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Hinesburg, VT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement
Description: To make crossing the street safer, this project installed a flashing beacon light at a village center crosswalk. The crossing is located near Kelley's Field, an affordable housing community for older adults.
Baltimore, MD
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017
Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement
Description: Organizers with Pigtown Main Street hoped to revitalize the intersection of Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevards. The intersection acts as a gateway to Pigtown, one of Baltimore's most diverse neighborhoods. However, Washington Boulevard is a six-lane divided highway and public spaces along the route have been neglected. To help residents envision street improvements, Pigtown Main Street organized a pop-up event, creating a park at the intersection. Ideas presented included adding curb extensions to help pedestrians cross the street safety, installing bike lanes, reducing the number of travel lanes, displaying public art, creating outdoor seating and eating areas and improving landscaping. Visitors to the pop-up were invited to share their feedback. Organizers set up Dot Boards, which allowed people to place a dot by the photos of activities they'd like to see more of. The top five choices: live performances, outdoor food, parties, art events and outdoor classes.
Wayne, ME
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017
Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement
Description: The downtown area of Wayne, Maine, appears suddenly to drivers traveling along Route 133, a busy state highway. Because of curves in the road and a hill, pedestrians crossing Main Street often aren't visible to drivers until the last second. Logging trucks and other large trucks race through town, barely slowing down as they do, said Stan Davis, chair of the community's aging-at-home committee. To make pedestrians more noticeable, Aging at Home installed flashing Reduce Speed at either end of Wayne's downtown area. The town also purchased portable pedestrian crossing signs. Spurred by the success of the improvements, they plan to continue advocating for sidewalks in central Wayne to make walking even safer.
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Camden, NJ
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: A vacant lot on North Camden's waterfront was unappealing and attracted illegal dumping. The Camden Community Partnership decided to give the lot new life by turning it into a gathering space for residents of all ages. As part of larger efforts to activate the space, the Partnership commissioned a local artist to create a mural onsite. The artist asked older adults questions about their community and used their responses to inform the mural's design, which volunteers helped paint onto a nearby building. Since its completion, project organizers say the mural has served as a model for other local public art projects, with three additional murals in the works. The new greenspace has also tied into other community building work, including development of trail along the Delaware and Cooper Rivers.
Camden, NJ
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2025
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: This project will support the Golden Brush Collective's creation of a mural in Camden's Centerville neighborhood in order to celebrate the area's cultural history and engage residents in the design process.
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