Building Safe, Connected, and Resilient Communities Through Placemaking

We can build community by designing better public spaces! This talk introduces listeners to placemaking, and then provides detailed examples of how two forms of placemaking – little free libraries and road murals – can be used to build safe, connected, and resilient communities. It explores ways in which individuals, community groups, and municipal governments can support placemaking, and the role that visualization and data can play in promoting placemaking. For the past 4 years I have been mapping, helping build, and stocking little free libraries around the CRD. When I started we had 111 in the region, and as of November 2021 we cut the ribbon on the 550th LFL in the region! To date I’ve collected and redistributed almost 50,000 books by bike to LFLs across the CRD.