Author page: Vanja Pantic

We find ourselves consistently impressed by the types of projects launched on our platform. In this inspirational series, we’ll spotlight some of the innovative ways governments and organizations around the world are activating and engaging their communities virtually. Let’s dive in!  The City of Arlon rethinks parking spaces 🇧🇪 Parking...

July 2021 was a month full of extreme weather. Around the world, cities of all sizes were ravaged by natural disasters. Unprecedented heat waves in places like Canada and Finland; fires devastating Siberia, the U.S., and Turkey; and flooding sweeping away communities in Belgium, Germany, and China have painted vivid...

Around the world, people seem to be breathing a collective sigh of relief as cities liven up with a renewed sense of hope. But the road to this point, after a year of loss and hardship, has not been easy. And often, cities were at the forefront of addressing some...

Public spaces should be equitably distributed, open to everyone, and inclusively designed. It’s no wonder that many urban planning processes now focus on placemaking, the people-centered approach to planning and design of public spaces.  The inequities of community development were hard to ignore in 2020. Whether you lived close to...

Our cities are as diverse as ever, and most local governments are responding by becoming increasingly inclusive. But even the best-intentioned local governments found themselves scrambling at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which sparked frequent changes to local guidelines. In the process, one of the jarring inclusion gaps that...

Traditional, top-down governance systems are increasingly challenged by more collective, consensus-oriented approaches. This means that we’re seeing more non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working actively in consortium with local governments or launching community engagement projects themselves to increase civic participation.    This uptick in organizational involvement has resulted in the creation of several...