Placemaking

Be on Belmont
We believe in working with communities to reimagine public spaces, promoting positive activities and increasing safety.

Placemaking focuses on increasing participation in the public square. The philosophy behind placemaking goes back to the 1960s and pioneering writers such as Jane Jacobs who believed the best indicator of the resiliency and safety of a neighborhood is the vitality of its public life.

A good example of our placemaking work is in the efforts in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. Our Brownsville Community Justice Center helped start a community-wide effort to turn a distressed shopping corridor to a thriving civic and commercial district. The Belmont Revitalization Project created an award-winning space for block parties, festivals, and street markets. The pedestrian plaza was chosen to anchor New York City’s first Neighborhood Innovation Lab. After surveying residents of a local public housing development, the Justice Center also worked with young people to create a youth and community clubhouse on a formerly vacant lot.

Other placemaking work that we have done in Brownsville and in Crown Heights, Brooklyn includes public art installations, neighborhood signage and branding campaigns, and horticulture projects.

Initiatives

  • Neighbors in Action

    Neighbors in Action works to make the central Brooklyn neighborhoods of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant safer and healthier for all.

Publications & Digital Media

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News

  • Opinion: How a Court’s Mission Aligned with its Response to Superstorm Sandy

    October 29, 2022
    City & State

    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.

  • Changemakers in Action: Manuel Lariño

    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.

  • Common Council Sets Aside $800k to Help Syracuse Tenants Navigate Housing Problems

    March 28, 2022
    WAER 88.3

    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.”

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