Summer has officially arrived and there is no better time to put your community spirit to work right in your own backyard. To help your neighborhood celebrate your great places, we're offering grants to an individual or organization with a plan to make their neighborhood a livelier place. Perhaps the neighborhood park is calling out for a weekly tai chi class, open to all? Might a few well-placed chairs invite visitors to engage with one another? Will a local merchant work with you to offer a cooking demonstration in tandem with a fresh market to local college students on a budget? Thought about sprucing up a dilapidated wall with a mural? Is there an alley, parking lot or cul de sac available for movie night or a local group performance? Grants will be awarded on a weekly basis.
Lighter Quicker Cheaper (LQC) is a DIY approach based on taking incremental steps, trying low cost experiments, and tapping into local talents (e.g. neighbors, entrepreneurs) to quickly translate a community's vision into reality and to build momentum for further improvements.
Visit the Project for Public Spaces homepage to get more information and see some of the projects that they have already completed. PPS has been working to help people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities since 1975, and have completed projects in over 2,500 communities in 40 countries and all 50 US states.
Background
The Michigan Association of REALTORS® (MAR) is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization formed in 1915 and is based in Lansing, Michigan. The MAR is the recognized public policy and legal advocate for private property rights and for the real estate industry and is the recognized statewide resource (clearinghouse) for professional development, business services, and knowledge exchange in service to 22,000 REALTORS® and industry professionals statewide.
Impetus
As the economy in Michigan improves, there is a window of opportunity to change the way our state approaches land use/growth. Statewide, significant resources are being allocated to placemaking, a simple concept based on a single principle – people choose to settle in places that offer the amenities, social and professional networks, resources and opportunities to support thriving lifestyles – as a driving principle for growth strategies in Michigan. To date the social or people side of placemaking is not as well advanced, but it has been increasingly noticed and discussed. The social or people side of placemaking is key to optimal engagement within a community for placemaking values. The MAR believes that without a plan for early adoption of a people/social component, placemaking concepts in Michigan will unnecessarily lag.
MAR, via the Greater Lansing Association of REALTORS®, has created a pilot program for a social/people component of placemaking referred to by PPS as Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper, targeting placemaking initiatives at the neighborhood level. At the conclusion of a regional pilot program, we believe a template will be developed for a statewide program.
Lansing REALTORS® will coordinate or sponsor a grant application and will work closely with a neighborhood project team through implementation for small grants ranging from $500 to $2,500. A training program utilizing PPS consultants will be held offering REALTORS® and other attendees an opportunity to become more involved in advancing placemaking concepts and be a direct part of a cutting-edge neighborhood/community improvement initiative.
Anticipated Outcomes
It is our hope this effort will lead to the development of a template for LQC projects that can be implemented on a small or large scale. In addition, the project will have the following impacts:
• Stimulate placemaking activity
• Stimulate dialogue toward sustained placemaking goals
• Encourage adoption of placemaking-friendly growth strategies with accommodations for people/social elements
• Highlight placemaking as a key rejuvenation strategy for communities looking to attract workers
• Increase human interaction leading to economic development