Commune. Get involved. Create the community you desire.

Involvement doesn’t need to be complicated. Sometimes it’s as simple as hanging out and taking a coffee break with a bunch of friends to talk about nothing (or everything). But you gotta have a place where this feels right, right?



In urban planning, you may see the buzzword placemaking, which means taking a multifaceted approach to create public spaces that promote people’s health, happiness and well-being. Locally, PlaceMakes takes a low-cost, high-impact approach to turning public spaces into destinations, and you get to experience one of these inspirations at the corner of Gay and High beginning May 14.

In front of Café Brioso, PlaceMakes will install a parklet to offer a place to meet, relax and enjoy the downtown digs while taking in the street activities. The cool thing is this this small, but mighty space will take only a single parking space to transform it into an open, public people space.

“We want to create unique, memorable pockets of activity where the community interacts with one another,” says Jess Mathews, founder of PlaceMakes and community engagement extraordinaire. “The point is to begin a dialogue about how we view and use public spaces.  Streets are such critical assets to cities, and we only see streets as facilities for transporting, but they can be so much more.  We peel back that layer and reveal to the public what's been hidden in plain sight.”

The parklet at Gay and High is not the only place where creative, community-led placemaking will occur this summer. PlaceMakes also plans a project using a pedestrian alley in Cherry Street.

It’s cool stuff, and there’s lots of ways to be involved whether you want to just walk or ride your bike to one of these areas or you want to roll up your sleeves and help bring them to fruition. Either way, get the scoop here.