August 11, 2010
A group of downtown Council Bluffs advocates is partnering with Omaha by Design and the Neighborhood Center to host a Place Game workshop Thursday, Aug. 19. The event will be held from 6:00 to 8:00pm in the banquet room on the upper level of Barley’s, 114 West Broadway.
The Place Game, a free service of Omaha by Design, is a fun, easy and organized way of brainstorming potential improvements to public spaces by listening to the people who use them. It was created by the Project for Public Spaces (PPS), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities.
Three areas within the community’s Historic 100 Block will be analyzed – the intersection of West Broadway and 1st Street, the alley on the north side of West Broadway and an area of underused public space on the north side of 1st Street. A group of business owners in the 100 Block, led by Matt Johnson of Barley’s, has begun meeting monthly to get to know one another and determine ways to pool their efforts to continue improving the area.
Starting with the Aug. 19 workshop, the Council Bluffs office of the Neighborhood Center will begin offering the Place Game workshop to Council Bluffs neighborhood associations and civic groups. To set up a Place Game in Council Bluffs, contact Ryan Willer at 402.290.0545 or rwiller@unomaha.edu.
In 2010, all groups that complete a Place Game workshop and apply for grant funding will receive a free tree from Omaha by Design as well as assistance with site selection and planting. Omaha by Design conducts Place Game workshops free of charge from March through October. For more information, call 402.554.4010 or email info@omahabydesign.org.