By Maarten Jacobs

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Contributing writer

Development in America for the past half century has focused on cars and buildings instead of people, causing many of our communities to lose their sense of place.

Across the nation today a concept referred to as "placemaking" is being used to improve neighborhoods by creating public spaces that promote health, happiness, and well being. Syracuse’s Near Westside has joined the nation in this concept and community leaders are looking to the process and philosophy of placemaking to reinvent their neighborhood.

The concept of placemaking originated in the 1960s, but not until the last decade have cities across America focused on the importance of lively neighborhoods and inviting public spaces.

What does placemaking in the Near Westside look like? It starts with listening to the best experts in the field — the people who live and work in the neighborhood.

That is what has been happening in the Near Westside through community meetings and groups like the Westside Arts Council and the Neighborhood Planning Committee; both tied to the Near Westside Initiative.

Community members raised issues such as more pedestrian and bike-friendly roads, new uses for vacant properties and using the arts to beautify the Near Westside. From those simple ideas have come a multitude of placemaking projects, all aimed at capitalizing on the community’s assets and potential for change.

Challenged with numerous vacant lots in the neighborhood, the residents worked on developing a successful placemaking strategy for converting some of these lots into community gardens. One above all, next to St. Lucy's Church, has been particularly successful. Known as the "Stone Soup Community Garden," it was the first community garden in the neighborhood. The organic garden serves as an outdoor classroom, and, since its inception several years ago, it has grown into a popular gathering space for residents of all ages and a garden that supports multiple families and the neighboring food pantry.

It became clear in a conversation with residents, they felt blocked off from the rest of the city by West Street and the elevated rail line. The Near Westside Initiate hired renowned street artist, Steve Powers, to make the intersection at West Street and West Fayette Street a gateway and a celebrated space for the Near Westside. Today, three formerly rusty and unsightly train bridges have phrases like “Now that we are here, nowhere else matters” and “I paid the light bill just to see your face.”

Powers created these messages after canvassing the neighborhood and engaging in conversations with residents to learn about their experiences living in the Near Westside.

The goal was to use public art as a placemaking strategy to make the entrance into the neighborhood more enjoyable and memorable.

Neighborhood residents also turned their attention to tackling the most central public space in the near Westside: Skiddy Park. The park, located in the heart of the neighborhood, was in dire need of a makeover. Over the course of several years, the neighbors, with the help of Syracuse University students and faculty, the NWSI and multiple funders and sponsors tackled Skiddy Park. Following the lead of the Boeheim Foundation and Onondaga County's Save the Rain Program, multiple funders and the City of Syracuse overhauled the park. Today it has a beautiful baseball diamond, two new porous pavement basketball courts, and a brand new playground. If you spend any summer evening in the park, you saw dozens of families enjoying all that Skiddy Park has to offer well past sundown.

More placemaking projects abound in the Near Westside. Lipe Art Park, an abandoned train yard, is now the city's first art park and public green space open to the community for the development, display, performance and appreciation of all forms of art. A former crack house, 601 Tully, is now the site for meaningful exchange between artists, community members and SU students and scholars. Most impressive of all are the residents themselves who are increasingly planting flowers and decorating their homes to give them a greater sense of place.

Led by the community, these placemaking projects are reshaping the neighborhood today. Not only are residents and surrounding communities taking notice, but on a national level, groups like the Education Foundation of America, ArtPlace and others are paying attention too.

This attention shows the neighborhood’s residents working together for positive change, one place at a time.

Maarten Jacobs, director of the Near Westside Initiative, writes occasional reports about Syracuse's West Side for The Post-Standard Neighbors section. He lives in Syracuse with his wife, Andrea, and their two children, Sam and Ollie. Visit saltdistrict.com to learn more. He can be reached at mjacob01@syr.edu.