A Look Back At 2023: Parking Lots, Plunges And Partnerships!
After you’ve written a few of these end-of-year letters, it gets harder to come up with a catchy headline that fully captures the year. Building off the momentum we gained in 2022, we were back on the ground in full force, re-engaging with diverse city and community partners to ignite action and challenge the status quo to create healthier, more equitable, and sustainable cities.
You might be thinking -parking lots- what’s that all about? This year, we demonstrated the tremendous possibilities of parking lots as an important public space asset, spaces that can support community connection, joy, and belonging with a little love, community organizing, and placemaking investment. Our team helped bring together diverse community partners to transform a parking lot in Cooksville, Mississauga, into a pop-up community market. We also reimagined six car parking spaces into a vibrant pop-up pocket park in Downtown Brampton with the support of city champions and community partners.
Plunges? We hosted two study trips to Copenhagen this year for city teams from Canada and the U.S., culminating in the (cold) harbour plunge! This is a great symbol of all that we at 8 80 Cities try to achieve on these trips. We want to push boundaries, strengthen trust and relationships, get participants in a creative and open mindset and work together to address some of our biggest city challenges. We hope that those memories, learning, and experiences on our immersive study trips provide an accelerator for translatable community-led actions from our participating teams. We can’t wait to see what you do with this Guelph, Saskatoon, Oshawa, Brandon, Detroit and Buffalo!
Finally, partnerships. There is not enough room to write all the amazing partnerships that we’ve had this year. I know people are often shocked when they find out our team is a small but mighty group of eight people. There’s no secret in how we do this. It’s not only because we have an amazing team, but we have an amazing team that understands the value of every single relationship, partnership and interaction we have as the foundational currency that advances our mission. Our work relies on the vast network of supporters, partners, board members, funders, clients, volunteers, students, interns, community changemakers, city champions, advocates, researchers and more who share a vision for a healthier and more equitable future for cities. For that, we are eternally grateful to all of you!!
This year was action packed one and a signal for much more to come in 2024! Take a look at some of our favourite project highlights of the year.
Amanda O’Rourke
Executive Director 8 80 Cities
|
|
|
|
Nelson Square Pop-Up Pocket Park
The Nelson Square Pop-Up Pocket Park is a collaboration part of the City of Brampton's Activate Downtown Brampton initiative to turn under-used public areas into community spaces. The City of Brampton and 8 80 Cities led the project.
Learn more...
|
|
|
|
Western Beaches Public Life Study
The 8 80 Cities team worked with the City of Toronto, conducting a series of Public Life Studies at the Western Beaches area to uncover insights into how visitors currently move through the space, the types of activities they engage in and how they would like to see it improved.
With the help of 100+ volunteers, we collected data that will be used to inform the Western Beaches Public Realm Plan and make the space better for all users.
|
|
|
8 80 Healthy Urban Policy Implementation Workshop
We were very excited to bring the first Canadian study group to Copenhagen in September 2023 in partnership with the Canadian Healthy Cities Research Initiative (CIHR/HCRI). Four city teams from Brandon, Manitoba, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Oshawa, Ontario; and Guelph, Ontario joined us for five days in Copenhagen to experience the 8 80 Cities immersive workshop. We are excited to announce that 2024 funding has recently launched, and we cannot wait to bring more Canadian teams to Copenhagen in Fall 2024! Apply here.
|
|
|
|
AARP Technical Advisors Program
In 2023, 8 80 Cities partnered with the state offices of Alaska, Washington State, California, Idaho, New York, Rhode Island, the District of Columbia and North Carolina to host a series of interactive workshops, policy reports and placemaking quick actions.
|
|
|
|
Caledon ATMP
8 80 Cities and Alta Planning+Design provided their expertise in community engagement and technical aspects to the Town of Caledon to develop their Active Transportation Master Plan ensuring the community's vision is captured and reflected.
|
|
|
|
|
Cooksville Pop-Up Market & Gathering
We had lots of fun this past summer working with Heart Comonos, Cooksville Community Hub, and the amazing Cooksville community. This community-driven event turned a parking lot into a family-friendly market full of fun, food, vendors and services.
|
|
|
Ontario Community Changemakers
In this program's third year, we have seen how this unique funding mechanism can have long-lasting, large-scale impacts across communities. We were very excited to host the first fully in-person studio this year, as the program launched during the pandemic. Hosting all the changemakers in Toronto was a wonderful experience; we are so inspired by the work of this year’s cohort and excited to share the final reports of our outgoing cohort. You can read more about the program and the specific projects here.
|
|
|
8 80 Parks & Public Spaces Implementation Workshop Copenhagen
We were also very lucky to bring two cities currently working on Waterfront Redevelopment projects, Detroit, and Buffalo. Through funding from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, we brought a group of 24 representatives to Copenhagen in October 2023, to focus on the transformation of Copenhagen’s harbour, from an industrial Portland to a vibrant and integral part of the city’s public realm. We learned how often the most innovative and beneficial solutions come from the places of the most scarcity and challenges.
Read an inspiring blog from one of the participants...
|
|
|
|
AARP Community Gardens Community of Practice
The Community Gardens Community of Practice was a virtual convening of green thumbs from across the United States. The purpose of the Community of Practice was to share knowledge and experiences and grow (no pun intended) together!
|
|
|
|
Illuminate Caledon
8 80 Cities worked with the Town of Caledon to initiate an introductory cultural placemaking campaign to explore what makes Caledon an attractive place to live, work and play for people from all backgrounds.
|
|
|
|
Mississauga Corporate Award
We got this award for our work with the City of Mississauga and Green Communities Canada and the fantastic schools, school board, and community partners that helped make healthy, active and safe School Streets possible.
|
|
|
2023 Brampton Urban Design Award
We received this honour for the engaging design that elevates the dialogue among place, people and landscape for Vivian Lane, an underutilized laneway in downtown Brampton. Thank you to the City of Brampton, our partners, artist Abiola Idowu, volunteers and the community at large for being part of this fantastic project!
|
|
|
20 People We Love - Streets For All Ages
As part of the 20th Anniversary celebration of Spacing Magazine, 8 80 Cities Executive Director, Amanda O'Rourke was recognized as one of 20 inspiring individuals who care deeply about urban issues and the future of Toronto.
|
|
|
One-Year Anniversary of the Kitchener Pop-Up Park & Grand Opening of Pedestrian-Only Gaukel
Taking inspiration and the data collected from the Kitchener Pop-Up Park, the City of Kitchener has transformed Gaukel Street into a place for pedestrians first.
|
|
|
Sharing our studio at the iconic 401 Richmond building
As of October 2023, we share our beautiful office space with our friends from Clean Air Partnership. It is great to share the space and work with you all!
|
|
|
|
Applications for our 2024 Healthy Urban Policy Workshop in Copenhagen are now open! Canadian city leaders and researchers, the wait is over! We are excited to announce that the funding opportunity for the 2024 Healthy Urban Policy Workshop in Copenhagen is now live! Deadline: February 1st, 2024. Apply here.
|
|
|
Cities For Everyone|The Webinar After a year of fascinating presentations from experts on cities worldwide, our Founder and Chair, Gil Penalosa, comes back with a lineup of exciting guests for 2024. Join us in the first session of the year, The High Cost of Free Parking, with guest Don Shoup, Professor at UCLA and renowned author, and learn about ten parking reforms for healthier cities and a cooler planet. Register here.
|
|
|
Knight Emerging City Champions is back! The 8 80 Cities Knight Emerging City Champions program will relaunch in April 2024 and close at the end of May 2024. Stay tuned; more will come through our communications outlets next year!
|
|
|
Winter Cycling Congress, Edmonton, February 22-24, 2024. Two 8 80 staff will attend and present at the Winter Cycling Congress. 8 80 Cities has written the Winter Placemaking Guide and is excited to share the findings with winter cycling experts. Register here.
|
|
|
2024 Edition Of The AIPH World Green City Awards Our Executive Director, Amanda O'Rourke, is part of the Technical Panel assessing and scoring all eligible entries and selecting a shortlist of entries for each award category to be delivered to the 2024 Jury. The Jury will select a winner from each category and the Grand Winner. Stay tuned!
|
|
|
Thank You To Our Fantastic Volunteers!
2023 has been such a busy year. We could only have done it with dedicated volunteers. You are all amazing! Thank you for bringing your enthusiasm and creativity to the work we do. See you in 2024!
|
|
|
|
