Streets are for People! A Breakout Session Connecting Grassroots and Government—Learning from the Past while Creating Momentum for a New Walkable City ( breakout presentation )

Abstract

Background As North American cities ease away from automobile dependence, the vital work of re-envisioning our cities begins. This breakout session will take the experience from Pedestrian Sundays street festivals in Toronto and the tactical urbanist works of Streets are for People! to help conference-goers find ways for their cities to fall in love with their streets, to share a vision for the future, and find a common ground worth fighting for. Description of Intervention: Pedestrian Sundays were built out of the crab-grass-in-the-cracks-in-the-pavement and grew into a city partnership. Now in its 13th year, this celebration of community, culture and ecology, forged partnerships with businesses, residents, artist, activists, and the City. Streets are for People! are the instigators of dozens of renegade street projects that highlight the urgent needs for infrastructure adjustments and help to inform priorities for municipal investment. Outcomes Lessons include the tenacity, creativity, inclusivity, and the consultative approaches required to build broad-reaching effective partnerships across communities and with local governments, and how together, we can build our streets to be not just concrete traffic corridors, but reflections of our communities, making our streets more lively and livable in the process. Implications This session will explore tactics for municipal governments to harness civic pride with which to fuel livable street conversions, from volunteer traffic counts to street tree adoption projects. From block parties to building parkettes, it is the power of people that is humanizing our streets. We’ll explore how cities can nurture the exponential force of their citizens, and how ordinary people that envision a new relationship with their streets can form critical masses with neighbours and their city around meaningful walkability projects.