Networks and cities' news

Caceres kicks of the first Biomarket in Extremadura

Last Sunday, March 20th, Cáceres kicked off its Small Scale Action as a project partner in URBACT Tourism-Friendly Cities considering that Cáceres performance in both networks Tourism-Friendly Cities and Resourceful Cities focuses on the renovation of Ribera del Marco in order to enhance its visibility and attractiveness as the real origin of the city.

SamenMakenWeHeerlen – TogetherWeMake-Heerlen- SSA

Municipality of Heerlen drew up the Bid Book 'Urban Heerlen' in 2016. This bid book describes how Heerlen wants to develop its centre around 5 themes with 25 different ambitions. The bid book received great appreciation at the time. Many ambitions have since been realised.

Updates from the Small Scale Actions of the Tourism-friendly Cities URBACT network

This last period has shown the importance of our network even more than before, as the tourism sector has been one of the most damaged sector by the pandemic.

Now cities have the possibility to contribute to a real change becoming more able to attract tourists and to manage the effects of the tourist flows preserving at the same time the local identity and fostering a balance between the need of the visitors and the ones of the residents and the administrations. A real sustainable tourism can be part of the solution and a response to the needs of recovery that all the cities in the world, from the biggest to the smallest, are seeking to restart.

Entrepreneurship Ecosystems – a few pieces do not a jigsaw make….

Over the years I’ve worked with URBACT networks, I have written - and read - various articles on the key success factors of an entrepreneurial ecosystem, most recently co-authoring Ten Top Tips with Ceri Batchelder as part of the AS Transfer network. As I travelled to Roeselare, Belgium in March 2022 for TechRevolution 2.0.’s Transnational Event, I found myself wondering what I would learn that would add value to work already undertaken.

Fast forward a few days and once again I was in awe of our partners who - against a backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing humanitarian crisis, which meant that two partners were not even able to travel to Belgium - once again embraced everything we threw at them to both deepen their understanding of entrepreneurial economies and build their ‘ecosystems in a box’ out of lego, pipe cleaners and glue.

Storytelling for urban change: a narrative for Thriving Streets

Author: Simone d’Antonio, Ad-hoc Expert Thriving Streets

At the occasion of the World Storytelling Day, a focus on how the partners of Thriving Streets are integrating narrative element into their local strategies and actions. The topics was focused also by a Masterclass, which recalled some of the most interesting examples currently carried out at international level, serving as inspiration to the strategies created by the ten partner cities active in exploring the links between mobility and public space.

The pull side of the story – experimenting with a new public transport service to shift traffic from private car use in Panevėžys

Panevėžys is the 5th biggest city of Lithuania and home to almost 93,000 inhabitants. It is located at the same distance to the Capital Vilnius as to Latvia’s Capital Riga. The city structure sees a divide between residential areas and areas for work, local economy and leisure to a larger extend. Consequently, traffic volumes between these areas are high and concentrate to more than half of all trips on car traffic. Often enough the built environment is not equipped for this level of car traffic. Residential areas see car parking misusing public space of any kind and hot spots outside of regulated parking areas meet similar situations, too. Areas neighbouring the parking management zone in the very centre face an additional load of motorists avoid the centre to access unlimited parking options.