"Placemaking on Main Street: Revitalizing Rural Communities" Summary:
Rural communities from all over the country are struggling to find a way to support their local economies and provide a stable future for them. They face the problem of having to figure out how to do these things effectively by using what they have available to them as far as financial and human capital. This way to do this is to develop solutions within the community using placemaking to create a sense of place and connectedness. To integrate placemaking into these rural communities, partnerships have been formed and have provided training programs for community leaders, serving to inform and also network the rural areas with potential regional funding partners. These partnerships allow the communities to not merely submit, but rather to integrate the important parts of the community’s identity into the future plans rather than wiping them out entirely. Main Streets are full of history and provide the identity of the place, and the objective of placemaking is not to erase these aspects, but rather to help them thrive by creating more places by attracting members of the community to become engaged. For this reason, the process of placemaking must be undertaken by the community in order to ensure positive outcomes.<br>
Furthermore, placemaking creates spaces for people to be involved, rather than a space primarily for cars. This can be achieved by implementing low cost, projects to include parks, benches, and fun programs on the street to get people walking. The idea behind getting people to interact within their communities is to create place attachment to assure that young people stay rooted to their communities. However, it can be difficult to carry out these projects due to lack of funding or resources, so Lisa Mensah explains that “partnerships between sectors is central to making rural areas thrive,” so that rural regions can have an effective, lasting impact (Project for Public Spaces).
Project for Public Spaces. "Placemaking on Main Street: Revitalizing Our Rural Places." Project for Public Spaces. N.p., 12 Aug. 2016. Web. 31 Aug. 2016.