Place Make the Vote: Designing for Voter Participation and Civic Engagement

Abstract

Place Make the Vote, a project spearheaded by design studio City Fabrick for the 2016 elections in Long Beach, CA, used placemaking, tactical urbanism, art, music, food, and furnishings to create a fun, festival environment and build a sense of community at underserved polling places by encouraging people to interact with their neighbors and participate in civic life. This innovative project provides a model for successful civic engagement and encouragement of participatory democracy to create stronger, more resilient, and interconnected communities. The Place Make the Vote Toolkit extends the project’s reach beyond Long Beach by creating a scalable, adaptable, and customizable model for increasing civic engagement and voter participation in a variety of communities. It offers several strategies for improving the urban and civic environment, providing new opportunities for community to flourish through the deployment of decentralized, low-cost, low-tech, quick, and scalable urban interventions. These tactics aim to transform civic spaces by utilizing input from community members, local political leaders, and educational and cultural institutions to increase voter turnout, build community, activate public space, and promote civic engagement more broadly.

Keywords: Placemaking, Tactical Urbanism, Civic Engagement, Voter Participation

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007730