Malcolm X once said that “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” And so we found ourselves in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn at the first annual Bedford-Stuyvesant Malcolm X celebration, as guests of the Malcolm X Merchants Association (MXMA). We were there to educate ourselves about the community’s experience using mass transit in their neighborhood, with the intention of improving the transit service in the community by equipping local stakeholders with tools to influence the transit planning process.

When people think of the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, or Bed-Stuy as it’s better known, transit may not be the first thing that comes to mind. But as with many other urban centers, transit was a key factor in its development, growth, and sustenance.

In 1888, the Fulton Street Elevated line, operated by the Kings County Elevated Railway (KCERy), began operation. It connected the Fulton Ferry with Bed-Stuy. The next large transit infrastructure project was the development of the A subway line, which connected Harlem with Bed-Stuy. The new subway line led to an exodus of African-Americans from overcrowded Harlem to Bed-Stuy. From that point on, the neighborhood has grown into one of the most vibrant in the Brooklyn metropolis.

Bed-Stuy is now served by the A and C subway lines at the Utica Avenue, Kingston-Throop Avenue, and Nostrand Avenue subway stations, the B46 and B25 bus lines, and the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). An extensive list of services compared to many other American communities. But is that translating into quality service for the travelers to and from Bed-Stuy?

The statistics tell us that the Utica Ave. subway station, which is at the intersection of Fulton Ave. and Utica Ave., on the A and C lines, carried 4.46 million passengers in 2008, making it the 101st busiest station out of 422 in the City. And although we don’t have a count for how many bus passengers board the B46 at that intersection, we know that the B46 carried 17.3 million riders in 2008, giving it the second highest ridership out of all NYC’s bus lines.  While these numbers are impressive, they don’t tell us the full story of transit service in Bed-Stuy. They don’t explain how and why people use transit, and what improvements could be made to accommodate even more users, and perhaps more importantly, to make the community a better place.

Before we get into the survey process and the results of the survey, I should describe the basis of this project. It is part of a Federal Transit Administration research grant intended to develop tools for public participation in transit-dependent communities. PPS has been working in two pilot study sites, one in LA’s Byzantine Latino Quarter and the other in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood. Local stakeholders, community activists and merchants have been meeting over the past few months to try out some of these tools. In Bed-Stuy, PPS has worked with the Malcolm X Merchant’s Association and Bridge Street Development Corporation (BSDC) to hold workshops and focus groups that will pilot our public participation tools and, simultaneously, create a community vision for Malcolm X Boulevard and Utica Avenue Plaza.

We went to the Malcolm X festival to gather the type of qualitative information that traffic reports often lack. We set up a table on Malcolm X Avenue, in between a vendor selling homemade earrings, and another vendor selling very random trinkets, with the hope that a few interested people would stop by. We had with us two tools to understand the community’s interpretation of their transit service — one was a short survey regarding the quality of pedestrian journeys, and the other was a large neighborhood aerial for a Destination and Route Mapping exercise. The survey had basic questions that we used to determine people’s destinations, preferred paths, and thoughts on how transit stops could be improved. The map was used to determine positive and negative areas in the community, as well as the paths people chose to get to or avoid those places and why.

Before we knew it, our table was swarmed with community members. The wealth of nuance that they gave us was tremendous. Many of the participants in our research had been living in the community their whole lives and their family histories go back several generations. That’s no small measure in a city as transient as New York City! They described their streets down to the most minor detail, as if they knew them like the back of their hands. “Don’t go down Stuyvesant between Bainbridge and Chauncy after dark because it’s not lit well enough,” one woman said. Another woman spoke of the well-kept landscaping on Decatur between Malcolm X and Patchen. “What about that wine bar opening up on Lewis?” “I don’t like those drug dealers on Fulton,” “There’s Solomon’s Porch on Stuyvesant!” People were blurting out things left and right. Within a few hours our map was filled with green and red dots, and we had 25 completed surveys in our back pocket.

Many community members are not involved in the transit planning process, and as a result, transit service is not catered to their needs. Instead, it is designed to meet the parochial benchmarks of transportation engineers – “level of service” and so on and so forth. But “level of service” isn’t always the best measure for level of service; it doesn’t consider the café down the block that people might want to walk by in the morning to get coffee, or the fact that a vacant block across the bus stop might attract seedy characters. Our pilot project is intended to understand the reality of a community’s transit needs, and equip them with tools to influence transit service to it adapts to that reality - a bottom-up approach, not a top-down approach that we’ve seen far too often.

During our research the community’s main concern regarding their transit experience was safety. Participants mentioned fear of crime in places where certain infrastructure such as lighting was missing. Nevertheless, there was a clear sense of neighborhood pride that people shared. The community spoke with confidence that the streets were theirs, and there was always a glimmer of confidence in their words that they were restoring their community from an era where it suffered greatly from crime, poverty, and political neglect. With the tools that we are helping to develop for Bed-Stuy, and eventually, other transit-dependent communities, we can play a role in empowering them to improve their journey from point A to point B. We want everyone dancing while they wait for the bus, like this gentleman waiting for the B25 in Utica Plaza.

What: A vibrant shopping street with an effective traffic calming system, situated at the summit of Da Du Mountain and next to Dong Hai University.

Why it Works: Art Street in Taichung County is one of the most progressive areas for urban living in Taiwan. The street exemplifies urban planning focused on people-friendly living spaces. The narrow, one-way street with raised, cobbled intersections slows traffic enough to allow people to pleasantly walk along the street, encouraging a pedestrian friendly environment. The focus of the area is a small square, which at ground level is mostly occupied by coffee and gift shops and on the second level features art studios, galleries and small artisan workshops. On sunny days it is a popular meeting place for all the community, young and old. Children play in the square while adults sit on the steps and seats shaded by trees to chat. Local artists, musicians and dance groups often use the square for street performances. The local residents are proud of Art Street and encourage visitors from all around the city and the world.

Read the entire profile here.

Click here to nominate your favorite public space.

On May 2nd Fred Kent gave the opening keynote to 700 leaders of Garden Clubs from every corner of the United States. The message resonated as a natural evolution for their powerful role in communities, leveraging their skills as practical implementers, social networkers and resourceful fundraisers.  The local garden club is often the first partner mentioned at our workshops to help implement short term improvements.  We will now look to Garden Clubs to play a leading role as conveners and facilitators of Placemaking in their communities.

To offer them a tool to support this potential role, PPS lead 200 of the conference attendees in an afternoon “Place Game” workshop to train them to use the tool to evaluate public spaces and kick start placemaking projects.  We were aided in facilitating the large crowd by 20 local partners involved in our Kennedy Plaza effort that saw the workshop as a good opportunity to get fresh ideas from the Garden Club members.

Greater Kennedy Plaza Placemaking May 2, 2009 from Russell Preston on Vimeo.

The video was also posted on CNU New England’s Sustainable Urbanism Summit blog, where blogger Russell Preston says:

A critical piece of creating a sustainable urbanism is pleasing and vibrant Public Space. As we move towards a more resilient way of planning for our villages, towns and cities, as Fred Kent says, we can no longer afford to only create “open space”. Our land is too valuable to not be used, be programmed and be enjoyed.

Chicago’s Metropolitan Planning Council, our partner in Placemaking Chicago, a city-wide Placemaking campaign, continues to make strides in applying Placemaking in Chicago.

MPC asks residents what they want to see in the Polish Triangle

Their latest project is the transformation of the intersection of Division Street, Ashland Avenue, and Milwaukee Avenue, at a crossroads also known as the Polish Triangle.  MPC has gathered insight and feedback from more than 700 people, using online surveys, in-person workshops and by starting a public group on the Placemaking Movement - PPS’s online social network.  So far, ideas from the community have included public art and traffic calming.

Participants map out ideas at an MPC workshop

More information:

• Placemaking in Chicago [pps.org]
• The Polish Triangle networking group [The Placemaking Movement]
• Residents come out in force to shape the future of the Polish Triangle [MPC]
• www.placemakingchicago.com

Photos in this post from MPC’s Flickr page

Savannah is known for the beauty of its tree-canopied streets, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. Clearly, its citizens agree. A recent survey that invited people to name the city’s best and worst streets drew four times as many responses for “worst” as for “best.”

The survey was conducted on behalf of Savannah Forward, a coalition of public and private institutions — from the government, to the Downtown Neighborhood Association, to the morning news — all of whom are looking for ways to increase Savannah’s livability.

To that end, they invited PPS president Fred Kent to the city on February 5th to speak to a crowd of over 300 citizens interested in improving Savannah’s public realm. Kent tackled some of the “worst” streets — all of which, he noted, prioritize car traffic at the expense of everything else. Bay Street, for example, cuts off the city’s downtown from its riverfront, and is “the most obnoxious road you have,” Kent said. He urged the city to consider narrowing the roadway, widening the sidewalk, and adding attractions like sidewalk cafes to turn it into a gathering place.

The “good” examples submitted by the public were split between convenient throughways and slow, tree-lined residential streets. Which means, Kent suggested, that the right approach for Savannah will be one that balances the region’s character and ambience with easy accessibility to its destinations.

Savannah’s built form is also notable for the historic squares that checker its downtown. But “just because they’re beautiful doesn’t mean they’re well-used,” Kent pointed out. He encouraged the coalition to bring their squares to life, starting by scheduling activities in two or three squares to draw people there, like an interactive water feature, sitting steps, and a plaza for live performances.

“Mr. Kent inspired us to take action now,” said Theodora Gongaware and William Stuebe of Savannah Forward. And it’s a great time to act — not in spite of the economic downturn, but because of it. The lull in development offers “an excellent window of time to try new things,” they said.

They’re not the only ones who are excited. Check out this post, “Is Fred Kent Hiring?” from someone who attended the event, and this follow-up from another Savannah citizen.

Temperatures average below freezing during the darkest month of the year in Slovenia.  However, the country’s public spaces are overflowing thanks to a government program called “Happy December,” designed to infuse life into downtowns.

Several concerts take place each day in the central square of Ljubljana, adjacent to food and warming stations that allow people to stay outdoors for hours in below-freezing temperatures.

Most of the activity happens after dark, with peak crowds staying out well after midnight to enjoy the entertainment, lighting and hot wine.

The city’s year-round Sunday flea market goes on strong in sub-freezing weather, taking the place of the food market held along the river banks during the other six days of the week.

Christmas markets are set up throughout the city center, combining high quality crafts and clothing with local food and alcohol, free programming, public gathering areas, creative lighting, games and other amenities.

See a comprehensive set of Flickr images!