By: Nina Peci –
Placemaking is everywhere and involves everyone, and it’s only intent is to promote people’s health, happiness, and wellbeing. It inspires people to reimagine the spaces they’re in everyday and look at the heart of their community in a different light. Lincoln has done a lot in the past few years to improve the community and make spaces for people to meet and socialize. This will lead to more community involvement and an increase in the creation of social clubs and groups.
Nick Hernandez is a passionate leader for placemaking in Lincoln, he holds community discussions, has input in the public policy of happiness, and runs a radio show called Community Matters, which he created with the intent of fostering conversations about human flourishing. “To me, placemaking is a mix of aesthetics, functionality, and activities that creates place attachment and a love for your community,” said Hernandez.
For those who have no clue on how to start placemaking in their own space, Hernandez has one piece of advice: use your strengths. He is a strong supporter of the Gallup Strengths Finder test and recommends everyone takes it. “When we work from the place of our strengths, we work from the place of our higher creativity, interests, and enthusiasm,” said Hernandez, “That is when we give our best efforts and hope to have a significant impact.”
Mayor Chris Beutler has taken great interest in placemaking and works hard on making Lincoln a welcoming place for all. In recent years he’s been taking a look at spaces that citizens rarely use and took it as an opportunity to create a space for the public to love and enjoy. “We have added new and exciting public spaces to our City,” said Beutler, “Those include the Arena and West Haymarket Area, Antelope Valley and Union Plaza, Tower Square and Gallery Alley. All of these spaces started with public investment, and a great deal of care went into the planning, design and management of these spaces.”
The Railyard was a big addition to Lincoln’s downtown, that space was largely ignored until the building of the Pinnacle Bank Arena began. Mayor Beutler saw it as an opportunity to create a space that can hold public events and be a meeting spot for friends, “Working together, we found a better use for this land, one that has transformed the area into a vibrant hub of activity.”
Making spaces throughout the community that citizens love is how people get attached to their community, they create memories and want to go back. Loving where you live is why you stay there, and for Mayor Beutler making sure that citizens love their City is a big priority.
“We judge the success of these efforts by how much the public has embraced these new spaces. Are these new spaces helping to promote health, happiness and well-being?” said Beutler. He is taking action to make sure that placemaking remains a priority and that citizens have an impact on their home, “We are adding a position in our City Planning department to focus on the creation and use of these important public spaces. This staff person will be reaching out to the public to get their ideas on how we can build on our placemaking efforts,” said Beutler.
Lincoln took a big step into placemaking in 2015 when they began the Illuminating Lincoln: Lighthouse Project to celebrate Lighthouse’s 25th anniversary. The six-foot light bulbs scattered around town are to represent illumination and are all designed by Nebraskan artists. These sculptures bring color and life all around the city and are an amazing way to showcase local talents. All these light bulbs were up for bid, two-thirds of the bid went to support Lighthouse.
Acknowledging and supporting programs like Lighthouse is important because they offer middle through high school academic support, meals, and recreational activities during non-school hours. They focus on education, enrichment of kids lives’, providing healthy food and exercise, as well as exposing the youth to community involvement opportunities. Lighthouse is the program through which Knighthouse is made possible. Placemaking is essential for youth, having a reliable and positive environment helps give kids structure and stability.
The average student will spend 7 to 9 hours at school every weekday, and those in clubs, extracurriculars, and sports often spend far more. Making sure students feel comfortable and enjoy the space they’re learning, socializing, and essentially growing up in is extremely important.
Getting involved in activities at your school can make or break your high school experience and for Senior, Ramey Vachal, being involved is what makes her have so much love for Southeast. She’s involved in theatre, band, student council, and National Honors Society.
“I really think [Southeast is] a school that fosters leadership,” said Vachal, “there’s really a lot of opportunities here. You can join any number of clubs and you’re really not limited with what you can do because there’s a huge amount of choirs, all different types of sports, all different types of clubs, no matter your political views or interests and hobbies, there’s anything for anyone.”
Although many students try to get involved, not everyone feels supported the same way. Sophomore, Payton Becwar is a student athlete and feels like her personality dictates how she’s treated. Becwar said, “When I’m in soccer I feel really supported and I love my team, but when I step out of my athletic, energetic personality, I’m a student and I get overwhelmed.”
She believes the school should put more effort into focusing on the diversity of ways students learn and make learning an experience rather than a routine. She’s involved in Feminist Club as well and appreciates the support she receives in the club and how much students get to run it while still getting things done. Although she sees the value in clubs she wishes everyone did as well, “Southeast has a lot of important activities focusing on real social issues,” said Becwar, “but at the end of the day it seems like the most important activity is always sports. Which is really sad- there’s so much more to this school than just sports.”
Southeast provides students with resources like the Chromebooks, the math help room, and recently have opened up the writing lab. Vachal really sees all the help the resources provide, she said, “This is an unpopular opinion but I like the Chromebooks because it helps save paper and it’s a faster way of communicating, and you can see all your coursework on the computer right there.” Although many new learning resources have been added, many students still feel we have a long ways to go before they feel comfortable learning.
Our most important resource, teachers, work hard to keep students engaged and class moving along but it’s often hard for students to stay on track with all their classes.
“Teachers do care and I think they deserve more appreciation,” said Becwar, “but they don’t always take the time to make sure everyone understands. I know they’re not supposed to babysit you but sometimes they just see zeros in the grade book instead of seeing a student that needs help.”
Public schools are an essential resource in American and all over the world that provide learning experiences many students wouldn’t have access to otherwise. Despite all the progress being made, placemaking in schools would provide for a better learning experience as well as improve students’ well-being, happiness, and health.