Neighborhood Level Place is built from multiple Interior and Site Level Places throughout a neighborhood or district such as a downtown. The means of connection, whether physical connection or social connection, adds further meaning and identity to the larger Place. For example, the streetwall and the streetscape can both serve as neighborhood physical connections. Programmed activities or events such as parades, scripted walking tours, or district wide business promotions can serve as neighborhood social connections. Strong Neighborhood Level Places are dependent on strong Interior and Site Level Places. Strong connections are not enough.

To refresh, Placemaking includes action that preserves and tells stories, reflects values, supports experiences, personalizes or enables temporary and sustainable change, increases mindfulness, or makes the space more legible and memorable. Neighborhood Level Placemaking could thus involve preserving and telling the story of the neighborhood’s ethnicity and cultural traditions. Placemaking should reflect neighborhood cultural values and norms such as valuing sustainability or creative expression. Neighborhood Level Placemaking could strive to offer both visitors and residents experiences that engender positive feelings such as hosting neighborhood block parties.

Placemaking at the Neighborhood Level can and should allow residents to personalize and enable temporary and sustainable change such as changeable customized banners, planters, and neighborhood garden space. Personalization of sidewalks and quasi-public front yard, porch, patio, and balcony spaces is also Placemaking. Because of its’ scale, the Neighborhood may already stimulate all senses. The challenge may be overstimulation, raising the need to cue and aid the visitor to slow down. Therefore, a Neighborhood Level Placemaking strategy could be to create mindfulness zones; locations to relax, to contemplate art including literature, to journal, etc. Scale also increases the importance of actions to make the Neighborhood more legible.

Transforming Neighborhood Level space to a Place for neighborhood residents, visitors, and the larger community can result in a Place that is greater than the sum of the individual Places that serve as parts. For a commercial district, this can result in visitors spending more time shopping the district rather than shopping a single destination business; allowing business to share customers. Achieving Neighborhood Level Place is also a key community economic development strategy for improving quality of life.

On the physical side, Neighborhood Level Placemaking targets neighborhood physical connections to improve the chances for neighborhoods to transform into Places. Examples of neighborhood physical connection research, tools, and services to support your Neighborhood Level Placemaking efforts include:

• Form-based zoning/codes and their role in shaping the streetwall and Neighborhood Level Place
• Quality streetscape design and its role as a unifying/connecting element of Neighborhood Level Place
• Brand and branded physical elements as a connecting element of Neighborhood Level Place
• Tools for measuring Neighborhood Level footfall and dwell time
• Neighborhood Level Observational Research/Immersion Guides
• First Impressions (physical elements)
• Intercept Surveys
• Design Wisconsin

---

On the social side, Neighborhood Level Placemaking targets neighborhood social connections to improve the chances for neighborhoods to transform into Places. Examples of neighborhood social connection research, tools, and services to support your Neighborhood Level Placemaking efforts include:

• Tying programming to culture, cultural history and market position
  • Programming guides for cooperative activities/events (e.g., Neighborhood wide retail promotions)
  • Economic (and other) impact measurement tools for cooperative activities/events
  • Tracking changes in Sense of Place/Place Attachment following a scripted event or personalization activity

• The role of adjacent/surrounding Places (residential, office, retail/service, maker) collectively providing the experiences for larger public Places such as plazas and town squares
  • The Place dynamic of outdoor residential and office amenities (the porch factor; also front yard, driveway, patio, and balcony)
  • The Place dynamic of outdoor dining/drinking
  • The Place dynamic of outdoor residential and office amenities (the porch factor; also front yard, driveway, patio, and balcony)

• The art and science of business mix and location: anchors, niches, clusters
  • Neighborhood Level Observational Research/Immersion Guides
  • First (or Second) Impressions (social elements)
  • Niche Development
  • Building and Space Usage
  • Business Recruitment (Attraction)
  • Support Entrepreneurship

• Districtwide Market Research Tools
  • Trade Area Analysis
  • Demographics & Lifestyle Analysis
  • Business Owners Survey
  • Consumer Survey
  • Focus Groups
  • Peer Community Comparison

• Neighborhood comparative and trend market research

---

Neighborhood Level Placemaking is often championed by neighborhood level community organizations such as Main Street Programs, Business Improvement Districts, and Neighborhood Improvement Districts. Examples of research, tools, and services about and for these organizations include:

• Capacity Building Tools for Neighborhood level community organizations (e.g., sample operating plans, position descriptions, bylaws)
• Main Street Program success engaging people in downtown revitalization (volunteering their time and money) as a result of Place attachment