Читать книгу The Outdoor Citizen. Get Out, Give Back, Get Active онлайн

13 страница из 75

Creating a sustainable city requires that residents actively advocate for green spaces, outdoor recreation, and eco-friendly infrastructure, materials, and practices, and that city planners, architects, engineers, real estate developers, investors, and public officials prioritize nature and outdoors spaces. All too often, today’s developers focus on maximizing indoor space and overlook how residents would benefit from outdoor space. In an Outdoor City, outdoor-focused strategies, plans, and programming would be core elements of urban planning, not afterthoughts, and proposed construction projects would need to receive an outdoor-centric sign-off from an authority to confirm that outdoor spaces were integrated into building plans and that the proposed infrastructure wouldn’t endanger existing outdoor spaces, before they would be allowed to go forward.

City Upgrades

When I was the chief development officer for the city of Springfield, Massachusetts, a position I held from 2009 to 2011, I worked closely with city residents who knew the unique needs of their communities. We discussed ways to improve their neighborhoods—everything from adding green spaces to altering street layouts, fixing sidewalks to fostering economic development through urban renewal projects. We figured out how to best implement improvements, and I was able to help make those projects a reality by getting support from state government, and bringing together a team of designers, contractors, urban planners, and investors. The residents took an active role in improving their communities, and the collaboration was key to our success.