Daniela Patti, Levente Polyak, Simone d’Antonio, Elisabetta Savino and Sabrina Bruzzone report on the festival’s Interactive Cities (IC) lab. The project is dedicated to finding out about how interactive European cities are and how they use social media tools to be interactive. The Interactive Cities Lab in Lisbon saw the participation of some of the [...]
How interactive is your city?
Evidence based participative parking policy – a case of Idrija
By Aidan Cerar and Urban Jeriha. Cities everywhere are on a mission to reduce car traffic and promote sustainable mobility. Not only to improve air quality, but also to provide more space for citizens to enjoy the city outdoors and practice social life in public spaces. The usual steps towards a more sustainably mobile city [...]
Buying a Better Future
Matthew Baqueriza-Jackson was the Lead Expert for Procure and is currently the Network Expert for Making Spend Matter. He represents URBACT on the EU Urban Agenda Partnership for Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement and believes the way cities buy goods and services can change for a better economic, social and environmental future. The ‘Buying a [...]
People-powered services: big words versus reality?
The outcomes of the “European and US stories of CHANGE!” Breakout Session We often tend to speak about community engagement like a mantra, but it is indeed the core element of collaborative public policies. Before rejecting the idea to engage citizens into the service delivery, because it seems too hard, we need to think critically [...]
Crash Course in Brazilian Urban Reality: thought after 6 days of co-creation workshop in Santa Marta, Rio de Janeiro
Most urban planners (and many travellers too) know that Brazilian cities are an extreme example of vicinity within the city between poor and rich areas. Brazil is well known for its gated communities and favelas, which reality has been exposed through the years in literature and films as reported on by Christina Horwath in her [...]
Gender Equal Cities: a walk in the park?
‘Gender Equality’ has become one of the political zeitgeists of 2018, prompting institutions around the globe to take a closer look at how women and men interact in personal, professional and public spheres. But what does it mean for European cities? The new URBACT initiative, Gender Equal Cities, sought to provide some answers to this [...]
Want to improve your health? MAKE YOU ACTIVE with friends and neighbours!
Ana Resende remembers meeting Hugo Nunes in Riga in 2015 and his role in transforming Loulé (PT) thanks to the VITAL CITIES network. By making sports facilities accessible to all, Loulé is a pioneering city offering an active, fit lifestyle to all its population, thanks to regular events and an accessible infrastructure. Loulé met partners [...]
Best social media posts and best photos from 2018 #URBACTFest!
On 13 and 14 September 2018 URBACT City Festival took place in the wonderful city of Lisbon (PT). More than 500 participants, from 200 European cities gathered to celebrate the rising influence of cities as actors of change. URBACT also took the opportunity to celebrate the 15 years of the URBACT Programme! With this post [...]
Love Your Block Unites Communities in Legacy Cities
We are all familiar with the narrative: A once-flourishing American city flush with middle-class jobs, a thriving industry, and vibrant neighborhoods experiences a protracted loss of jobs and residents. Cities like Detroit and Buffalo, often referred to as legacy cities and mostly scattered throughout the Midwest and Northeast, are characterized by abandoned steel mills and [...]
How “Love Your Block” unites local leaders and residents to revitalize neighborhoods
Hubert Humphrey once said, “The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor.” But what happens when those hands link to achieve shared civic goals? Does government become less impersonal, and do neighbors help more effectively? These are among the questions explored by the Cities of Service Love Your Block [...]
Authors
Alina Andreea Băileşteanu
Aidan Cerar
Alice Ferguson
Alison Partridge
ana resende
Ania Rok
Aldo Vargas- ALL AUTHORS
