Public Spaces, Plaemaking, and Citizen-led Planning
1. PLACEMAKING, PUBLIC SPACES, AND
CITIZEN-LED PLANNING
Ragene Andrea L. Palma
ragenepalma@gmail.com | littlemissurbanite.com
Learnings from Northampton, Massachusetts
2. OUTLINE
➤ PART I: Democracy and equality in
planning: The fight for public and open
spaces, and citizen-led planning, and how it
relates to sustainability
➤ PART II: The objective: Learning from a
different system, and the tactics of
approaching communities and spaces
➤ PART III: Learning from Northampton, and
a few other cities
➤ PART IV: Takeaways for the PH setting:
Creating Placemade
14. RES PUBLICA
BONDS OF ASSOCIATION
MUTUAL COMMITMENT OF PEOPLE
A POLITY, NOT JUST FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Source: The Fall of Public Man
A “ PUBLIC AFFAIR”
15. IN TODAY’S RES PUBLICA
STRANGERS ARE THREATSSource: The Fall of Public Man
64. KEY LEARNINGS
1. Societal cohesion is how cities work -
neighborhoods, people as friends, liberties
and voices matter; placemaking is one way
to push cohesion further.
2. “Comprehensive” planning doesn’t always
work, we have too much bureaucracy;
smaller plans, which echo Jacobsean
arguments, work better at specific scales.
3. Make goals, set targets that you
understand, not because you have to
“comply.” Learn to monitor.
4. Not because it’s “government” or
“authority” doesn’t mean it’s always right.
Governments have to ask, and have to
listen.
67. Urban planning
doesn’t always
have to be top-
down, too
technical, or
investment-
intensive. It can
simply be done
with plants and
paint, and with
communities.
69. “More than half of the world’s population now
live in urban areas. By 2050, that figure will have
risen to 6.5 billion people – two-thirds of all
humanity. Sustainable development cannot be
achieved without significantly transforming the
way we build and manage our urban spaces.”
70. PLACEMADE’S VISION
Top-down planning Inclusive planning
Unshared, inequitable
spaces
Better, greener, usable
places
FROM TO
Spaces and streets left alone
by residents
Places championed and
transformed by communities
Drab, decaying cities Livable, sustainable cities
72. YSEALI Professional Fellows Spring 2018
Environmental Sustainability
YSEALI Urban Planning and Smart Growth -
Singapore Regional Workshop 2017
Jean Palma, EnP
Yowee Gonzales, EnP
Eunice Dela Cruz
Ishtar Padao, EnP
Francis Gasgonia, EnP
TEAM LEAD, CONDUCT
OF PLACEMAKING 101
MENTORING ON
RESILIENT SPACES
MENTORING ON SOCIO-
POLITICAL SPACES
PROJECT MAPPING
PROJECT MAPPING
78. PHYSICAL CHANGE &
TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE
➤ Gutter, sidewalk, and
pedestrian crosswalk painting
➤ School garden
➤ Protected bike lane and water
pumping station parklet
➤ Capacitating the Homeowners
Associations
➤ Collaborating with the city
planning office
81. “Instead of waiting for years of planning studies
and computer models to get something done,
we’ve done it with paint and temporary
materials. And the proof is not in the computer
model, it is in the real-world performance of
the street.
-Janette Sadik-Khan
New York City Department of Transportation
83. PLACEMAKING, PUBLIC SPACES, AND
CITIZEN-LED PLANNING
Ragene Andrea L. Palma
ragenepalma@gmail.com | littlemissurbanite.com
Learnings from Northampton, Massachusetts
THANK YOU.