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It’s All About the Place
Source: Model D Feature: What's Working in cities: Placemaking
Placemaking. That was the strategy that built Detroit's Campus Martius Park in 2004, which now attracts 1 million park visitors each year. It is also the strategy that is behind so many projects in cities across the country.
So, what is this strategy that is gaining momentum across the country?
Fred Kent, president of Project for Public Spaces says it is, “turning a place from one that you can’t wait to get through into one that you never want to leave.” (Source: Economics of Place blog by Michigan Municipal League Executive Director & CEO, Dan Gilmartin).
Kent founded PPS in 1975, when the importance of place wasn't obvious to everyone. "There was a big difference in the ‘70s--cities were awful places, with all kinds of crime," he said. "No one was really interested in public spaces when we started, except that they had drug dealing in them."
Today, Kent’s audience for the placemaking philosophy is larger than ever--he is logging a record 200,000 travel miles this year.
The state of Michigan is focusing on placemaking initiatives as part of its economic development strategy. "Economic development and community development are two sides of the same coin," said Gov. Rick Snyder in a special message to the Michigan Legislature last winter. "A community without place amenities will have a difficult time attracting and retaining talented workers and entrepreneurs, or being attractive to business."
Read more about placemaking in this feature from Model D.
Read League Executive Director & CEO, Dan Gilmartin's blog, Economics of Place, here.
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