Landscape + Planning + Urbanism
Workshop
.jpg "Cory Berg, AICP photo")
Cory Berg, AICP
Campus Planner
Northeastern University
Nupoor Monani
Senior Urban Designer/Planner
Utile, Inc.
Tech Leng
City Planner
City of Revere
Elizabeth Jenkins, AICP
Director of Planning & Development
Town of Barnstable
Deanna Ruffer
Director of Community Development
City of Pittsfield
The Wicked Awesome Cities Toolkit provides a menu of strategies that take a place-based approach to community revitalization and reinvestment. While many towns and cities in Massachusetts view their challenges as unique, issues such as main street and downtown business revitalization, walkability, and infill development are common to most. The Toolkit does not present a one-size-fits-all solution for these issues; rather, it offers a set of solutions that can be applied across a number of contexts and adapted to meet the needs of each municipality.
More and more towns and cities in the Commonwealth are opting for a spatial, incremental approach to planning that provides flexibility and actionable outcomes. Tangible interventions within the urban realm can create a critical mass of activity and cause spillover effects in neighboring areas. Through design-based efforts concentrated in compact areas, the Toolkit offers catalytic solutions that provide more “bang-for-your-buck” than traditional comprehensive planning.