Project for Public Spaces

Founded in 1975, Project for Public Spaces has helped over 2,000 communities in 26 countries improve their parks, markets, streets, transit stations, libraries, and other public spaces. The process used is a participatory one, based on surveying community members to develop projects, beginning with small-scale efforts, to meet their needs. One of the group's projects involves the promotion of public markets, in which public markets are employed to spur local community wealth building. Examples range from an effort centered around local vendors in Athens, Ohio, to a transit-linked development project involving a local community development corporation in the Fruitvale neighborhood in Oakland, California.