Public Participation
Art as Public Participation
Candy Chang is using public art installations to spark community involvement and input on land use.
City Engagement Via Technology
Cities across the U.S. are increasingly looking to technology to improve the public participation process and increase the ways citizens can engage with the government. Chief technical officers are becoming more common.
Asking Locals What To Do With Abandoned Buildings
Artist Candy Chang has taken an old building in Fairbanks, Alaska and turned it into a public idea board that asks locals what they think should be done with it.
Emergence in Public Parks
The sudden appearance of a ping pong table in a public park in Dallas is a perfect example of the concept of emergence in cities, according to this post on Pegasus News.
Listening to the People's Voice in Detroit
In this op-ed for The Detroit News, Rob Goodspeed argues that Detroit needs to exert more effort to dialog with its citizens about how the city should change.
Do You Approve or Disapprove of Public Art?
An independent group is seeking to "ignite essential discussions about art in Los Angeles" by getting locals to put APPROVE or DISAPPROVE stickers on public art around the city.
"There Aren't Nearly Enough People Here."
That was David Motzenbecker's thought as he began a public meeting of the Minneapolis Planning Department, which inspired him to re-think how the city engages the public.
Homeland Security Frequency Jam?!? What to do When Public Participation Goes Terribly Wrong
In 2009 we worked with Ron Thomas, Mary Means, and Goody Clancy to help plan and run a large 500+ person visioning event in the town of Shreveport. We set up the event the night before with computers at every table for brainstorming and a [...]
Are Angry Crowds Still Crowdsourcing?
NYC's Deputy Mayor of Operations Stephen Goldsmith reflects on the value of listening to people, and talks about the new crowdsourcing projects the city is rolling out.
In Defense of Public Input
Using the example of the failed regeneration of Green Bay's downtown led by Victor Gruen, Della Rucker argues that disregarding input from the public can have devastating repercussions.
The Problems of the Public Process
NIMBYism is obstructing the urban planning process, according to architect and New Urbanist Andres Duany. He suggests changing the public participation process to unclog the system.
Crowdsourcing the City
"Give a Minute" is a program that seeks ideas for fixing cities directly from the people who use them, using ads in newspapers and displays in public spaces to ask a big question, such as "What would get you to walk, bike or take transit more often?"
Participation Through Stickers: What Do You Wish This Was?
A simple sticker that says "I WISH THIS WAS" gives New Orleans residents a way to comment directly on their communities.
D.C. Takes Long-Range Transit Planning Online
Washington D.C.'s Metro is expecting a major increase in ridership over the next 30 years. To try to meet that demand, they're recruiting ideas from the public with a new outreach effort.
Improving Communications About Transit
This post from The City Fix looks at various efforts to increase communication between transit riders and transit providers in Chicago.
Indian Slum Experiment Tests Efficacy of Guerrilla Urban Planning
An experiment in community participation conducted by a multinational group of architects, planners and artists in south Delhi tests the efficacy of guerrilla neighborhood planning methods in the developing world.
Planning Processes: Some Resources
Over the last six months some of my blog entries have highlighted plans and places. This month I turn to processes that are important in planning. This is a bit trickier than plans and places as the web presence of processes tends to be dominated by project examples and how-to instructions. It’s also hard from the web to get a sense of how processes have developed over time—for example what passes as rational comprehensive planning today, complete with numerous participatory processes and evaluation strategies, is quite different from the much criticized technical model of the 1950s and 1960s. Of course that’s a good reason to go to planning school.
Prizes for Public Participation
Looking to spur civic engagement, officials in Boulder, Colorado are experimenting with unusual incentives for attendees of city-sponsored meetings.
A Museum-Based Charrette on Riverfront Revitalization
A new museum exhibit in Vermont invites visitors to review various proposals for updating the riverfront in Brattleboro -- and allows them to submit their own ideas.
Crowdsourcing the Master Plan
The city of Lincoln, Nebraska, is asking locals to submit and vote on ideas to integrate into its new master plan, hoping to get citizens more involved in the process and test out unconventional ideas.
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.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
