Blog

Creative Placemaking

The Problem with Calling Neighborhoods with Vacant Properties “Blighted”

Blight is a shorthand term many people use to refer to properties they perceive as problematic in some way.

How Vacant and Abandoned Buildings Affect Communities

Vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties—referred to by some as “blighted properties”—pose significant costs to public health, property values, local taxpayers, and more.

Looking Back at the 2020-21 Community Revitalization Fellowship: Creative Placemaking by Community Leaders from Three Cities

Learn about creative placemaking projects by residents of Birmingham, Alabama; Reading, Pennsylvania; and Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

Meet Kat Guillaume-Delemar, President & CEO of Community Progress

For Kat Guillaume-Delemar, community revitalization is a deeply personal journey.

Transforming Cleveland Vacant Lots into an Urban Farm

How the Cuyahoga Land Bank and a community activist worked together to transform a block one property at a time.

Creative Placemaking in Braddock, Pennsylvania

Community leaders in Braddock, North Braddock, and East Pittsburgh are creatively reactivating vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties.

Creación de espacios creativos en Loíza (Puerto Rico)

A principios de marzo, los cohortes de la Beca de Revitalización Comunitaria (CRF) 2022-23 viajaron a Loíza, Puerto Rico, para su segundo intercambio de aprendizaje. Estos intercambios de aprendizaje, que incluyeron formación técnica y entrenamiento de liderazgo, son oportunidades para que los becarios aprendan de cada uno y de sus…

Creative Placemaking in Loíza, Puerto Rico

As part of the Community Revitalization Fellowship, fellows from Loíza, Puerto Rico shared the creative placemaking working happening in their community.

What Is Creative Placemaking?

Creative placemaking is the practice of enhancing a neighborhood’s quality of life through arts, culture, and intentional community development. This practice can take many forms, like visual art installations, performance events, developing permanent brick-and-mortar spaces, and more. These creative approaches to addressing community challenges often include repurposing vacant properties. What…

Problem to Purpose: The Drug Activity Answer for One Lansing Neighborhood, Get Creative

Empty lots are open opportunities – for safety threats or community innovation. Pegasus Garden, located in the Prospect PLACE neighborhood in Lansing, Michigan, is a great example of what happens when communities choose option two.