Buffalo finally made it in the Project for Public Spaces (PPS) Placemaking News segment that gets sent out to urbanists throughout the world. For years, I’ve been reading about placemaking efforts featured on PPS, never thinking that Buffalo would ever get a shout out.
PPS is the go-to for people who want to learn about urbanist efforts that are enacted to transform neighborhoods and their cities into places where people want to live. The organization shines a spotlight on all of the dos and don’ts when it comes to reclaiming cities from the legacy mistakes of urban renewal efforts once thought to be progressive in nature (now considered disastrous blunders).
Thanks to PPS for giving a shout out to Larkinville as a successful effort in placemaking. Check out this incredible story about the formations of Larkinville, and how it put Buffalo on the PPS radar for good reason!
Side note: Within minutes of writing this, I received an email from Leslie Zemsky, Director of Fun at Larkinville, who shared with me that the PPS segment was picked up by Vibrant Bay Area in San Francisco – see the article here. The news couldn’t be better timed to coincide with the upcoming CNU 22 conference being held in Buffalo.
And as if the Larkinville recognition wasn’t enough, Buffalo was also recently ranked as #1 medium-size city for college grads (see here). Let’s hope that the cool Larkinville factor helps to retain the grads, and that other parts of the city take note of what young people are looking for when it comes to calling a place “home”.