Miami's Model of Increasing Participation in Public Space Enhancement

As a former Miami resident, I used to complain on a daily basis about the limited public spaces throughout the city. Most spaces either catered to consumptive opportunities, like bar patios, malls, and theaters, or to recreational purposes only, like basketball and tennis courts, or pools, but simple hang out spots that were also aesthetically pleasing or plain cool (besides our beach) were rare.

In the last five years, the city has experienced a rapid turn around and we can partially thank the Miami Foundation for that. The foundation, which offers a multitude of grant programs, has established a Public Spaces Challenge to invite programming and design ideas from local citizens on how to revitalize public space in the city and increase genuine participation in planning efforts. Following its infamous area code ("305"), the competition offers a total of $305,000 yearly and selects a number of projects, ranging from events and ongoing programs to physical installations.

The platform itself is innovative. On the design competition's web page, members of the public can pin their concepts on a map of the city to specify its location and add a small blurb (along with images and detailed descriptions) of how this idea might improve the city. Comments are allowed as well to help facilitate conversation around the idea during the selection process and encourage collaboration among diverse members of the public.

Some innovative ideas from this year's challenge:

• Containers in Community/ Brickell Exercise Box: this neighborhood scale installation takes old materials to create 'mini parks' on parking spots. It borrow ideas from urbanism concepts such as shipping container construction and parklets, but the innovative approach lies in its desire to draw Miamians outside to exercise and continue their traditional indoor gymming habits. The project is recreational in nature but solves a number of urbanism issues including public health, slow streets, and reuse of building materials from the nearby port.

• Roots Collective Black Marketplace: this project is self-proclaimed to promote small business development in Little Haiti, a predominantly black working class neighborhood in North Miami, through a monthly meeting that encourages networking through ideas sharing to bridge the equity gap and empower the local community across cultural boundaries. The concept tackles a fundamental issue related to immobility and missed economic opportunity of residents in a low-income black community. In addition, local art, dance, and music are leveraged to preserve unity despite rapid redevelopment in the surrounding area. 

Participants pin their ideas to the map. Image Source: OurMiami Miami Public Spaces Challenge 

Visit the Miami Foundation Public Spaces Challenge website here 

Designing Raincouver

I first visited Vancouver in June, and I was impressed by its aliveness. Yoga classes dotted the park. Smiling women, sporting the highest quality fibre exercise clothing, jaunted freely with their dogs along the freshly painted walking path. The mountains stood majestically in the backdrop. Not a single cloud hovered in the sky. This place was perfect. Indeed, it would make for a suitable place for my college experience.

Late November. 4 PM. Dark already and pouring out. Maybe it's drizzling. Doesn't matter. At least I'm sitting in a coffee shop, sipping my London Fog and looking out the window to Main Street. It's cozy, yes, but not a single soul wanders about the sidewalks. A few drifting umbrella here and there. I don't see very many faces though. 

Vancouver has two personalities. The city has wonderful weather for four months, while it rains for the rest. The city can boast innumerable cafes and restaurants, and some good libraries, but year-round public spaces (whether indoors or out) for which consumption or membership is not required are seriously lacking. This is an issue given that it rains, or drizzles, a majority of the year. This is what drew me (on a sunny day) to attend the Museum of Vancouver's workshop and discussion known as Design Sundays hosted by Design Nerds and the Vancouver Public Spaces Network "Make it Rain: Creating Solutions for Rain-friendly City Spaces". 

We discussed a number of design interventions for separate locations in the city: Cambie/ Broadway, Dunsmuir/Granville in Vancouver's CBD, Olympic Village using a live stream to view all angles and aspects of the areas of focus. For these we saw improvement potential in the size of awnings as well as overall cohesiveness in the awning network, so there are fewer gaps. Other ideas included retractable solutions, given Vancouver' temperamental weather patterns. Awnings and coverings that can easily be removed or set up depending on weather changes.

In addition, ways to draw people to use a public space despite the rain included more outdoor seating, benches that revolve their surface to expose a dry side. Among the more creative solutions were coverings that people can easily expand and customize in size for a variety of uses, patios, and cabana-like structures. Another valuable concept building off existing umbrella share programs was an umbrella- zipline for otherwise unprotected crosswalks  a sort of grab-and-go . As attention always must be paid to green features (if we are to uphold the "Greenest City" credo), some designs also considered sustainable stormwater management practices. For instance, using rain gardens to collect water from awnings and roofs, or small ponds or streams within sidewalk crevices to capture water that would otherwise evaporate from an impermeable surface or flow into a drainage system.

Play was another important aspect brought into the discussion by involved planners. These interventions can draw people, especially children, to appreciate the rain by inviting a playful aspect. For example, in many cities, little ponds and streams are used for foot baths and fountains, playing with toy boats, or jumping in 'puddles' . The concept is widely adopted in Japan and Germany. Another idea consisted of a special grade of paint that reveals itself only when exposed to water. What happens when children mingle in a space-- their parents follow, and voila, a vibrant public space is born.

Rain gardens are one way to optimize rainfall in Vancouver by alleviating pressure
on the storm water drainage system while enhancing greenery and offering aesthetic appeal.
Native plants ought to be planted. Image Source: Google Maps (Ontario/ Broadway) 

Vancouver's current rain protection system consists of isolated glass awnings covering small sections of the sidewalk. The awning network is neither complete across streets in the city, but awnings are offset minimally. Image Source: Google Maps (Dunsmuir/ Granville, Downtown Vancouver)