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Preservation Buffalo Niagara (2020) Print
2020 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Public space activation
└ Public space activation
Preservation Buffalo Niagara wanted to improve the pedestrian experience in Buffalo's Grant Street commercial corridor, which has suffered from disinvestment. With the goal of beautifying the neighborhood, the organization installed trash receptacles on light poles and hung string lights in front of local businesses. The community has a proud history of diversity, including 20 years of welcoming resettled refugees. To celebrate the community's diversity, PBC installed multilingual wayfinding sign and distributed flags representing business owners' countries of origin. To ensure upkeep, they also provided tools to help volunteers maintain the sidewalks and support a community gardener.
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Saint Peter, MN
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: A long-vacant downtown lot in Saint Peter was transformed into a vibrant plaza after decades of inactivity. Volunteers painted a 70-by-70-foot mural, built benches, picnic tables and added lighting and signage to create a welcoming space for gatherings. Events such as live music, art fairs and literary readings introduced residents to placemaking and sparked conversations about revitalization. "Watching people look around with fresh eyes... was magic," said an organizer, noting the plaza has become the only true downtown gathering spot and a catalyst for future projects.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
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.
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.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Buffalo, NY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Engaging residents in vibrant public places
Description: The Dorothy J. Collier Community Center serves residents of all ages, providing free and low-cost meals, exercise classes, social events and more. Organizers with the center hoped to offer residents another option: monthly jazz events. Participants enjoyed performances by local school groups and jazz musicians, received music lessons and enjoyed food from different cultures. Additionally, they had the opportunity to meet and share their needs with local elected leaders, who attended each of the five Jazz Nights. The events allowed the center promote efforts to beautify the community center. Following, project organizers completed an indoor mural in the space. In addition to increasing civic and social engagement, organizers said the Jazz Nights helped the community heal from a traumatic event -- the monthly gatherings kicked off in the wake of a mass shooting in Buffalo and gave attendees space to experience joy and comfort each other.
Buffalo, NY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Engaging residents in vibrant public places
Description: To reinvigorate three historically Black, east-side neighborhoods and foster community, LISC launched its Pride in Place Buffalo initiative. The organization created an interactive website mapping arts and cultural institutions. Following community engagement sessions to identify appropriate sites for the discovery map, project organizers compiled a list of cultural landmarks, nature and parks, transportation hubs, public art installations and other local anchors. The also site helps community members locate activities and resources, including self-guided walking and bicycling tours, food distribution resources and more. "The map basically creates a home base -- a virtual home base -- for communities that sometimes get forgotten, sometimes don't feel like their voices are being heard," Web Developer Marquis Burton said. In addition, LISC installed 20 idea boxes -- decorated by local artists -- for residents to leave their feedback about what they would like to see in the community.
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