WATCH ABOVE: If you had the opportunity to improve public spaces in the city, what would you do? Lisa Wolansky has more on a citizen-driven urban makeover that took place Sunday.
EDMONTON – From sunrise yoga and a pop-up playground, to a community garden and a pop-up patio, Edmontonians took to some of the city’s empty spaces Sunday to reinvent the city.
As part of Make Something Edmonton’s #DIYcity initiative, Edmontonians were encouraged to get playful with public space by placemaking—making an empty space more inviting.
“People will come and spend time together and connect,” said Jennifer Schaefer, communications director with Make Something Edmonton. “The more time we do that, the more lively our neighbourhoods are and the richer lives we lead.”
Twenty-five community-led projects unfolded in Edmonton Sunday. People young and old got involved in the initiative, giving some of Edmonton’s public spaces a quick, fun, low-cost makeover.
“I think the strength of some of these communities, sometimes people don’t see until you bring everybody together in something like this. There’s so much diversity and so much liveliness,” said Michael Brown, who was part of the community garden and mural at 108 Avenue and 105 Street. “There’s all kinds of ages, there’s all kinds of ethnicities. There’s a real opportunity for people to come together.”
“This is what I dream of.”
This is the first year for #DIYcity and it partnered with #yeglongday, another community initiative which encourages people to take to social media to share their pictures, videos and stories about how they’re spending the first day of summer, or the so-called “longest day of the year.”
“We live in a place that has all of this glorious daylight and we think it’s pretty special to live this far north,” said Heather Zwicker, co-founder of #yeglongday.
“People every year become more connected to one another. I think that’s an interesting thing to know because too often we think that social media isolates people, and there’s also a lot of evidence to suggest that it brings people together.”
Below are just some of the ways Edmontonians got involved in #DIYcity and #yeglongday:
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