“The Great Good Places, Cafés, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community” by Ray Oldenburg
Summary. Ray Oldenburg defined a place that defines a community. “Third place” is a concept that serves small cities and towns well as they strive to become and remain place where people want to be; welcoming places between home and work.
“The Great Good Place argues that “third places” – where people can gather, put aside the concerns of work and home, and hang out simply for the pleasures of good company and lively conversation – are the heart of a community’s social vitality and the grassroots of democracy.”
“Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life” by
“A Paean to public architecture and the buildings and places that bring us together, Eric Klinenberg’s Palaces for the People shows how modest undertakings and subtle, insightful design can strengthen communities. The book makes the connection between the much decried decline of civic life and the spaces that help us support each other—especially in neighborhoods where social connections have been severed by population decline, joblessness, abandonment, and disinvestment.
Contents – December 2023
CONTENTS – December 2023
Character towns, small and large, build social cohesion, community connections, civic pride, hometown spirit and institutional trust with strong neighborhoods, successful development corridors, superior schools and inviting downtowns where residents, businesses and civic interests collaborate. Downtown civic venues are foundational to a town with character.
THE ESSENTIAL DOWNTOWN VENUES EDITION
PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT IDEAS FOR ESSENTIAL ACTIVITIES DOWNTOWN…
- “Essential Downtown Venues, Summary”…wck.
- “City Hall, The Essential Main Street Asset”…wck.
- “The Public Library: The City’s Economic Incubator”...wck.
- “Parks, Plazas, Trails and Open Spaces: Citywide Amenities and Connectors”…wck.
- “Downtown Community Theaters, ‘Edu-tainment’ Emporiums”…wck.
- “Museums, Launching Pads for the Future”…wck.
- “Makerspaces as Downtown Assets”…wck.
- “The Post Office, A “Relic” that Keeps on Giving”…wck.
- “The Main Street Hotel, A Threshold Achievement”…wck.
- “Community Aesthetics, Beauty as a Design Standard”…wck.
FROM THE PLANNERS’ BOOKSHELF…
- The Image of the City, Kevin Lynch, The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, 1960.
- City Hall: Masterpieces of American Civic Architecture, Arthur Drooker (Author) Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., Atglen, 2021.
- Parks and Recreation System Planning, A New Approach for Creating Sustainable, Resilient Communities, David L. Barth, PhD, Island Press, 2020.
- Public Libraries and Their Communities: An Introduction, Kay Cassell (Author) Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (April 15, 2021)
- Why the Museum Matters, Daniel H. Weiss, Yale University Press, 2022.
- The Little Theatre on the Square: Four Decades of a Small-Town Equity Theatre, Ms. Beth Shervey PhD (Author), Peter PALMER (Foreword), 2000.
- America’s Main Street Hotels: Transiency and Community in the Early Auto Age, John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle, University of Tennessee Press, 2009.
“Public Libraries and Their Communities: An Introduction” by Kay Cassell
From Amazon…
Public Libraries and Their Communities: An Introduction provides an overview of public librarianship today.
It covers library organization, policy development, staffing, fiscal organization including funding sources and budgets, the legal framework, relationships with local and state governments, advocacy, services and service development for different age groups and for different groups of users, development of programming and outreach, collection development, promotion and marketing, and current issues and trends.
“Parks and Recreation System Planning, A New Approach for Creating Sustainable, Resilient Communities” by David Barth, PhD
FROM CharacterTowns.org…
David Barth has provided the city-building professions with a holistic guide for developing a great parks systems while using it to develop a great city. The power of the parks and recreation system to address the full range of social issues is presented in terms of tactics and aspirations. A great and useful read.
Makerspaces as Downtown Assets
Makerspaces have been employed around America as places where people can congregate to learn a trade, perfect a skill and socialize in a setting that is safe, convenient, well-served and productive. The videos and discussion below describe what Makerspaces are and how they are being deployed to use physical spaces and equipment to advance social and economic sustainable lives.
Consider two situations.
First, makerspaces are places that need spaces that are generally large open areas in locations that have “retail” characteristics…they need to be accessible to people who walk or drive to the location, they need to be in safe neighborhoods and they need to be in a mixed setting with other active uses. Generally, makerspace organizations are NGOs with adequate but not exorbitant funding. Makerspaces by their very nature are mobile; they can move from spot to spot as their spaces become too expensive or otherwise uninhabitable.
Essential Downtown Venues
The Basic Idea.
Downtowns are the focal destination of every character town. Main street is the “there there”.
For main street to be viable, it needs activity, interesting places where people either want to go or need to go. The public sector, specifically the city, is the lead investor and city hall is the lead investment. The basic idea is that if the city invests in downtown, it must be the thing to do; conversely, if the city won’t invest in downtown by putting city hall on or near main street, why should others invest?
Community Aesthetics
Beauty as a Design Standard.
THE IDEA OF BEAUTY.
Beauty is of paramount value in many cultures. Everything is designed with both function and beauty in mind. In some cultures, function is the primary and sometime only guide to the design of everything from bridges to door hinges. Some cultures believe that design costs more, which it doesn’t have to; some believe beauty is a personal thing not warranting consideration in the public realm; some are just unaware that beauty exists; and some are afraid of beauty believing that once people see and appreciate a beautiful park or building they will demand that beauty be a bigger part of their lives.
“Why the Museum Matters” by Daniel H. Weiss
CT.org…While the focus of this work is the art museum, the lessons are universal for museums of every ilk and size.
A powerful reflection on the universal art museum, considering the values critical to its history and anticipating its evolving place in our cultural future.
Art museums have played a vital role in our culture, drawing on Enlightenment ideals in shaping ideas, advancing learning, fostering community, and providing spaces of beauty and permanence. In this thoughtful and often personal volume, Daniel H. Weiss contemplates the idea of the universal art museum alongside broad considerations about the role of art in society and what defines a cultural experience. The future of art museums is far from secure, and Weiss reflects on many of the difficulties these institutions face, from their financial health to their collecting practices to the audiences they engage to ensuring freedom of expression on the part of artists and curators.
The Post Office
A “Relic” that Keeps on Giving
Main Street Post Offices are Alive and Well. United States Post Offices draw people to their downtown locations. They provide an incredible service; for a small amount of money they carry a letter across the country. Post Offices have traditionally been the place where people collected their mail, but not so much today. With email, UPS and FedEx, many of the functions handled at the post office building are no longer required; however, they still provide a useful function for downtowns.
City Hall, The Essential Main Street Asset
A Prominent Main Street City Hall.
City Hall is the downtown icon. Downtown doesn’t seem like downtown without a visible city hall, especially in a small town. City hall represents stability to citizens as they attend hearings, pay utility bills and meet with elected or appointed officials to discuss civic matters. City halls draw people together, downtown.
Thankfully we are correcting the many decisions that re-located city hall out of downtown. Many new city halls are being constructed or re-constructed on or near main street. In Central Florida this has happened in Winter Garden, DeLand, Clermont, Tavares, Maitland, Apopka, Kissimmee and St. Cloud.
“City Hall: Masterpieces of American Civic Architecture” by Arthur Drooker
FROM AMAZON…City Hall is the first book to feature striking contemporary images of the most architecturally significant city halls in the United States. This diverse collection includes New York, the oldest; Philadelphia, once the tallest building in the world; and Boston, the first major brutalist building in the United States.
Organized chronologically, the book traces the evolution of American civic architecture from the early 19th century to the present day and represents diverse styles such as Federalist, art deco, and modern. Architects, current and former mayors, historians, and preservationists tell the story about how each city hall came to be, what it says about its city, and why it’s important architecturally.