See More Projects Like This One

Starkville, MS

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement

Description: Community-based organization Keep Starkville Beautiful updated a busy transportation corridor to calm traffic, increase safety and make the area more pleasant. The organization repaired a crumbling retaining wall and added built-in planters and pollinator patch gardens. A local artist created a colorful pavement pattern in the intersection of Whitfield and Scales Streets. Keep Starkville Beautiful also made improvements to a bus stop, installing a new ADA-compliant seating and waiting area and adding an arbor framed by planters to provide shade. Local residents provided much of the labor for the upgrades during community work days.

Surry, ME

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement

Description: This project installed signage along Route 172 to slow speeding traffic by drivers who are often unaware of the small town's presence as they shuttle between Ellsworth and Blue Hill.

DeRidder, LA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018

Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement

Description: The City of DeRidder set out to improve walkability, allowing residents to reach cultural amenities and social opportunities on foot. They worked to install accessible sidewalks, paint crosswalk to make them more visible and add wayfinding signage downtown. The city's core is home to government offices, a public library branch, a theater and art gallery and a regular farmers market, as well as a pocket park and downtown pavilion.

Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects

Chicago, IL

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Walk Audits

Description: This project will conduct walk audits to identify potential visibility, sidewalk and crosswalk improvements. The organization will recruit older volunteers to participate and meet with residents, business owners and local officials to discuss their findings.

Chicago, IL

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: To promote walkability, economic development and better quality of life for residents, the Chicago Department of Transportation created a replicable prototype for a People Spot. Consisting of a wooden platform, the People Spots transform on-street parking spaces into outdoor patios. To help neighborhood groups set up their own People Spots, the City published construction plans and an assembly manual for the parklets online. Part of the City's Livable Streets Program, organizers say the temporary infrastructure helps neighborhoods overcome economic hardship by encouraging residents to walk and frequent local businesses. The City installed its first People Spot in the South Side Chatham neighborhood in 2018. That iteration measured about six feet wide by 20 feet long, but the platforms can be as long as 80 feet.

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