and farmland—maybe a city to be divided into four manageable precincts matching the directions of the earth with a circle of governance at the centre. A circle in which all citizen members, elected or not, face one another: a reversal of the present ‘us’ and ‘them’ setup. Placemaking: we can learn from First Nation models.

Perhaps a paradigm shift away from what is viewed as an outdated silo or stovepipe management style would be healing. The varied perspectives of those who currently live here mixed with new arrivals offers a platform for innovation and consideration of the shape of a society we desire. Interesting still is that at the top of a usual agenda affecting urban spaceuse is the subject of where to park the car.

And so, what about the sidewalk concept and inviting local businesses—book stores, clothing shops, cafés—to help make sidewalks living spaces? Or a food truck to locate in an underserved part of town? or bicycle lockup and repair stands to support modern socio-economic trends? Or how about a friendly storefront police depot where the constabulary is out of their SUVs and enjoying our sidewalks or better yet, policing our urban places on bicycles? Get to know the folks, why not? You’re welcomed.

In a country where the climate leans toward living indoors for two-thirds of the year, you would think the idea of encouraging out-of-door enjoyment to be an easy sell. Check out the farmers’ markets thriving in Milford and Wellington on any weekend to see how people enjoy public interaction, especially when there is food and music as added conviviality. Why can’t they be year-round events with bake ovens at the centre of every one of them? And just like we are seeing a rise in appreciation for community gardens on public land, why not have outdoor café spaces available at every public library—Milford and Ameliasburgh and Consecon?

Change and betterment within a community are dependent on openness and creativity. It is a collaborative art form that anyone with the desire to take part can enjoy, can claim ownership in. We can choose to be isolated behind dividers of fear, prejudice and misunderstanding or we can show leadership as a holistic gathering of human talents focused on co-creating: The power to change is in our hands.