Placemaking News Archive

Safety is a basic human need. In Brownsville, Brooklyn, young community leaders are building it with placekeeping, using creativity and design to bring neglected public spaces back to life.

This photo essay displays Brownsville Community Justice Center's work in placekeeping and includes personal narratives from members of the Youth Leadership Council who dreamt up the spaces that will foster healing in their community.

Youth participants of our Brownsville Community Justice Center considered how physical spaces can foster healing from traumatic events. They envisioned shared public installations and helped create them to cultivate healing and comfort. These unique spaces designed for their community were highlighted in NYC Public Design Commission's "Streetscapes for Wellness" report! Take a look at these "healing spaces" (page 58).

Judge Alex Calabrese is stepping down from his 22-year tenure as Red Hook Community Justice Center's presiding judge. The nation's first multijurisdictional court in the country with criminal, family, and housing court cases all appearing before a single judge, this courtroom put people—and the community—at the center of justice. The model has now been replicated in jurisdictions across the country, and internationally, showing the effects of a holistic approach to justice. In this op-ed published by both City & State and NYN Media, Judge Calabrese reflects on 22 years of service, recalling times when the courtroom was turned into a crisis center to meet the needs of the moment, and all the ways in which the Justice Center improves lives in the Red Hook, Brooklyn community.

Manuel Lariño has been with the Center for Court Innovation for over 18 years. Now in his role as associate director of Placemaking and Workforce Development, Manuel supports the teams that operate Brownsville Community Justice Center’s placemaking and mobility-from-poverty initiatives, which focus on public safety, community organizing, and neighborhood revitalization.

The Center’s Syracuse Peacemaking Center will continue operation for another two years, thanks to funding from the city’s Common Council. Program ambassadors are working with community partners and guest speakers to provide residents a safe place to talk and connect them with mental health services. Our Leah Russell tells WAER how the program has “seen firsthand how housing concerns are exacerbating mental health issues.”

Ifeoma Ebo, an urban designer and planner based in New York City, worked with the Center's Brownsville Community Justice Center and tenants of the Brownsville Houses to activate outdoor areas to build safe, shared spaces. In 2019, the Justice Center, young community members, and Ebo came together to create low-cost solutions and organized B-Lit, an event that transformed the park into a multicolored dance floor that welcomed residents of all ages.

This article details the Central New York Community Foundation's outreach efforts to help homeowners make their homes safer and protect children from lead paint that could be present in homes built before the paint was outlawed in 1978. The foundation is providing a $40,000 grant to fund a partnership between the Center for Court Innovation and Planned Parenthood of Western & Central New York to host dinner and ‘Kitchen Table Talks’ with neighbors to provide them with information and the tools they need to keep their communities safe from lead.

This article details the Center for Court Innovation and Planned Parenthood's outreach efforts to host dinner and ‘Kitchen Table Talks’ with neighbors to provide them with information and the tools they need to keep their communities safe from lead. The Central New York Community Foundation has provided a $40,000 grant to fund a partnership between the two organizations in Western Upstate NY to help protect families and children from lead paint that could be present in homes built before the paint was outlawed in 1978.

In their first semester, students from Pratt’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE) worked with our Brownsville Community Justice Center to come up with youth-focused economic development on Belmont Avenue. The students learned about the systemic disinvestment in the community and developed a framework for investing in and keeping resources in Brownsville while empowering the community to drive its economic development.