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AARP Livable Communities Map
City of Columbia (2020) Print
2020 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Public space activation
└ Public space activation
As part of efforts to activate space and increase the vitality of Columbia's downtown, this project created the city's first parklet. Parklets transform on-street parking spaces into public gathering spaces. Originally intended to be temporary, Columbia's miniature park consists of a ground-level, fenced-in deck featuring an art installation, a cafe table and chairs and new planters. While several nearby restaurants lack outdoor seating space, the parklet remedied this, giving visitors a space to eat and socialize. To gather public feedback about the new space, city staff displayed a QR code onsite, which linked to an online survey. Spurred by the success of this project, organizers made plans to add more parklets downtown. City staff have also looked into creating a parklet ordinance, which would allow local businesses to create similar spaces in the future.
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See More Projects Like This One
Roswell, NM
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Roswell often experiences daytime temperatures well over 112 degrees Fahrenheit. The tourist town also welcomes more than 200,000 tourists each year. This project set out to help visitors and residents alike walk in downtown Roswell despite the brutal heat. Over the course of several years, Maitreet Roswell collected plastic bottle caps and container lids -- part of an effort it called Bottlecaps to Benches. Project organizers then sent a tractor trailer full of the caps to a recycling plant in Indiana, which sent back 30 benches made from recycled plastic. Maitreet Roswell then installed the benches throughout the town's commercial district, allowing pedestrians to sit and recover from the heat.
Woonsocket, RI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: This project transformed the area outside the Aging Well older adult center into a safe, inviting space for outdoor exercise, as well as a gathering place.
Forest City, NC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: This project will provide spaces for gathering and dining outdoors by adding seating and shade coverings throughout the Grahamtown neighborhood. The communal spaces will welcome older adults by allowing them to rest away from the sun's rays.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Columbia, SC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: The City of Columbia set out to provide outdoor seating along Main Street, an area that attracts pedestrians and hosts events that draw visitors from the surrounding region. Project organizers say that people now have a spot to work on their laptops, enjoy a cup of coffee or take in a meal from nearby food trucks. Although staff originally removed and stored the tables at the end of each day, their popularity spurred the City to leave them out permanently. And when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the colorful tables and chairs provided residents with a safe space to gather outside. Because the seating is heavily used, the City has explored more ways to provide seating on Main Street.
Columbia, SC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Lifelong housing and accessibility
Description: This project purchased and installed equipment for the center's new physical location to support an adult day-care center, community space and affordable housing units.
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