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Healthy Cities during COVID-19; Accelerating from planning to action

By Dr.Sebastiaan van Herk, lead expert Healthy Cities, and Sofia Aivalioti, Ad Hoc Expert Healthy Cities

The COVID-19 pandemic that has sent the world into lockdown has also affected, but not derailed, progress towards building healthier cities. In fact, it’s only under confinement that many people truly took stock of their living environment - their homes, streets and neighbourhoods - and appreciated the value of accessible green spaces. It was also a time to (re)discover the importance of community and collective health: our health depends on the health of others. This places health at the centre of the debate when re-considering the priorities of urban planning. Out of the crisis, cities can build back better with much more support for city policies in greening, mobility and health, that may well have taken years to build up otherwise. In other words, they can work towards becoming a healthy city.

Promotion of neighbourhood communities – the key to cooperation between the municipality and residents

In the recent years, the idea of neighbourhoods has developed rapidly in Riga, targeted activities are organised, focusing the interests and needs of the community of a particular neighbourhood, several neighbourhood associations have been established. We invited for a conversation Guntars Ruskuls, the author of the implementation of the neighbourhood idea and platform, Head of the Strategic Management Board of the Riga City Council’s Department of City Development.

A Toolkit for Cities to promote Playful Activities in Schools

Insights for cities and policy-makers to design a strategy to involve Schools Institutions for promoting PLAY activities

"Sharing and connecting" - an effective way of Trapesa international meeting point to engage Espoo residents

With a slogan ‘sharing and connecting’ Trapesa international meeting point offers a neutral and unbiased environment for discussions, hobbies and learning, and its doors are open to all people regardless of their nationality, mother tongue, religion and cultural background. To explore the establishment and development of Trapesa, we had an interesting conversation with Raisa Lindroos, Secretary General of Filoksenia Association that is the driving force behind Trapesa. 

Mesta mestom: Umetniška četrt v Celju

V zadnjih desetletjih so tudi v Sloveniji v porastu umetniške iniciative, ki pogosto naseljujejo zapuščene in degradirane prostore. Te ne le ponovno odpirajo prostore skupnosti, temveč pomagajo tudi oblikovati organizacijske in socialne strukture, ki prej na območju niso bile prisotne. Redkejši
so primeri, kjer pobuda za oživitev praznih in degradiranih prostorov s kreativnimi vsebinami pride »od zgoraj« in je postavljena v sisteme
upravljanja lokalne oblasti. V Celju je bila tako občina tista, ki se je odločila ponuditi prazne objekte v najem celjskim umetnikom, kar je vodilo v osnovanje umetniške četrti, ki je sčasoma postala vozlišče in zatočišče ustvarjalcev različnih kreativnih dejavnosti.
 

Zmenil COVID-19 Novú Lipsku chartu ?

Interview Eddyho Adamsa (Lead Experta operačného programu URBACT) s Jonasom Scholze (generálnym riaditeľom Nemeckej asociácie pre bývanie, mestský a územný rozvoj) o dopade koronavírusu COVID-19 na Novú Lipsku chartu.