As summer approaches, you may be looking for ways to make your neighborhood, town, or city more fun and engaging. If you are, our friends at CommunityMatters have a ton of ideas for way you can do that!
CM recently shared two posts (here and here) with ideas for making your space more engaging and out of the ordinary. So to help give you food for thought for the summer months, we put the lists together below. They also hosted a conference call about it called Creating Fun Places that you can listen to here.
We hope these ideas will get your creative juices flowing and help you make your summer more interesting! Thanks to CM staffer Caitlyn Horose for putting all of these together!
75 Seriously Fun Ways to Make Your Town More Playful
- Join the CommunityMatters conference call on play and placemaking
- Turn the subway into a swing set
- Munch people with your eyes
- Turn your street into a Play Street
- Let sidewalks be trampolines
- Play pong with traffic lights
- Transform a set of stairs into a piano
- Give pedestrians the keys to your city
- Host a hummingbirdman rally
- Embed games in public seating
- Think more like a roller coaster designer
- Rethink the public library as a place for play
- Start a citywide festival of play
- Challenge people to try alternative transportation
- Create a local currency, then turn it into a game
- Get all ethereal and make a playground in the air
- Install a swing just about anywhere
- Make a plan for engaging your community in play
- Give everyone on the street a nametag for a day
- Turn your laundromat into an art studio
- Paste silly thoughtbubbles in your neighborhood
- Fix crumbling infrastructure with legos
- Make cupcakes for strangers
- Transform a bike lane into a video game
- Knit your bridge
- Create space for sharing compliments among friends
- Organize a public play day
- Play a massive game, like megasoccer
- Try out tiny game, like dum-dum
- Turn shopping into a game
- Create a playground for adults
- Make friends in a ball pit
- Create a virtual block party
- Turn a parking lane into a mini golf course
- Use stickers to brainstorm new ideas
- Pretend an urban space is way more wild
- Use your smartphone to create a scavenger hunt wherever you are
- Have more fun with bike paths. Can you say “Whoopdeedoo?”
- Install playful public seating
- Make your sidewalk sound like the ocean (or a farm)
- Replace stairs with slides
- Experiment with shadows
- Stop littering with a fun trashcan
- Play games with found bottlecaps
- Transform bus stops into swingsets
- Imagine a more playful playground
- Use a public fountain as a pool
- Pledge to be more playful
- Start a DIY neighborhood summer camp
- Share toys at a neighborhood gathering place
- Play trash bin basketball
- Build your own cardboard arcade
- Reimagine bus stops
- Turn your neighborhood into an art project
- Organize a playground tour
- Increase access to play
- Make your city a Playful City USA
- Create a neighborhood golf course with help from a smartphone
- Have fun with secret spaces
- Paint those ugly utility boxes
- Build a pop-up playground
- Cause scenes with a prank collective inspired by Improv Everywhere
- Add color to crosswalks
- Soften your sidewalk
- Rethink building facades
- Install creative bike parking
- Find a new use for that old phone booth
- What’s more fun than a colorful piazza?
- Paint a bridge like it is built with legos
- Upgrade a chain-link fence
- Write memories of childhood play all over your street
- Create a pop-up play shop
- Organize a street party
- Add some life to your parking meters
- Drats! We need one more idea to get to #75. Help us out by sharing your thoughts in the comments below!
That was the initial list. But then a few weeks later after lots of suggestions, CM came up with 25 more fun ideas:
25 (More) Ways to Make Your Town More Playful
Add cheer to the streets with tiny notes.
- Host a temporary tattoo parlor.
- Get out on the street with a popcorn machine. Idea from @wemakegood
- Three words: Cardboard Animal Picnic. Inspired by Patrick McDonnell
- Stop standing and start sitting with bench bombing.
- Install a Givebox. Idea from @wanderingzito
- Start a bell box mural project.
- Conduct pointless surveys. Idea from @uncustomaryart
- Put on a one man (or woman) flash mob. Another idea from @uncustomaryart
- Build a treehouse for grownups.
- Transform a decaying building into a folding public theater. Idea from @Kaid_at_NRDC
- Use scaffolding as a place to linger.
Turn heartbeats into music.
- Create a mini golf course in an empty parking lot.
- Remind strangers that they are beautiful.
- Play around with baggage carousels.
- Establish Living Innovation Zones.
- Install temporary, lego-like bike lanes.
- Fill your city with friendly robotic trash cans.
- Bubble your city.
- Host a stilt walking tournament. Idea from Bill “Stretch” Coleman
- Have a little fun with curb-side sewers.
- Turn your alley into a movie theater. Idea from Debbie in Fort Collins, Colorado
- Plant a vacant lot with cabbage. Lots of it. Idea from Barry Thomas
- Host a chalk art festival. Idea from Kelli at KickstartFarmington.org
Still hungry for inspiration? Listen to our conference call on Creating Fun Places, featuring Mike Lanza of Playborhood and Brian Corrigan of Oh Heck Yeah.
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