Pub Date : 2019-10-22DOI: 10.23943/princeton/9780691195216.003.0007
J. Macdonald, C. Branas, R. Stokes
This chapter presents an in-depth examination of how the design of entertainment districts and public parks impacts the health and safety of neighborhoods. Many place-based changes are initially spurred on by commercial interests in and around business districts. However, little attention has been placed on the role that commercial and business design can have on people's health and safety outcomes. Commercial corridors and business districts that actively choose to enhance the place-based experience for their customers generate bustling streets that improve commerce and reduce crime. Parks were originally designed for leisure, and large infrastructure changes to parks are expensive and generate little change in overall use and exercise. However, small strategic changes can be made to parks to provide subtle motivational signs that stimulate greater physical activity among park users. The chapter then considers several studies based on rigorous scientific evidence that highlight how such strategic designs and governance arrangements of business districts and parks can improve the experience of people in search of places for shopping and recreation.
{"title":"Good Clean Fun","authors":"J. Macdonald, C. Branas, R. Stokes","doi":"10.23943/princeton/9780691195216.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691195216.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter presents an in-depth examination of how the design of entertainment districts and public parks impacts the health and safety of neighborhoods. Many place-based changes are initially spurred on by commercial interests in and around business districts. However, little attention has been placed on the role that commercial and business design can have on people's health and safety outcomes. Commercial corridors and business districts that actively choose to enhance the place-based experience for their customers generate bustling streets that improve commerce and reduce crime. Parks were originally designed for leisure, and large infrastructure changes to parks are expensive and generate little change in overall use and exercise. However, small strategic changes can be made to parks to provide subtle motivational signs that stimulate greater physical activity among park users. The chapter then considers several studies based on rigorous scientific evidence that highlight how such strategic designs and governance arrangements of business districts and parks can improve the experience of people in search of places for shopping and recreation.","PeriodicalId":253299,"journal":{"name":"Changing Places","volume":"166 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132557362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-22DOI: 10.23943/princeton/9780691195216.003.0008
John Macdonald, C. Branas, R. Stokes
This chapter explores how place-based changes can bring about unintended consequences, which are a key element in any scientific endeavor. Unplanned consequences should be thought through and embraced by implementers of place-based changes. Successful changes to places will inevitably lead to increasing desirability for their use. However, any sustained change to the built environment of a place creates the potential for multiple outcomes. There will always be potential negative tradeoffs to changing places. Unintended negative consequences should be planned for and discussed ahead of time, so that efforts can be made to mitigate against their occurrence. Fear of change or negative impacts can create an inescapable status quo for many poor and neglected communities who could benefit from place-based change. This status quo can lead to dangerous and unhealthy conditions persisting for too long, producing negative legacy effects for these communities. As a solution, negative externalities of placemaking interventions are more readily anticipated through research. In this way, early scientific involvement can greatly inform proactive planning and thoughtful placemaking, easing any apprehension among local policy makers and residents.
{"title":"Embracing Change","authors":"John Macdonald, C. Branas, R. Stokes","doi":"10.23943/princeton/9780691195216.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691195216.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores how place-based changes can bring about unintended consequences, which are a key element in any scientific endeavor. Unplanned consequences should be thought through and embraced by implementers of place-based changes. Successful changes to places will inevitably lead to increasing desirability for their use. However, any sustained change to the built environment of a place creates the potential for multiple outcomes. There will always be potential negative tradeoffs to changing places. Unintended negative consequences should be planned for and discussed ahead of time, so that efforts can be made to mitigate against their occurrence. Fear of change or negative impacts can create an inescapable status quo for many poor and neglected communities who could benefit from place-based change. This status quo can lead to dangerous and unhealthy conditions persisting for too long, producing negative legacy effects for these communities. As a solution, negative externalities of placemaking interventions are more readily anticipated through research. In this way, early scientific involvement can greatly inform proactive planning and thoughtful placemaking, easing any apprehension among local policy makers and residents.","PeriodicalId":253299,"journal":{"name":"Changing Places","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116279477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter assesses the role of transportation and street environments in people's lives and how reliance on the automobile has shaped the United States and other parts of the world. The century-long evolution into a car-dependent culture has had its benefits in terms of commerce and regional mobility, but has also had devastating effects on people's health and safety. Rather than discuss the negative impacts of cars on air pollution, the chapter focuses on the place-based health impacts of reducing people's reliance on the automobile by increasing the walkability of areas and expanding access to public transit. Younger adults are increasingly ambivalent about whether they should even own a car and are moving to cities in search of more efficient and human-scale mobility options. These options include having access to a street network with safe and efficient pedestrian and bike infrastructures as well as public-transit options. Meanwhile, public officials in numerous cities are talking about the benefits of expanded transit systems and walkable street grids to encourage more active lifestyles and attract tourists, families, and entrepreneurs who are tired of traffic congestion and car commuting and interested in a lively street experience that is not simply seen from behind a windshield. The chapter then highlights case studies showing how new place-based transportation and streetscape changes can be a tool for improving health and safety.
{"title":"Driving Ambivalence","authors":"John Macdonald, C. Branas, R. Stokes","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvgc608k.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvgc608k.10","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter assesses the role of transportation and street environments in people's lives and how reliance on the automobile has shaped the United States and other parts of the world. The century-long evolution into a car-dependent culture has had its benefits in terms of commerce and regional mobility, but has also had devastating effects on people's health and safety. Rather than discuss the negative impacts of cars on air pollution, the chapter focuses on the place-based health impacts of reducing people's reliance on the automobile by increasing the walkability of areas and expanding access to public transit. Younger adults are increasingly ambivalent about whether they should even own a car and are moving to cities in search of more efficient and human-scale mobility options. These options include having access to a street network with safe and efficient pedestrian and bike infrastructures as well as public-transit options. Meanwhile, public officials in numerous cities are talking about the benefits of expanded transit systems and walkable street grids to encourage more active lifestyles and attract tourists, families, and entrepreneurs who are tired of traffic congestion and car commuting and interested in a lively street experience that is not simply seen from behind a windshield. The chapter then highlights case studies showing how new place-based transportation and streetscape changes can be a tool for improving health and safety.","PeriodicalId":253299,"journal":{"name":"Changing Places","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125737911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-22DOI: 10.23943/princeton/9780691195216.003.0009
John Macdonald, C. Branas, R. Stokes
This epilogue summarizes the agenda for a placemaking initiative guided by scientific inquiry. It reviews a number of the theoretical perspectives, suggests areas that are rich for future investigation, and calls for planners and scientists to work together to make places a central part of the agenda for positively shaping the future health of communities. Indeed, there are several avenues by which scientists at local universities and think tanks can partner with planners when it is time to redesign places and set up a framework for figuring out what works, what does not, and what shows promise. Researchers working in the field with community groups and practicing planners can generate ideas about the design of communities, scientifically evaluate those ideas, and then see which ideas can be expanded to benefit entire communities. Ultimately, once people become more aware of the impact that their surroundings are having on their health, safety, and well-being, they will clamor for more; they will ask for better-designed and more precisely conceived places. Thus, the way people change the elements of places should rely on the scientific process to best fulfill the ultimate promise of providing future humankind with healthy places to live.
{"title":"Where Next?","authors":"John Macdonald, C. Branas, R. Stokes","doi":"10.23943/princeton/9780691195216.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691195216.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"This epilogue summarizes the agenda for a placemaking initiative guided by scientific inquiry. It reviews a number of the theoretical perspectives, suggests areas that are rich for future investigation, and calls for planners and scientists to work together to make places a central part of the agenda for positively shaping the future health of communities. Indeed, there are several avenues by which scientists at local universities and think tanks can partner with planners when it is time to redesign places and set up a framework for figuring out what works, what does not, and what shows promise. Researchers working in the field with community groups and practicing planners can generate ideas about the design of communities, scientifically evaluate those ideas, and then see which ideas can be expanded to benefit entire communities. Ultimately, once people become more aware of the impact that their surroundings are having on their health, safety, and well-being, they will clamor for more; they will ask for better-designed and more precisely conceived places. Thus, the way people change the elements of places should rely on the scientific process to best fulfill the ultimate promise of providing future humankind with healthy places to live.","PeriodicalId":253299,"journal":{"name":"Changing Places","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126367656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter traces the history of select endeavors that focused on place-based changes as a mechanism to improve the health, safety, and well-being of urban residents. Unfortunately, these endeavors evolved in silos, with urban planners and public-health and criminal-justice practitioners working largely in isolation from one another. The successes and limited uptake of these isolated endeavors are brought to light as the chapter looks at how they were overshadowed by individually focused therapies and interventions. Many people probably think that good science is already inherently involved when a place gets altered or a development gets built; this is perhaps the case with respect to the physical science of certain placemaking endeavors. However, the health and biological impacts of buildings and larger developments are very often left out, or only modestly considered as part of environmental or health-impact assessments. As such, there is a need to invigorate a new movement that connects social scientists, planners, and policy makers. Indeed, the best placemaking occurs when it is supported by empirical evaluation of its impacts on humans with the active involvement of scientists.
{"title":"A New Movement Based on Old Ideas","authors":"J. Macdonald, C. Branas, R. Stokes","doi":"10.2307/j.ctvgc608k.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvgc608k.6","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter traces the history of select endeavors that focused on place-based changes as a mechanism to improve the health, safety, and well-being of urban residents. Unfortunately, these endeavors evolved in silos, with urban planners and public-health and criminal-justice practitioners working largely in isolation from one another. The successes and limited uptake of these isolated endeavors are brought to light as the chapter looks at how they were overshadowed by individually focused therapies and interventions. Many people probably think that good science is already inherently involved when a place gets altered or a development gets built; this is perhaps the case with respect to the physical science of certain placemaking endeavors. However, the health and biological impacts of buildings and larger developments are very often left out, or only modestly considered as part of environmental or health-impact assessments. As such, there is a need to invigorate a new movement that connects social scientists, planners, and policy makers. Indeed, the best placemaking occurs when it is supported by empirical evaluation of its impacts on humans with the active involvement of scientists.","PeriodicalId":253299,"journal":{"name":"Changing Places","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115900983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}