West Fargo, ND

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: As part of efforts to attract visitors to its downtown, the City of West Fargo hoped to turn its POW/MIA Plaza on Sheyenne Street into a gathering space. To do this, the City purchased game tables for a previously underused portion of the plaza. "This project helped demonstratethe importance of creating opportunities for fun and safe activities in the city's new and improved downtown area," City Planner Malachi Petersen said. "It is our hope that this project will lead to future projects which encourage walkability and active lifestyles in our community." Today the plaza hosts community events, including a farmers market. Project organizers hope to replicate the games in other parts of West Fargo in the future.

Kuna, ID

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: Kuna has a large parking lot in the center of its downtown that goes largely underused for most of the year. To spark the community's imagination, the City and Idaho Smart Growth hosted the Park for a Day event, which turned the lot into a pop-up plaza. The event featured live music, a food vendor and sketches illustrating ways the space could be permanently transformed. Attendees also contributed their own designs for the parking lot. Suggestions included using the space for a series of short-term, recurring events, such as an Oktoberfest, a Christmas village, a renaissance fair or themed dance nights. The City went on to explore several ideas from the pop-up event, including paving the parking lot with solar panels and installing green stormwater infrastructure to sustain landscaping at the site.

Westwood, NJ

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: To provide a safe and enjoyable gathering space, the Borough of Westwood created a parklet. Meant to sit in the footprint of a parking space, the parklet was designed to give people of all ages, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds a place to sit and relax in Westwood's central business district.