photo by Laura Pfeifer Laura Pfeifer is an urban planner living in Toronto, Canada. (Ignore what you hear me say on the show. She used to live in Montreal.) She’s been involved in community projects like Park(ing) Day — which is where parking spaces are temporarily converted to miniature parks — and Jane’s Walk — an event inspired by Jane Jacobs that gets people to explore their neighborhood streets. In 2013, Laura put a considerable amount of work into a project called The Planners Guide to Tactical Urbanism. It’s a great resource that you can download FREE from her blog. #tacticalurbanism It’s not easy to keep up with all the planning & design jargon. Think of tactical urbanism as short-term action that brings about long-term change. Laura talks about her way of defining it: projects that are small-scale, low-cost, and often temporary interventions. (Remember last year’s episode with Mike Lydon?) People with a more liberal disposition often love the guerrilla/take-action traits of tactical urbanism. Conservatives and libertarians love the low-cost, market-driven concepts that don’t require government intervention. “I’m not an activist–why should I care?” Professional planners, municipal leaders, departments of public works — Laura suggests these types of people care about tactical urbanism. Sometimes it’s a way to engage citizens in public space projects. Sometimes it’s a necessity for a cash-strapped jurisdiction. (Think how cheaply you could spray paint a crosswalk.) But in terms of day-to-day work, professional planners are faced with risk management and liability concerns. (Of course, the flip side is the liability of not improving a dangerous street…) And of course there’s the bureaucracy of multiple divisions within a public agency. For example, the planning department may love a temporary parklet set up to calm traffic, without considering public works getting ready to repave the street. Planner’s Guide to Tactical Urbanism So let’s get to the product! Laura created something that began as an academic exercise, but she wanted the final work to live on. Think of this guidebook as an introduction to temporary or tactical urbanism. Laura took the time to synthesize a lot of what’s happened around North America over the last few years. That means you have the opportunity to jump right to the good parts of the world wide web. Here’s just a taste from Laura’s book: For my final project I chose to look at the topic of tactical urbanism: small-scale, short-term interventions meant to inspire long-term change in cities — think guerrilla gardening and Park(ing) Day. In 2010-11, the term “tactical urbanism” came into common use when a group of young urbanists created the publication Tactical Urbanism: Short-term Action, Long-term Change, a round-up of tactical projects from across North America. I wanted to examine what role, if any, planners should play with respect to these initiatives. Tactical projects are often citizen-led, however planners and officials are also starting to incorporate temporary and pilot projects into their work as well. …Over the course of four months I interviewed citizens, community organizations, planners, and municipal officials from cities across North America to get their perspective on tactical and temporary projects they’d led: the challenges they’d faced and what they felt the role of planners ought to be. It was inspiring to say the least. A lot of wonderful, creative, and thoughtful work is being done in our cities. Everyone brings personal bias into their work. Laura talks about her perspective on the movement and some of the players involved. 12 case studies sorted into 5 themes Laura started out making a list of projects she was interested in. The huge list included citizen-led initiatives and top-down programs. The final 12 case studies that Laura chose naturally settled into 5 themes: Working with citizen initiatives Demonstrating what’s possible Getting internal buy-in Adapting ideas to your context Using existing resources Laura highlights two of the case studies that might be new to you, even if you consider yourself an urbanism wonk. First, the Temporary Urbanism Initiative in Washington, DC (DC Office of Planning). Second, Pop-Up Places in Calgary, Canada. Connect with our guest You can find Laura Pfeifer online at the following places: Regina Urban Ecology (blog) Twitter Get a free audiobook! Urbanism Speakeasy listeners: try Audible FREE for 30 days and get a FREE audiobook. How about a Jane Jacobs classic? (Or check out boring authors too, if that’s your thing.) You like listening to podcasts. But it’s ok to take a break from Urbanism Speakeasy and listen to some books. Give Audible a try. Keep the free audiobook even if you cancel your Audible membership.
Comentarios