KaBOOM! announced the winners of the Play Everywhere Challenge this week.
Gail Cornwall reports: "[KaBOOM!] "awarded $1 million to spur 50 new projects that create opportunities for urban children to play at places like bus stops, barber shops and Laundromats."
Cornwall highlights some of the inners to showcase the creativity and variety of the winning projects. Among the winners:
- A "giant solar-powered bubble maker that on sunny days will send bubbles drifting over a busy Minneapolis thoroughfare,"
- "periscopes built out of PVC tubes at East Harlem bus stops,"
- "retractable jump ropes outside barber shops and salons in Richmond, Va.,"
- "sidewalks in Detroit "repainted to resemble sprinting tracks,"
- and slides that "pop up next to stairways used to commute through the slopes."
Each of the winning projects has its own project page on the KaBoom! website.
The 50 winners were chosen from more than 1,000 entries. The Play Everywhere Challenge has support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Target, Playworld, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
FULL STORY: Giant Bubbles and Urban Periscopes Among Winners of Play Contest
Planetizen Week in Review: September 24, 2016
More than one city made big planning news this week. You only need two minutes and thirty seconds to find out more.
For Playable Cities: Make the City a Playground
The "Using Behavioral Economics to Create Playable Cities" report suggests that so much time spent in front of screens, and the continued need to counter the obesity epidemic, requires new thinking about play for children living in cities.
Private Donations Propel Early Restoration of Palisades Playground
Los Angeles has secured over $1.3 million in private funding to restore the Pacific Palisades playground months ahead of schedule, creating a modern, accessible space that supports community healing after recent wildfires.
Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees
More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?
In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving
Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.
Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan
Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.
Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding
The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Clanton & Associates, Inc.
Jessamine County Fiscal Court
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service