Networks and cities' news

How virtual hackathon draw Pärnu closer together

Pärnu is well known as summer tourism attraction: city center with its lovely parks and the resort area with its famous sandy beach and promenade invite tourists for long walks. You can spot remnants of distant Middle Ages, the elegant early years of the resort, the unforgettable Soviet era and the fast-paced modern development.

SDG Story: Glasgow

Glasgow’s Vision for 2030

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.

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.

SDG Story: Schiedam

Safe, Connected and Resilient.