Kids Are the Stars for 8 80 Cities’ Pop Up that Debuts Toronto’s First-Ever School Street
This week our team was working in the early morning along with a group of partners and community leaders to demonstrate how we can quickly turn a street in front of a school into a car-free zone for kids during drop-off and pick-up times.
8 80 Streets Mountview Ave. is the third in the 8 80 Streets series led by 8 80 Cities, and Toronto's first-ever School Street, a model program that closes the street in front of a school during drop-off and pick-up times to create safe streets for children and their families walking to school.
Seeing the happiness, comfort and ease with which kids enjoyed the street in front of Keele Street Public School, and all the positive feedback from parents and teachers, made us believe even more in the power of simple actions towards a city with zero traffic deaths. When you make the street safe for kids, you make the street safer for everyone.
We've compiled some media coverage for you to see the beauty of this program. You can read them here.
If you are in Toronto, feel free to stop by at Keele Street Public School (99 Mountview Ave.) from 8:00 - 9:00 am, and 3:00 - 4:00 pm, to experience Toronto's first-ever school street. We'll be there to answer questions and share some of our learnings until Halloween (this coming Thursday, October 31).
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Young Explorers: City Life Experienced by Three-Year-Olds
Once more, our friends at Bernard van Leer Foundation, gift us with Young Explorers, a series of short films telling the story of three-year-olds and their caregivers navigating their cities.
From Recife in Brazil to Pune in India, five young explorers share their challenges and opportunities.
Watch the videos...
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Public Life after Death
With Halloween coming up we thought it appropriate to highlight this important article on cemeteries- an often underappreciated public space.
John Bry from Project for Public Spaces (PPS) profiles how six cemeteries are reclaiming their role as important community destinations.
Continue reading...
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Report: Creating Spaces for Young and Old to Coexist
How can we create spaces that not only meet the needs of young and old, but where we can truly connect, learn, and have fun together? In this report from Generations United and the Eisner Foundation, we learn more about facilitating the ‘kindred spirits’ of young and old, building intergenerational relationships, while reducing social isolation, and creating more livable communities.
Read the report...
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Hijabs and Helmets Cycling Group Empowers Women
This article by Vivien Fellegi, reminds us that riding a bike can be a deeply powerful expression of self and sense of freedom. The story profiles the Hijabs and Helmets cycling group, a group that was started by Hazar Najjar, a Syrian refugee living in Toronto since 2016. Najjar created the group because she knew many of her friends who also wear headscarves (hijabs) faced barriers and expressed fears for their safety of being so visible in the public realm while riding a bike.
Continue reading...
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San Francisco’s Busiest Street Is Going Car-Free
Next year, Market Street in downtown San Francisco, one of the busiest streets in the city, will go car-free. Laura Bliss, from City Lab, tells us all the details about this exciting development, a collaboration of the city and advocate groups and part of the city’s overall goals to get traffic fatalities down to zero.
Continue reading...
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We are super excited to be part of the Future Cities Summit this year. From November 7 - 8, 2019, visit us at TD Future Cities Centre, at Evergreen Brick Works, in Toronto.
During two days, our installation The Anatomy of a Safe Street will demonstrate how a street can evolve from being car-centric to human-centred as exemplified in our recent safe-street prototype 8 80 Streets Danforth. Our goal is to share lessons learned offering participants with an interactive and tactile experience.
Future Cities Canada is a collaborative platform that harnesses the momentum for change already in progress in cities.
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