"Streets as Places" Training | Project for Public Spaces (PPS)

The next Streets as Places training course will be held in Spring 2009; dates will be announced shortly. Please direct any questions to Craig Raphael at craphael@pps.org or Sandy Pan at span@pps.org. You may also call them at (212) 620-5660.

"If we can develop and design streets so that they are wonderful, fulfilling places to be--community-building places, attractive for all people--then we will have successfully designed about one-third of the city directly and will have had an immense impact on the rest." -- Allan Jacobs

"If you want cars to drive like they are in a village, then build a village." -- Hans Monderman

For the past 70 years, American cities have been designed to continuously accommodate ever increasing volumes of traffic. Through our work in over 2000 communities around the country, we have found that when cities are designed around cars and traffic, they fill with more cars and traffic--whereas if we begin to plan cities for people and places, we will get more people and places.

Starting in the 1970s, when PPS President Fred Kent began working on William H. Whyte's "Street Life Project," PPS has continued to be involved in research, training, and project work related to transportation issues. We have trained transportation professionals across the states of New Jersey, New Hampshire and New York in Context Sensitive Design; we designed and manage the FHWA Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS) website, and are in the process of developing a major campaign geared towards achieving fundamental transportation reform in the United States.

It is clear from all of our work that the public spaces of cities, towns and villages—our streets and roads, parks and plazas, waterfronts and commercial districts—represent this country's greatest potential to create livable, walkable, healthy and sustainable communities, as well as its greatest challenge.

THE WORKSHOP

With these ideas in mind, PPS will be offering "Streets as Places," a two-day transportation/Placemaking training course in the fall 2008. The goal of the course is to introduce participants to new ways of thinking about streets as public spaces and how Placemaking can be used to build great streets and great communities. It is intended for anyone who is interested in creating a great street, including transportation professionals who want to learn more about how streets can help to build communities, civic and elected officials who realize that greater economic impact can result from changing the way that roads are designed, and citizen activists who understand that the time for change is now.

A course group Presentations and discussion will center on how streets, roads, and transit facilities can be designed and managed to benefit communities, in addition to serving mobility needs. Practical tools for assessing a variety of street typologies and case studies of cities which have moved beyond solving mobility problems to community building will be presented, and participants will be encouraged to discuss their own projects as well as share experiences and ideas with each other. The training session will include discussion of some recent street improvement projects in New York City, an on-site Placemaking street audit, seminar-style lectures, and open discussions about current transportation issues and challenges facing cities today.

Specific topics will include:

Context Sensitive Solutions - designing streets and roads for community outcomes and benefits
Walkability - designing streets to link destinations
Transit (Thinking Beyond the Station) - how to create transit stops and stations that function as places in communities
Land Use - how smart land use decisions can leverage transportation investments most effectively
Placemaking on Streets - a series of tools and techniques for designing streets as places
Community Engagement - making the process effective and painless
How to Engage Transportation Agencies - get the outcomes you want for your community
Street Management - how to manage through BIDs/Partnerships/Alliances
Long Range Transportation Planning and Project Development - engaging stakeholders in making important decisions about long-term transportation investments

FACILITATORS

Gary Toth, PPS Director of Transportation Initiatives and former Director of Project Planning and Development for the New Jersey Department of Transportation;

PPS senior staff Fred Kent , President; Cynthia Nikitin, Vice President; and Renee Espiau, Transportation Planner and Senior Associate.

ACCOMMODATION

Here are some of our favorite places to stay in New York. They are close to the course site and public transportation. Book early as spaces tend to fill up quickly during this time of year! If you find that these hotels are all booked up during your stay in New York, you can search for additional hotels online by clicking here. The most convenient neighborhoods to search in are: the Village, the Lower East Side, Soho, Flatiron/Union Square/Gramercy and Chelsea.

WASHINGTON SQUARE HOTEL
103 Waverly Place
Phone: (212) 777-9515
Recently renovated, this little gem of a hotel offers a great location a few blocks from PPS's office and right on Washington Square Park.

UNION SQUARE INN
209 East 14th Street
Phone: (212) 614-0500
A small, reasonably priced, European-style hotel close (1/2 mile walk) to the PPS office and the Union Square Greenmarket. "Affordable and very clean."

MURRAY HILL INN
143 E. 30th Street
Phone: (212) 683-6900
A small budget "no frills" hotel about 1.5 miles (and a quick subway ride) north of the PPS office. Rooms are very small - but the rates are low. "Very clean and excellent location (but no elevator)."

HOTEL 17
225 E. 17th Street
Phone: (212) 475 2845
A highly recommended budget hotel close to Union Square, the East Village, and Grammercy Park

HOTEL CHANDLER
12 East 31st Street
Phone: (212) 889 6363
A boutique hotel that is a top recommendation by past participants

OFF SOHO SUITES
11 Rivington Street
Within US: 1.800.OFF.SOHO (1.800.633.7646)
Outside US: +1.212.979.9808
An affordable alternative to hotels, you can rent suites for 2-4 people in the heart of the eclectic Lower East Side or East Village neighborhoods

AMSTERDAM HOSPITALITY HOTELS
Five modern though plain hotels, perfect in terms of balance of aesthetic and budget. Rooms for under $200 per night. The hotels are The Ameritania, Amsterdam Court, Bentley, The Marcel and The Moderne (The Marcel is the closest to our office).

BED AND BREAKFASTS
For those who prefer bed and breakfasts, this site lists New York's ten best as rated by Hotel-Guides.us. Soho Bevy's comes with high recommendations.

WHAT TO BRING

Dress code is casual throughout the course. Bring comfortable walking shoes and a raincoat and umbrella for site visits. Even if it rains, we like to stick to our existing schedule for the walking tour and site visits.

DIRECTIONS

Airport travel information can be found at these links. Any of these airports are suitable, though if you're into transit systems, both JFK and Newark have Airtrains that link the airport to train stations. Cabs might be the quickest way, but will run you $40-50. There are also a variety of shuttle buses available.
From LaGuardia Airport
From Newark Airport
From John F Kennedy International Airport
Map of New York City Subway

BIOS

Once you register for the course please send us a short bio of yourself and your organization. Please see sample bio below.

Rich Miller
Director, City of Rome, NY, Dept of Parks and Recreation
Rich is the director of Parks, Recreation and Community Activities for the City of Rome, New York. The City of Rome, located in upstate New York about halfway between Albany and Syracuse, has 20 parks, 11 playgrounds, and one civic arena in its inventory. He is very interested in the role civic spaces play in community revitalization and in the development of trail systems. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University. He and his lovely wife, Nancy, have two sons and two cocker spaniels. All remain avid New York Knicks fans in spite of the past few years.