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September 21 and 22
2 days, 2 disciplines, 2 ways to participate – defining our professional roles and uniting to build more equitable, accessible and inspired communities.
#2GETHER2022
This session reports on plazaPOPS, a collaborative, community-based tactical urbanism initiative in Toronto that explores how a partnership-based community-driven process can create accessible and vibrant gathering spaces within strip-mall parking lots that support community life and local businesses along inner suburban main streets. plazaPOPS offer a form of social infrastructure and local economic development that is tailored to the conditions of the suburbs, where the need for public realm enhancement is often great but difficult to achieve due to the limited amount of land in public ownership. Despite their location on private property, plazaPOPS installations are fully accessible to the public: there is no cost to enter, and everyone is welcome. The idea hinges on the proposition that commercial landowners and the local business community will see enough value in the model to hand over a few parking spaces and participate in a community-oriented city-building project. Through this foundation of partnership, the initiative explores concepts of access and connection, creating a comfortable environment that invites traditional public space uses — lingering, people watching, smelling the flowers, meeting a friend for a coffee, taking in a programmed event, or resting while waiting for the bus — into an otherwise hostile pedestrian environment. An initial grant-funded plazaPOPS installation was piloted in Scarborough in 2019 (see video and exit report here). Through a SSHRC funded research grant in partnership with the City of Toronto, as well as funding through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario’s “Main Street Recovery and Rebuild program” that responds to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative is planning a series of new installations over the next three years, including a program of research that will evaluate economic and social impacts. This short presentation will summarize the project to date, including reporting on summer 2022 installations.