COMMUNITIES SHAPING THEIR PLACES A GOOD PRACTICE RESOURCE – 2015
“…MORE CITY SHAPING SHOULD BE DELEGATED TO CITIZENS, AND GOVERNMENT SHOULD TAKE THE ROLE OF ENABLER RATHER THAN CONTROLLER ” — TACTICAL URBANISM VOL 4, 2014:8.
THIS IS A RESOURCE FOR AUCKLAND TO EMPOWER COMMUNITIES TO SHAPE THE PLACES THEY LIVE IN. It presents: • • •
A way to understand community placemaking Good practice ideas Links to more information, case studies and resources
Commissioned by the Community-led Placemaking Champions Group - a group of local board chairs and members who are committed to working in ways that empower communities to create great neighbourhoods and places for Aucklanders. Author: Rachael Trotman, Weave Limited
CONTENTS COMMUNITY PLACEMAKING
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People shape places – places shape people Community placemaking is… Community placemaking continuum Auckland examples
GOOD IDEAS
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Key insights Local boards – start where you are Creative community engagement Community planning Supporting community led placemaking Local boards showing leadership
RESOURCES
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More resources, case studies and information Auckland Council contacts and links
Children painting out graffiti in Clendon, 2014
Gardening workshop in Kaipatiki, 2014
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Communities Shaping Their Places: A Good Practice Resource 2015
COMMUNITY PLACEMAKING
Manurewa Community Expo, 2014
Performers at Rocket Park Intercultural Festival, November 2014
PEOPLE SHAPE PLACES – PLACES SHAPE PEOPLE The look and feel of the places in which we live deeply affects our wellbeing. Some places can inspire joy, a sense of connection, safety and wellbeing, while others can lead to people feeling unsafe, separate from others or uncomfortable.
“BEAUTY IS A CURE FOR ALL ILLS” — HUNDERTWASSER1
Traditional local government approaches to placemaking are led by experts and have limited opportunities for community engagement and influence These approaches do not tend to be flexible or inclusive enough to accommodate fast changing communities, local intelligence, rapid new development and the uniqueness of neighbourhoods2. This resource presents some practical ways for Auckland Council to support communities to shape their places.
Stieff, Barbara (2008:62), Hundertwasser for Kids, Harvesting Dreams in the Realm of the Painter King, Prestel Verlag. 1
2 Street Plans Collaborative and Co-Design Studio (2014:8), Tactical Urbanism Vol 4 Australia and New Zealand, see http://issuu.com/streetplanscollaborative/docs/ tacticalurbanismvol4_141020.
Living Lounge, Glen Eden Mall, 2014.
A public walkway in Auckland. Communities Shaping Their Places: A Good Practice Resource 2015
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COMMUNITY PLACEMAKING IS... Community placemaking refers to communities engaging in shaping the look, function and feel of the places in which they live. It covers a wide range of activities that improve the look and feel of places and build a sense of community, local pride, identity and connection. Some key forms of community placemaking are as follows.
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PHYSICAL PLACEMAKING
EVENTS, MARKETS AND ‘POP UP’ ACTIVITIES
Activities that improve the physical look of a place, such as clean ups, gardening and planting, public art and street furniture
Community events, markets and temporary pop up activities which are designed to bring people together, have fun and feel part of a local community
Communities Shaping Their Places: A Good Practice Resource 2015
ENGAGEMENT PROCESSES
Creative ways to support community leadership and involvement in placemaking, such as community dinners, Youth Panels and Children’s Panels and ‘on the street’ ways to share ideas for a place, such as chalk boards
INCENTIVES AND ASSISTANCE FOR PLACEMAKING
A range of activities designed to encourage residents and community groups to lead or take part in placemaking efforts, such as matching funds, provision of equipment such as bbqs and making it easy to run small local events
COMMUNITY PLACEMAKING CONTINUUM In a council context, how communities engage in placemaking works on a spectrum from council led or top down at one end, to community led or bottom up at the other3.
TOP DOWN
BOTTOM UP
Council-Led
Community-Led
RECIPIENT
CONTRIBUTOR
COLLABORATOR
CO-CREATOR
LEADER
Council and expert led, no or minimal community involvement
Traditional avenues for input to council led activity, eg consultation, submissions
Involved in council processes at key stages, in meaningful ways
Co-creating and designing with council (and others); initiative can be council or community driven
Community led, with decision making held by the community
ROLE AND PARTICIPATION OF COMMUNITIES
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COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT
This continuum is adapted from the IAP2 spectrum of public participation as presented in the Partnering Practice Guide for Waitakere (December 2009) and from Heimans, Jeremy and Henry Timms (December 2014), Understanding New Power, Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2014/12/understanding-new-power.
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AUCKLAND EXAMPLES
THE WALL ON THE BRIGHT SIDE A campaign by local people for local people to choose a mural for a dull grey wall (Eden Terrace, Central Auckland). Search Facebook: Wall on the Bright Side
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Communities Shaping Their Places: A Good Practice Resource 2015
URBAN PANTRY
Urban Pantry turns wasted urban spaces into edible gardens to make cities better places to live and work. www.urbanpantry.co.nz
ON THE VERGE
On the Verge is a gathering place for ideas and examples for planting street verges (berms) in things other than grass and specimen trees. www.facebook.com/ onthevergenz
ALLFRESCO
An annual K’Rd Street Art Festival led by the K’Rd Business Association, which had its debut in 2013. www.allfresco.co.nz
TAONGA ON THE MOVE The Ngati Manuhiri Settlement Trust created Taonga on the Move, a mobile cultural art facility for the local community, school and visitors to the Rodney Local Board area, to develop an understanding of Ngati Manuhiri culture.
The Helensville Lions Club and Rodney Local Board funded a project to enhance a section of the Kaipara riverside walkway, behind the Helensville town centre. The project removed pest plants, created 120m of boxed gravel path and planted over 2000 native plants.
KAIPARA RIVERSIDE WALKWAY
Pictured are Helensville Lions Club members Yvonne Hilton and Dennis Cummings with Rodney Local Board Chairperson Brenda Steele (centre).
‘What is West’ is a local innovation by the Step Up Youth Providers Network, in response to violent incidents in the Henderson Town Centre and surrounding neighbourhoods in 2014. The aim of ‘What is West’ is to build a sense of pride, show positive stories, give young people a voice and empower them to change their local neighbourhoods.
WHAT IS WEST
A video booth was set up during the October 2014 school holidays in Ranui, Henderson, New Lynn and Glen Eden. Ninety young people (aged 8-30s) were filmed as to what they like about their neighbourhood, what they didn’t like and what they would change. Allfresco, K’Rd Business Association
Communities Shaping Their Places: A Good Practice Resource 2015
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Kaipatiki - Northcote College placemaking project ( Hinemoa Reserve)
‘Pop up’ placemaking equipment in Kaipatiki
Casper the consulting caravan, Kaipatiki
GOOD IDEAS
Bond Street Community Garden
KEY INSIGHTS
1 The street/ neighbourhood scale is where communities can have the greatest influence on placemaking
2 Traditional council approaches to community engagement in placemaking such as public meetings, submission processes and seeking feedback on complex documents tend to produce apathy, NIMBYism (not in my backyard), blocks to decision making and spending that doesn’t meet residents needs
3 Placemaking initiatives require skilled brokers and facilitators in council who can support meaningful community engagement in council led placemaking, as well as unlock council resources for community led placemaking initiatives
4 The most important council principle for placemaking is that the process is open and welcoming to all who wish to participate
5 For community placemaking to thrive, council needs to commit to working with its communities, be able to share power, keep an open mind and be willing to try new things
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Totally council led and community led placemaking is uncommon – most placemaking occurs in the space between and requires skilful collaboration and investing in support for communities to engage
The skills, knowledge and resources sitting within communities tend to be underestimated by council and vice versa – these can be revealed to all by working positively together on a common agenda
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LOCAL BOARDS, START WHERE YOU ARE
What are the most loved and used public spaces in your area (and why)?
ASK YOURSELVES AND YOUR COMMUNITIES THESE KINDS OF QUESTIONS, TO DISCOVER WHERE YOU ARE NOW, YOUR STRENGTHS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR COMMUNITY PLACE MAKING. 12
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What are the least liked and utilised public spaces in your area (and why)? What does the above tell you about what you need more and less of in your placemaking efforts? What are examples of great community placemaking in the last five years, in your area? Where is the energy in your community now and potentially for placemaking initiatives? Consider public art, community food initiatives, traffic calming, walking and cycling, streetscapes and verge planting, neighbourliness, clean ups, beautification, active residents and communities, who isn’t engaged and how they might be etc. What is already underway in terms of placemaking in your local board area, whether council led, co-created or community led? Where are the opportunities in your local board area to create better public spaces, in terms of: • • • •
what the local board can influence priority public spaces public spaces crying out for attention or that are ‘problem spaces’ places there is a community interest in or a request for improving
CREATIVE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Bringing people together around food and fun and providing attractors for people to engage, for example through community lunches and dinners, family friendly events, child focused activities, to hear an inspiring speaker or to learn or increase their skills (for example gardening, cooking, parenting) Creative ways for people to express their views in or about an area, see for example www.candychang.com, whose projects include invitations for citizens to publicly state in an area - ‘I wish this was’, ‘I want X in [a place]’, ‘This would be a nice place for X’ and post it notes for neighbours, which provide a means for people to anonymously share ideas and views with their neighbours
Film or audio projects where local people film or record what they love or dislike about their neighbourhood, including the sounds Resource community leaders and active community members to design and run community engagement processes, in ways that they see fit An exchange and incentive approach to engagement and placemaking, for example offering free food and entertainment in exchange for taking part in a community clean up, or a free movie pass to actively engage in a placemaking project
Ideas from school children as part of the Takapuna Amazing Race, 2014
Mobile or fixed public space chalk boards for people to write what they love or want for an area, or to just leave messages (and as an alternative to tagging) Candy Chang stickers Communities Shaping Their Places: A Good Practice Resource 2015
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COMMUNITY PLANNING Community planning refers to communities setting visions, directions, priorities and objectives for the areas in which they live, and working with council and others to make them happen. This involves a spectrum from communities having meaningful and genuine opportunities to influence council plans and processes to communities creating plans themselves, with or without council support.
Communication and collaboration is important here – if communities do not involve council in their planning there is a risk that council will not pick up on their ideas – if council doesn’t engage communities in planning there is a risk that it spends money and implements things that communities do not like or want. A guide to community planning for communities will be available on council’s website in 2015. Core messages around community planning are:
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Communities need to have the energy and capacity to engage in community planning for it to work (it can’t be imposed on a community)
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The approach taken to community planning will be unique to each community – there is no one model or approach and council should be guided by the communities involved as to the process that will work for them and the support they need to engage
Communities Shaping Their Places: A Good Practice Resource 2015
CASE STUDY: Flaxroots Community Planning Flaxroots Community Planning is a ground up initiative to promote community led planning. It is facilitated by the North Shore Council of Social Services, with support from Auckland Council and central government. Flaxroots supports communities to create and implement their vision for their local area through step by step advice, information and resources.
CASE STUDY: Tomorrow Parnell In 2012 the Parnell Community Committee created Tomorrow Parnell, a structure plan for the area. Its creators want the whole suburb to be design driven and to reflect community empowerment in its design. Tomorrow Parnell is an example of local community members working together to create a vision and design for their neighbourhood.
CASE STUDY: Porirua Village Planning The Porirua Village Planning Programme puts communities in charge of developing a vision for their neighbourhoods and then partnering with Council to make it happen. To date 11 of Porirua’s 16 villages have developed village plans. The approach has reportedly created a noticeable increase in community pride, goodwill and a deeper relationship between Council and its communities.
SUPPORTING COMMUNITY LED PLACEMAKING Providing capacity and capability building training and opportunities for communities around placemaking, for example access to visiting speakers and local expertise, specific placemaking training programmes and events, sharing good practice and experiences, profiling community activity and great collaborations
ABOVE ALL, COUNCIL SHOULD BE CLEAR ON HOW IT SUPPORTS COMMUNITY PLACEMAKING AND COMMUNICATE THIS CLEARLY
Inviting and enabling communities to create placemaking projects from clean ups, to gardening and beautification through a festival, a fund, competition or community day (with helpful resources and support) Providing easy access to helpful resources for communities, such as BBQs, gazebos, tables, chairs, sound system, signage, activities for children such as a bouncy castle Providing clear avenues for communities to promote their placemaking activities via council mechanisms such as Our Auckland, the council website, local board communications
Providing easy and free access to useful skills such as facilitation support, administrative and organisational support for community initiatives Funding local artists, residents and businesses to implement local placemaking projects Advise communities of the many noncouncil funding sources available for placemaking
Neighbourhood matching funds or other funding mechanisms targeting community led placemaking – matching funds have been employed in various places including Wellsford, Massey, Glendene and Kelston. See also www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/nmf/
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LOCAL BOARDS SHOWING LEADERSHIP
Street installations and pop up placemaking – these can be council led, codesigned with communities or community led. These can include street projects, activating vacant sites and pop up placemaking such as the Glenmall pop up lounge Street makeovers – these temporarily repurpose public roads for car-free use, from individual driveways, car parks and verges to whole streets and parking lots. Tactical street makeovers show communities what is possible and can motivate inspired communities to push governments for more permanent changes. See for example: www.stuff.co.nz/national/65498806/ wellington-street-gets-dotty-makeover
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Neighbours Day and support for grass roots neighbourhood development initiatives, see for example www.neighboursday.org.nz, www.inspiringcommunities.org.nz, the Better Block movement www.betterblock.org. Most local boards are already very active in this area Neighbourhood gardening and Kai Auckland activity, including urban gardening and community food initiatives, see www.kaiauckland.org.nz
Open space making – transforming underutilised public land into community spaces, for example car parks into green spaces, pocket parks and street seating Public art everywhere – public art can be low cost, co-created or community led and high impact and built into infrastructure of all kinds (footpaths, lamp posts, public walls and private fences, berms, street lights, roads, intersections and residences). See for example the Pomegranate Center www.pomegranatecenter.org
Road repair – making streets safer for walkers and cyclists through low cost physical changes, such as rainbow crossings, way finding stencils, bike activism and signage
Urban fun and games – public activities that provide fun and recreation, such as table tennis tables in town squares, games nights, chess and backgammon boards
Local economic renewal – supporting local economic development and renewal by filling vacant retail space with short term, low cost occupations and activity
Creating bumping spaces and gathering spaces in public areas – that invite people to stop, slow down, sit, converse and interact
Green your neighbourhoods and town centres – the positive placemaking, community and environmental effects of planting appropriately are significant, from creating habitat to providing food and visual appeal. These are also a great way to engage residents in their neighbourhood Placemaking related social enterprises – placemaking can create employment and income for local people, from creating community nurseries, to resource recovery centres, employment for (graffiti) artists and recycling initiatives, see for example Upcycle Auckland www.upcycleauckland.com Use the placemaking audit tool to bring together council expertise for an area and to surface community intelligence about their neighbourhood
CASE STUDY: Splash Adelaide Via Splash Adelaide, Adelaide City Council partners and cocreates with the community, to bring streets and public spaces to life through community run urban experiments. The aim is to increase the vibrancy and vitality of the city. Types of projects include markets, pop up entertainment, urban lounges, music, performances, art installations, street parties, mobile food vendors and entrepreneurial projects. Savvy use of social media includes Facebook, Twitter, a website and a Spash Adelaide app. This is a great example of local government leadership in partnering creatively with communities around placemaking. www.splashadelaide.com.au
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Boggust Park Community Day, Mangere, 2014, over 280 residents attended
Sandringham Spring Festival, 2014
COMMUNITY PLACEMAKING
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Tidy Town Clean up with Residents, Glen Eden 2014
Beach Haven placemaking project
MORE RESOURCES, CASE STUDIES AND INFORMATION Community led design and the value of community placemaking This is a UK based article on the value of community led design and community placemaking. It describes the approach of The Glass-House Community Led Design organisation www.theglasshouse.org.uk, a national UK charity that champions community led design and great placemaking. The paper reflects on themes arising from a national debate series called ‘Putting People in Their Place’, which explored the relationship between people, place and value. www.tpop2012.co.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2013/01/tpop2012_Putting-People -in-their-Place.pdf Tactical Urbanism A city and citizen-led approach to neighbourhood building using short-term, low cost and scaleable interventions to catalyse long-term change. Here is the 2014 guide (Volume 4) which looks at New Zealand and Australian examples. www.issuu.com/streetplanscollaborative /docs/tacticalurbanismvol4_141020
Catalyse (Auckland based consultancy)
Splash Adelaide
A catalogue of inspiring experimental projects and organisations in New Zealand, many of which involve community placemaking.
This is a study in local government leadership around community placemaking (see previous page).
www.catalyse.co.nz/experiments.html
www.splashadelaide.com.au
Street Plans Collaborative
New power
The Street Plans Collaborative is a US based urban planning, design, and research-advocacy firm. They use charrette and tactical urbanism methodologies and have useful research and publications on their website.
Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms argue that an old style of power that is held by a few and guarded is giving way to a form of ‘new power’, which is open, participatory and peer driven. This is useful to consider in relation to council’s use of power in relation to communities.
www.streetplans.org The Pomegranate Centre This is a US based organisation that brings people together to creatively build stronger communities and beautiful places. They have an arts based methodology and believe in the wisdom of local people driving local place shaping. www.pomegranatecenter.org
www.hbr.org/2014/12/understanding-new-power Art in placemaking This is a major field, see for example www.artplaceamerica.org www.candychang.com www.artscapediy.org/Creative-Placemaking/ Approaches-to-Creative-Placemaking.aspx www.creative-communities.com
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Project for Public Spaces and the Placemaking Leadership Council This is an American not for profit organisation dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities. It has completed over 3000 projects in 43 countries and promotes itself as a premier centre for best practices, information and resources on placemaking. www.pps.org Place Partners Place Partners is an Australian based placemaking consultancy with an interdisciplinary approach to the creation and revitalisation of great people places. Its website contains a link to the ‘world’s best people places’ and top trends for placemaking, see www.placepartners.com. au/top-trends. These trends include people wanting to revitalise their main streets as malls and shopping centres take over town centres, that people go ‘mad for markets’ and that drawing on cultural diversity is key to activating neighbourhoods. www.placepartners.com.au
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How placemaking creates connection, “the most valuable function of all great neighbourhoods” An article on the power of placemaking to build social connection. www.pps.org/blog/the-7-psychologicalfunctions-of-the-art-of-placemaking Hundertwasser A visionary artist and placemaker with strong connections to New Zealand and a unique approach to placemaking that puts people in harmony with nature. www.hundertwasser.com
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