This attractive urban parking garage in downtown Evanston, IL blends into its urban environment without being too much of an eye sore.

An open square fronted by buildings, often filled with outdoor dining and public events. It would be the heart of downtown Bristol, pedestrian friendly, and in use day and night.
The surrounding uses often include open-air cafes on the ground floor, offices on the second floor, and residential above.
Events often include outdoor concerts, public markets, festivals and movies.

Immotion Studios is a brand development and advertising agency in Fort Worth, TX.

What’s happening in Bristol, Connecticut (pop. 61,000), home of ESPN, is pretty representative of small cities and towns across the country, with a vacant downtown surrounded by auto-oriented sprawl of national chains, isolated office buildings and subdivisions. What’s about to happen in Bristol however, may be a redefining of the American Dream, and a model for these same cities to follow.

Currently, Bristol’s economic retail analysis shows that the largest ‘retail leak’ by far, that is, net dollars being spent outside of the city rather than within it, is a minus $45 million gap at gas stations. The second biggest gap? $27 million leaving the Bristol economy for food services and drinking places (ie restaurants, bars) outside the city. As you can see by the top graph (Bristol 2010), most every resident is spending a significant amount of dollars that leave the local economy forever, from those with three cars, a mcmansion, and prefer shopping at big boxes, dining at national chains on the left side of the graph, to those on the right side of the graph who drive occasionally (a car is still a necessity for the most part) and prefer local shops and restaurants, but can’t find many options.

So, following past models, a typical economic development plan would be to build $45 million of revenue’s worth in gas stations, and $27 million of revenue’s worth in Applebys, Starbucks and Taco Bells. The result is what you’d find in the second graph, “Bristol 2020 on current trend”, with even more dollars (and culture) leaving the local economy for good.

However, Bristol, like many other towns with a sustainability consciousness, is embarking on a different path, one towards a triple-bottom-line (3BL) future, as illustrated by the bottom graph, “Bristol 2020 on 3BL trend”. Notice that those on the left of the graph haven’t changed their 3-car, national chain lifestyle at all, and they will probably never change. That’s fine. Just look at those on the right who will soon have a walkable, mixed-use town center with attainably-priced housing and a multitude of cultural amenities, including local, indies places to eat, drink and socialize… and for the first time ever have the option of jettisoning their car. So that’s reducing the need for residents to spend that $45 million to benefit the likes of Exxon and BP, and enjoying the $27 million at local downtown restaurants and bars instead. Learn more about that effort here.

See all that green in the graph that’s replacing the red? That’s money now staying in the local economy rather than leaving, instead being spent on the local cultural amenities that both strengthen the economy and quality of life.

Now that’s a future worth sticking around for.

What exactly is crowdsourced placemaking?

Crowdsourcing – “the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.” Alternatively, “the application of open source principles to fields outside of software,” as defined by the official crowdsourcing blog and book, Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business by Jeff Howe. Also, check out Crowdsourcing 101.

Placemaking – The best definition comes from a collection of definitions at Project for Public Spaces, such as “Placemaking is the art of creating public ‘places of the soul,’ that uplift and help us connect to each other.” Also, the book Placemaking: The Art and Practice of Building Communities, defines it as “the way in which all human beings transform the places they find themselves into the places where they live.”

So combining these definitions, one gets…

Crowdsourced placemaking – the act of taking development traditionally performed by real estate institutions and sourcing it to a large, undefined community with shared values in the form of an open call, to transform the places we find ourselves into the places where we live, as ‘places of the soul’ that uplift and help us connect to each other.

Is investing in the arts, as it relates to placemaking, profitable? Try this quote, coming from a real estate development organization (ULI), “There is a growing body of evidence that thoughtful investment in arts and culture initiatives can generate significant economic benefits for cities large and small. Looking at data collected across numerous studies, along with the broad array of recent arts and culture plans and projects, one will likely conclude that the right strategy and implementation approach—whether initiated by the public sector or by private interests—can result in significant increases in property values, revenues, and jobs.”

Americans for the Arts, a national nonprofit, obviously agrees with this. The facts from their “Arts and Economic Prosperity III” report may be more compelling: the nonprofit arts and culture industry generates $166.2 billion in economic activity annually, provides 5.7 million full-time jobs in the U.S. and generates nearly $30 billion in revenue for federal, state, and local governments every year where government spend less than $4 billion annually to support the arts (a 7:1 return).

The ULI also provides the following examples:

Miami. An investment in the restoration of art deco hotels in South Beach lead to a tourism boom, and ultimately an art fair in 2002, Art Basel, now considered with its founding sister event in Switzerland as the most prestigious art fair in the world. In 2009, its 40,000 attendees generated almost half a billion in economic activity. That in turn spawned 15 to 20 satellite fairs that helped the revitalization of the light-industrial Wynwood District, now hosting over 90 galleries and numerous restaurants. Feeding into and out of this momentum, developer Craig Robins invested in several blocks of derelict buildings north of Wynwood and created a district of interior design studios, restaurants, retail and open spaces, now known as the prestigious Miami Design District, hosting Design Miami, today the most important design show in North America.

Boston. Here it’s all about the housing. The Artist Space Initiative is a city housing program that legislates policies allowing artists to reside in industrial areas, Boston’s Center for the Arts provides artists with affordable studios in the South End, catalyzing further vitality and investment.

New York City. The Ford Foundation provides a $100 million, ten-year grant to support arts spaces and housing because it believes it “can play a significant role in boosting local economies.”

Denver. In 1989 voters approved the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) and a 0.01% sales tax for the arts, whose $42 million in funds in 2007 sparked nearly $1.7 billion in total economic activity in the region, $331 million was generated from cultural tourism. Taxes paid in 2007 from arts, cultural, and scientific nonprofits totaled $21.3 million.

Chicago. It’s $500 million public/private investment in Millennium Park is estimated to add $1.4 billion in value to the adjacent real estate over the next ten years.

In a 2010 report, “Creative Placemaking”, one of the most effective creative placemaking reports ever produced, Ann Markusen and Ann Gadwa for the National Endowment of the Arts provide the following 14 case studies:

- Cleveland, Ohio’s Gordon Square Arts District
- Creative Entrepreneur Project, San José, California
- Artspace Buffalo Lofts, Buffalo, New York
- City of Music, Seattle, Washington
- Rural hub of cultural activity, Arnaudville, Louisiana
- TriMet’s Interstate MAX Public Art Program, Portland, Oregon
- Paducah, Kentucky Artist Relocation Program
- Remaking Los Angeles, California’s Hollywood
- Art as healing, Fond du Lac Reservation, Minnesota
- Art and technology 01SJ Biennial, San José, California
- After School Matters, Chicago, Illinois
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s Mural Arts Program
- Phoenix, Arizona Public Art Program
- Mayors and artists partnerships, Providence, Rhode Island

Finally, what are the key ingredients in creative placemaking success? The report provides its six Components of Successful Arts-Oriented Placemaking Initatives, as follows:

1. Creative Initiator – Finding that one person or small team that starts it all.
2. Designing Around Distinctiveness – Build on existing expertise and characteristics of place.
3. Mobilizing [Government Will] – If your city government isn’t supportive, good luck.
4. Garnering Private Sector Support – If no one’s looking to invest in it, good luck.
5. Securing Arts Community Engagement – This is more than working with arts leaders, this is about crowdsourcing the time and investment of thousands of its patrons.
6. Building Partnerships – Figuring out a way for all of the above to work together.

So, who’s your community’s Creative Initiator?…

Real estate developer Bart Blatstein definitely has Rome on the brain. While the new Piazza at Schmidt’s in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia is inspired by the ancient city’s Piazza Navona, that was only after Blatstein was thwarted in his proposal to re-create the Spanish Steps as part of the Philadelphia waterfront.

However, the car-free character of his developments are no coincidence. Says Blatstein, “My grandfather had a pushcart at 2nd and Laurel Streets in the 1930s, so I’ve always loved this area. My dream was to create a ‘five minute neighborhood’ where people live, shop, eat, work and play, all within a few city blocks. With all forms of public transit nearby, residents will have everything they need at their fingertips enabling them to decrease their carbon footprints by never having to use a car.”

Thus, eight years and $100 million later, the 80,000 s.f./two-acre plaza now serves as a unique destination, unique to anywhere in the entire U.S. Named after the former Schmidt’s Brewery, the piazza features 100,000 s.f. of local, independent retail businesses curated by a local artist, 35artist studios and boutiques, a sound stage for rock concerts, and a 40-foot LED television broadcasting every Phillies baseball game as well as movie classics on Saturday nights, perhaps inspired by the piazza film festival in Locarno, Switzerland?

The plaza is also surrounded by 50,000 s.f. of office space and 500 apartments, part of a 28-acre $500 million project, the country’s largest private urban renewal initiative, all without a single person being displaced. Read more about the piazza in the Philadelphia Inquirer, including a photo gallery.

Read more in the NY Times article, From Abandoned Brewery to Piazza, Philly-Style.

I think we have definitely hit the pedestrian walk tipping point. First Wired Magazine publishes It’s Time for Cities to Favor People, Not Cars, then San Francisco’s mayor announces the possibility of closing the city’s main thoroughfare to cars. Now New York City Mayor Bloombergannounces on February 26, 2009 that Times Square and Herald Square will go completely vehicle-free, along with 36 blocks of Broadway adding a pedestrian promenade and bike lane while leaving a reduced number of car lanes. It’s not permanent, but if proven a success by the end of the year, it will be.

Mayor Bloomberg, “People avoid Times Square because the traffic is so terrible and people are getting pushed out into the streets – the sidewalks can’t handle it. People don’t come to look at cars stuck in traffic. They come to look at the lights, the buildings and the excitement, and this is going to have a lot more of it.” The street closings (or openings, rather) will occur on Memorial Day, and the plazas will be completed over the summer.

The permanent street closing to vehicles will occur on Broadway Boulevard at 47th Street to 42nd Street in Times Square and from 35th Street to 33rd Street at Herald Square, with crosstown traffic allowed. The rest of Broadway will follow a precedent set by the Broadway Boulevard project.

How did this all happen? Well, you take one visionary mayor, a city filled with more creatives than any in the U.S., and what is arguably the most innovative government agency in the world, the NYC Department of Transportation.

See the previous entries, Manhattan running out of space for pedestrians and How can Times Square make room for its crowded pedestrians?.

When people are asked what’s missing in their downtown, you’ll often hear things like a ‘central place’ for the community to gather for public events, dining and people watching; a public market; or a farmer’s market. The San Pedro Square Public Market aims to be all of the above.

Scheduled to open in late summer 2010, the 50,000 s.f. public market will feature a public market hosting 50 vendors in spaces as small as 100 s.f. Only unique, local, independent food vendors, restaurants and retailers are considered. In fact, the formal marketing requests, “Wanted: Compelling ideas. Wild Characters.”

What adds a tremendous amount of character and history to the square is that its central outdoor plaza highlights San Jose’s oldest building, a small, humble building known as the Peralta Adobe. The square is surrounded by two retrofitted buildings and a brand new building.

One of the most attractive attributes of the square is its commitment to being casual, down to earth and affordable. As retail leasing agent Steve Borkenhagen states, “We thought it had more of a funky casual approachability that some of the other markets don’t. The Ferry Market [in San Francisco] is more upscale, whereas Granville [public market in Vancouver, Canada] is everything – you’ve got the suits there, you’ve got casual people off the street. We’re not trying to be Valley Fair or Santana Row [upscale]. We’re trying for more of the opposite.”

There’ll be lots to do, see, and shop in the square. In addition to the public market, a Friday farmers market that already runs from May to December in San Pedro Square will continue, and a second farmers market is being considered for Saturdays. The plaza will host live jazz and other music performances on its stage via an outdoor stage. The square will also be one of the few places in the U.S. built for outdoor movie watching (check out this great example in Switzerland).

The hours are also more in keeping with being a round the clock destination. Shops will be open from morning to later at night, 10 am to 10 pm, and some food shops will open at 6 am while others will close at midnight.

It is hard to put into words what makes Busboys & Poets so special. For starters, it is a great combination of restaurant/bookstore/coffee shop. In addition to being great at multitasking, it also does a wonderful job of facilitating community. A large section of the establishment is designated for open seating, that often times reminds you of your own living room with easy chairs, sofas, and large dining tables. In addition to providing comfort, this arrangement makes it easy to meet and strike up a conversation with the person next to you – which has happened to me many times.

Busboys & Poets — named after American poet Langston Hughes who worked as a busboy prior to gaining recognition as a poet – is also a strong supporter of the local art scene. It frequently hosts art and cultural events, and provides a venue for local artists to express themselves.