NEWS
January 15, 2021
Hello world! We are back and running. We have also expanded our territory to London, UK and are very excited to dive back into exciting projects. Watch this space…
August 14, 2020
Larissa’s twins are born! Welcome Idris and Laila! Make Public will take a break for the next few months!
July 10, 2020
Unequivocally, Black Lives Matter.
When we started Make Public, our vision was to measure the immeasurable and support community-based organizations and changemakers with data about public spaces that might otherwise be difficult to get. It had become frustratingly obvious that equity was something that would not become part of mainstream policy or decision-making if we couldn’t get the numbers to back it.
However, more public space alone will never make up for core essential needs necessary to achieve equity such as equal access to education, job opportunities, transportation, and affordable housing. And most importantly, none of these things make an ounce of difference if a Black person cannot walk down the street without the threat of being harmed.
And yet, we continue to believe that people need spaces to share and feel safe in, that people, especially those who might be the target of violence and harm, deserve spaces where they can be fully themselves. Public expressions of joy and belonging can be an anti-racist action. The capacity to speak out, protest, and demonstrate – all actions usually taken in public space – are essential to be represented and accounted for by broader society. For too long these needs have been separated from the need to be safe from violence due to racism. We will not tolerate that separation any longer.
Because what we’re doing is partial and imperfect, we commit to listening, learning, correcting, and above all acting anti-racist. We will not be passive observers, we will not keep secrets that powers that be may ask us to keep. To that end, we commit to:
- Making our work more intentional to address safety and fear from racist acts and violence.
- Acknowledging and addressing the power imbalance that plays out in how urban spaces are funded, designed, and operated.
- Educating people about the history of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and never using it as substitute for anti-racist urban design approaches. Specifically, we will not obscure understanding with the vague use of the word “crime” and will include threats from the state where relevant. Much gratitude to Bryan Lee at Colloqate for this lesson.
- Including the histories of communities and ceasing erasure of people that may not be physically present but whose prior lives contributed to the places we know.
- Finding ways to augment the availability of race data.
Finally, we recognize that we are non-Black people (one white, one Asian) attempting to do something that directly impacts BIPOC communities. As such, we recognize that our role is sometimes to get out of the way and let others lead and that the best thing we can do is listen.
May 8, 2020
Final report of our social impact assessment of Claremont Illuminated, a placemaking initiative by the Bronx Documentary Center is issued.
March 12, 2020
Larissa presents final user profile research and recommendations to NUMO team!
December 19, 2019
Our framework for Center for Livable Cities on maximizing and tracking social impacts in community engagement processes towards building social resilience is complete!
December 12, 2019
Visualizing Urban Change final presentations!
November 19, 2019
Our community based organizations social impact research in partnership with Hester Street Collaborative is complete!
November 13, 2019
Larissa participates in the panel discussion “Urban Spaces, Healthy Places” hosted as part of the National Clinician Scholars Program 2019 annual conference.
October 24, 2019
Kick off meeting with Rebuild by Design and Center for Livable Cities in Singapore on their interagency initiative Building Community Resilience by Design.
October 10, 2019
Shin-pei moderates Vision Zero Conference panel!
October 8, 2019
Kick off meeting with Hester Street Collaborative on community based organizations social impact research paper.
October 7, 2019
Collected data debrief workshop with Bronx Documentary Center.
August 27, 2019
Larissa kicks off teaching her first class of the semester Visualizing Urban Change at Parsons, The New School of Design.
August 5, 2019
Website launched!
June 21, 2019
First NUMO alliance workshop working on developing common definitions to kick start the toolkit architecture.
June 20, 2019
Shin-pei, a finalist for the Knight Foundation’s inaugural Public Space Fellowship, moderates a panel discussion on Why We Measure at the Foundation’s first Public Space Conference.
June 13, 2019
Shin-pei participated in two panel discussions at the Congress for New Urbanism’s Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY, one of the Inclusive Healthy Places framework and another on equitable development.
June 11, 2019
Shin-pei was honored to participate in the annual On Cue conference, a meeting of the minds organized by a purpose-driven and people-first venture capital firm, Cue Ball. This year’s theme about Being Human was particularly meaningful to our work.
May 16, 2019
Kick-off with Bronx Documentary Center on measuring the impact of their Claremont Illuminated initiative.
May 3, 2019
Hosting our first framework and tool training with Center for Court Innovation!
April 3, 2019
Make Public incorporated!