ne of New York City’s largest volunteer projects has been working for over a decade to make the city brighter one daffodil bulb at a time. Since 2001 New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P) has been planting daffodils every fall and watching them grow in the spring. As of 2017 the project has distributed more than a half a million bulbs citywide and partnered with the NYC Housing Authority and city schools to engage more than 100,000 students and volunteers.
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As one of the Center for Active Design’s more recent publications, Active Design: Guide for Community Groups addresses transportation, recreation, buildings, green space and nature and healthy foods and beverages. Inspired by NYHD’s work with community partners throughout the 5 boroughs, the Guide for Community Groups provides resources for communities to identify assets, envision the future of their neighborhood and strategize to improve public space. With these tools community led initiatives will be better empowered to make their neighborhoods more livable, vibrant and healthy.
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In this Living Alleys Toolkit the San Francisco Planning Department lays out 7 considerations to evaluate before initiating any Living Alley project including hydraulics, underground utilities and accessibility. The toolkit includes the Planning Department’s evaluation of these challenges according to standards and regulations in San Francisco but the principles and questions raised can be practiced and applied in any region.
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The Mayor’s Guide to Public Life is an inspiration and how-to guide for city leaders throughout the globe. Based upon a series of interviews with mayors and designers, the guide proposes 5 strategies: Measure, Invite, Do, Evolve and Formalize. With these strategies in-hand, municipalities will have the inspiration and framework needed to build more accessible and inclusive public spaces.
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The global initiative of Jane's Walk is inspired by activist and urban studies scholar, Jane Jacobs. In her practice Jacobs emphasized that cities should be shaped by the residents that occupy them and Jane’s Walks provide opportunities for people to tell the stories of the spaces where they live, work and play while also building new relationships within their communities.
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In 2015 the WalkBoston published a report on low cost pedestrian improvements entitled Pedestrian Infrastructure: Strategies for Improving Pedestrian Safety Through Low-Cost Traffic Calming. The report focuses on traffic calming strategies that can be implemented quickly and at a low cost by an individual, organization or municipality.
Read MoreThe Participatory Learning and Action Trainer’s Guide is part of the the International Institute for Environment and Development Methodology Series which offers tools, techniques and exercises to build dynamic learning environments for adult learners. The two part manual draws on decades of research by the IIED and provides guidelines for community empowerment through participatory projects.
Read MoreA Consensus Handbook is a manual created by the UK Social Justice and Environmental Activism Worker Co-op, Seeds for Change, that provides tools and techniques for cooperative decision making processes.
Read MoreTrained as an Urban Planner, designer and visual artist Candy Chang has been making art in the public sphere since 2006. In 2009 she collaborated with the Center for Urban Pedagogy and the Street Vendor Project to make a poster pamphlet that explained the complex regulatory system for street vendors in New York City. The project includes a history of street vending in New York, interviews with street vendors and policy reform recommendations.
Read MoreParticipatory Budgeting is a democratic and collective process in which community members decide how to spend a part of a public budget.
Read MoreThe Citizen’s Guide to Urban Design is a four section resource guide, commissioned by the Foundation of Louisiana in 2012, intended to guide the general public on how to play an active role in the design of their neighborhoods, communities, and cities.
Read MoreAuthored in the 1970s by New York City's community garden group Green Guerillas as a guide to combatting urban decay, "seed green-aids" are cheap and easy to deploy, and yield unpredictable, but potentially beautiful, results.
Read MoreFood is, and always has been, something that brings people together. It’s an opportunity to share ideas, to meet new people, to learn new things, and to have some fun. There are so many different initiatives that have food as integral part of community building, here are just a few examples of people and projects that inspire us to think creatively about the importance of a meal.
Read MoreMaryland based planning and design nonprofit Neighborhood Design Center has created five guides to the community services they offer. Topics include planting trees, planning and making a neighborhood mural, home weatherization, weed removal, and giving presentations.
Read MoreIn 2008, Hurricane Dolly made landfall in Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley causing widespread flooding and sustained winds of over 120mph. The Texas Natural Disaster Housing Reconstruction Committee assembled a plan to design a statewide rapidly deployable replacement housing system for victims of federally declared natural disasters. RAPIDO is [bc]'s response to the state’s initiative, addressing issues of social equity, rapid deployment, and constructability.
Read MoreA Data Driven Decision-Making (D3) report completed by [bc] for AVANCE-Dallas. To help AVANCE-Dallas expand their early childhood operation, [bc] provided a set of recommendations to guide future growth in areas of need. This report draws from a number of national, state, and local data to identify and contextualize issues affecting AVANCE-Dallas’ strategic decision-making.
Read MoreSince 2013 [bc] has facilitated the design and construction of 22 unique Little Free Libraries/Libros Libres. Inspired by Little Free Libraries, the Dallas based Libros Libres program has brought together local artists, designers, and community leaders to design and build a range of public outdoor book exchanges.
Read MorePeople Make Parks is a toolkit for engaging communities in public park design. The toolkit, a joint project of Hester Street Collaborative and Partnerships for Parks outlines eight ways to participating in park design, from advocacy to community visioning activities to stewardship.
Read MoreA guide to improving city owned parks, produced by The Center for Urban Pedagogy
Read MoreUsing kites and balloons to take aerial photos and create maps of your neighborhood is a great way to start documenting and understanding a place.
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