There’s a big difference between a true “place” and simply real estate or a collection of buildings. Creating attractive places where people feel safe and want to be is the end goal yet it’s important to create sustainable places that don’t overly rely on events and instead encourage daily activity. Too many communities live and die by event programming because the place isn’t naturally inviting or walkable.
Placemaking can create a true destination by focusing on walkability, beautification, traffic calming, and even creatively addressing parking strategies and perceptions.
Temporary activations of blocks, intersections, alleyways, parking lots and vacant spaces can spark investment and lead to long term improvements that have significant impact. Through testing and data collection these projects can support visioning and planning efforts as well as provide excellent opportunities for community engagement.
Whether it’s for a weekend, a season, or permanently – a parklet is a great way to turn public space that is currently used just for private car storage into an activated space for all.
The beauty of tactical urbanism, a fancy term for “just try it”, is that you can make cheap and temporary improvements and simply see what happens. Test traffic speeds before and during – do they slow down? Do pedestrian counts increase? Measure dwell time – does it increase?
These simple and easy to follow instructions will give you everything you need to create a temporary parklet in your town. If you build one be sure and tag us!