AARP Hearing Center
AARP Livable Communities Map
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.
Photo Gallery
Image:
Click on a photo to learn more
See More Projects Like This One
Clyde, KS
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Downtown Clyde lacked a safe, welcoming space for gatherings, leaving older adults without an accessible venue for celebrations and casual meetups. The project installed pathway, bistro and landscape lighting across the new Village Green. This illuminatied walkways, seating areas and a mural, while adding color-changing lights to a water feature for seasonal appeal. Exterior lights improved safety around the vendor building. Residents now enjoy a secure, vibrant space for milestone events and daily interactions. One donor said, "I'm so proud of the City of Clyde for its efforts," and noted the positive effect on family and community.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
Columbia, SC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: 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.
Okmulgee, OK
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2025
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Okmulgee Main Street set out to reclaim a downtown alley that residents avoided due to trash dumping, poor lighting and uneven walking surfaces that felt unsafe, especially for older adults. The space functioned only as a service corridor, leaving people living nearby with few accessible places to walk, sit or connect. The project removed dumpsters, leveled the surface and added lighting, clear signage, accessible benches, planters, murals and removable bollards. These changes created a smooth, well-lit path with places to rest and visible cues that invite people to enter and stay. Older adults were closely involved in shaping and building the space and now report feeling safer using it, including in the evening. The alley has already hosted community events and is functioning as permanent, age-friendly infrastructure that supports daily use and strengthens nearby businesses while offering a practical model for future downtown improvements.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
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.
LEARN MORE AND STAY INFORMED
Find articles and resources about making communities more livable for people of all ages
Download or order free publications from AARP Livable Communities
Sign up for the free, weekly, award-winning AARP Livable Communities eNewsletter
Don't see your community listed?
LEARN HOW IT CAN JOIN THE NETWORKConnect with your AARP State Office
AARP has offices in all 50 states as well as in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
AARP New York State Office
750 Third Avenue
Floor 31
New York, NY 10017
United States