As communities work to reopen and recover from COVID-19 and the appetite for re-imagining streets and public spaces improves, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) released a resource displaying transportation and street design practices in response to the pandemic. Continue reading
Tag Archives: community design
Age-Friendly Funding Alert: Solomon Foundation’s ‘Streets for Recovery’
A dilemma facing communities right now is how to reopen while keeping residents safe through physical distancing. In a time when we’re required to maintain physical distance to protect public health, streets need to do more than ever. Continue reading
Find Your Local City’s “ParkScore” on Trust for Public Land Index
According to the Trust for Public Land, Boston ranks ninth among all US cities on their ParkScore Index that ranks communities based on accessibility to parks and recreation facilities.
Cities of all sizes (towns are not included in the data) are able to see how many of their residents live within a ten-minute walk to a park, with numbers broken down by age, race, and income. Continue reading
Rural Livability Workshop Report Released by AARP
According to AARP, America’s demographic future is showing up first in rural areas, where older residents form a greater proportion of the population than in urban or suburban areas.
One-quarter of all Americans age 65 or older live in small towns and rural communities. That percentage is growing, since the rural population is aging at a faster rate than the nation’s population as a whole.
AARP Offers Examples To Spark Ideas and Applications to Community Challenge Grant Program
The 2020 AARP Community Challenge Grant opportunity is open and plenty of examples are being shared as part of the push to solicit applications that help cities and towns become more age-friendly. Continue reading
National Survey of Mayors Reveal Views on Older Adult Mobility and Role in Workforce
The Boston University Initiative on Cities released its annual Menino Survey of Mayors where municipal leaders from 119 cities from across the country answered a range of questions on diverse issues. Continue reading
Age-Friendly Funding Alert: MAPC Technical Assistance Program
Please submit project concepts for work to be undertaken by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) for the benefit of your municipality through our Technical Assistance Program (TAP).
Through this Call for Project Concepts, MAPC is soliciting ideas for projects that will commence in the winter/spring of 2020. Continue reading
Updated Interactive Trailmap Unveiled by MAPC
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) has updated their interactive Trailmap, the most comprehensive and up-to-date collection of biking and walking trails in Massachusetts.
This new-and-improved version of Trailmap allows users to search by address to find trails near them and provides easy access to detailed maps of foot trails, bicycle facilities, and multi-use paths. Users can see all existing paths and toggle on maps showing paths that are in development. This can be a useful planning and assessment tool for age- and dementia friendly communities seeking to improve access to such outdoor transportation and recreational opportunities. Continue reading
Pop-up Placemaking Toolkit from AARP Can Help Create Vibrant Spaces that Create Community
The term “placemaking” refers to the work of improving a particular public space or overall area to make it more of a destination and shared gathering place.
The Pop-Up Placemaking Tool Kit was created by AARP and Team Better Block to inform a broad audience of local leaders, policymakers, advocates and neighborhood residents about the many ways temporary projects can inspire positive community change. Continue reading
AARP: Pop-Up Recipes for Parklets and Bike Lanes
Bicycle lanes and parklets are fun, easy and popular pop-up projects. There are many ways to create a demonstration bike lane. Parklets — which are essentially parking spots for people rather than cars — can be created with little more than paint, plywood and some decorative accessories.
This photo album is an excerpt from The Pop-Up Placemaking Tool Kit, a free publication by AARP and the planning and design firm Team Better Block, to be released on December 4. Continue reading