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City of Greenfield (2020) Print
2020 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Public space activation
└ Public space activation
The City of Greenfield removed 250-square-feet of asphalt from a downtown parking lot, converting it to a pocket park -- a space for people instead of cars. The Fiske Avenue Pocket Park features benches, a chess table, a bike repair station, a pollinator garden and a quirky bee sculpture. Project organizers say the new, centrally located green space supportz a central goal of the city's Sustainable Master Plan: to create a vibrant, walkable downtown. Additionally, removing the asphalt supported efforts to mitigate stormwater runoff. The project's success also helped the City secure a 200,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation.
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Monroeville, AL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Organizers with Monroeville's Main Street initiative hoped to draw residents to the city's historic downtown district. To give people a reason to gather outdoors, they added wheelchair-accessible game tables and seating in several locations, including the grounds of the Monroe County Museum, two parks, the local YMCA and a senior center. The organization also purchased checkers and chess game pieces, which are available to visitors to check out. Part of a larger campaign to decrease littering and encourage community pride, organizers also installed trash cans downtown. And to increase facetime with constituents, the newly elected mayor also called on residents to challenge him to a game of chess or checkers. Organizers say the placemaking project is meant to unite the community by giving people a place to connect with each other.
Detroit, MI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: To give older adults a space where they can interact with local children, Eden Gardens Block Club converted two vacant lots into an intergenerational playground. Ahead of the project, the Edens Garden surveyed residents about their preferences, with 80 percent of respondents asking for exercise equipment for older adults. Volunteers then worked to clear the site and install playground apparatuses, including swings, a see-saw bouncer and a cardio walker. Organizers say the space is now a source of community pride for the community.
Bronx, NY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: The project will convert an underutilized lot into a farmers market with cooking demonstrations and essential services for older adults.
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Brattleboro, VT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Residents considered the Brattleboro Transportation Center's parking garage to be ugly and uninviting. To change this, the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance worked with local artists to create signage for each level of the garage. The new signs feature a different animal for each level, with each creature -- the osprey, river otter, American shad and sea lamprey -- significant to the Abenaki indigenous community and the Connecticut River ecosystem. Additionally, the Alliance held a pop-up event in the garage's elevator to display the prototype for a new Ask the River kinetic sculpture. Visitors to the garage could view the sculpture and give their feedback. Today, the full-size version of the artwork decorates the facade of the Transportation Center building.
Brattleboro, VT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Developing projects based on residents' priorities
Description: This project will organize walk-and-talks and indoor workshops led by community members aged 50 to inform residents about the construction of a riverside park and get them engaged in shaping its future development.
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