EngagingCities

Public engagement can be risky business. There are lots of examples of what NOT to do. It isn’t often we

Jessie Conover responds to recent articles calling for less public participation in our

What is an innovation district? Understanding innovation districts and placemaking An emerging trend in urban areas, innovation districts are targeted areas that have potential for innovation and entre...

Murray Whyte asks what, if any, rules art should follow when shared with the public.

New Urbanism is a well-known movement that aims to create more walkable communities. Less known is New Ruralism, which is focused on the preservation and enhancement of rural communities beyond the edge of metropolitan regions. Small towns now part of this nascent movement seek to define themselves on their own terms, not just in relation…

Efficiency; resilience; growth; vitality. These are all characteristics that cities desire, and that are regularly cited as the objectives of Smarter City programmes and other forward-looking initiatives. But, though it is less frequently stated, a more fundamental objective underlies all of these: fairness. The Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has written extensively about the need to prioritise…

The promise of civic technology is that better democracy can come via connection, automation, and data. 

This spring, Code for San Jose turned three years old. In addition to celebrating with craft cocktails at a favorite local bar, we made time to reflect on our successes, struggles and future…

Three experts from NYC, NOLA, and Rio zeroed in on cities' response to climate change at Cities and Climate Action, a Columbia GSAPP conference.

Eric Liu discusses what makes activism work and the power that we all possess.

The San Antonio Progressive Alliance organized a community meeting on Participatory Budgeting that was held last night at Brick at Bluestar. The meeting featured a presentation by Palo Alto Community…

The design studio Pensa envisions the way autonomous vehicles could transform far more than our streets.

The city's Better Together initiative has resulted in a community action plan focused on six steps that promote equity and community dialogue among residents. This is a guest post by Linda Harris. What is the role of local government in creating a space for community dialogue among residents? How do you bring everyone to the…

This week I traveled from Northville, MI to Madison, WI with a stop in Chicago, IL. Three distinctly different places. All successful in their own way. Northville is an old Victorian town of 6,000 …

It’s part of the social media giant’s efforts to connected people to government representatives.

Civic engagement can mean a lot of different things – from the casual forwarding of a friend’s email to deep involvement on a board of directors. The most effective social change organizations understand how to wield their portfolio of engagement tactics in Zen-like fashion; knowing just what kind of touch is called for to influence the outcomes of a particular decision.

In Newspeak House in east London, a loose coalition of young, idealistic ‘political technologists’ are trying to fix broken parts of our electoral system. Can they give voting a digital shot in the arm?

We need places like Civic Hall if we want to continue to bring non-developers into the fray. I think our technology, and our world, will be better for it.

In the Eastwick neighborhood, the city will have to navigate community engagement, competing plans and climate change.

Drones will transform the way buildings are designed, the way they look and the way they are used, according to architect Mark Dytham

From coast to coast and in middle America, more sensible parking policies are taking hold and may be the quickest path to urban revitalization.

I was born and raised in Hong Kong and lived there until my family moved to New York in 2001. Work brought me back to Hong Kong in 2014 and I am always trying to resolve social issues here via research, projects, volunteering and teaching. One of the biggest problems we have in Hong Kong …

As the host of 18th Pro Walk/Pro Bike/Pro Place conference in Pittsburgh, PA, Project for Public Spaces vowed to install community-based Lighter-Quicker-Cheaper (LQC) projects that brought placemaking to Pittsburgh and connected our conference to the community. We wanted to generate an exciting project that combined the spirit of active transportation and Placemaking with Pittsburgh’s unique neighborhoods.

"Not just pretty pictures and visions."