Tactical Urbanism / Pop-up Urbanism

is an umbrella term used to describe a collection of low-cost, temporary changes to the built environment, usually in cities, intended to improve local neighbourhoods and city gathering places. Tactical Urbanism is also commonly referred to as guerilla urbanism, pop-up urbanism, city repair, or D.I.Y. urbanism.

The term was developed in 2010 by Mike Lydon of Street Plans Collaborative, who have created guide books and planned interventions to inspire individuals to take personal responsibility in creating sustainable buildings, streets, neighborhoods, and cities.

The Street Plans Collaborative defines Tactical Urbanism as an approach to urban change that features the following five characteristics:

1. A deliberate, phased approach to instigating change;

2. The offering of local solutions for local planning challenges;

3. Short-term commitment and realistic expectations;

4. Low-risks, with a possibly high reward; and

5. The development of social capital between citizens and the building of organizational capacity between public-private institutions, non-profits, and their constituents.

How does this affect Main Street?

The great thing about tactical urbanism is that anyone, anywhere, at anytime can do it. There is no application process or certification to become a tactical urbanist. You simply identify issues in your downtown and create low-cost, quick solutions to test out your ideas for solving those problems. It's great way to experiment before investing larges amounts of money into projects like streetscape updates, bike lanes, public spaces, etc.  Below are several guide books to get you started. Best part, they are FREE. 

Find example projects here: http://www.street-plans.com/

Tactical Urbanist's Guide to Materials and Design - http://tacticalurbanismguide.com/

Other organizations beyond Street Plans Collaborative promote this idea of lighter, quicker, cheaper projects including:

• Build a Better Block- http://betterblock.org/how-to-build-a-better-block/

• Project for Public Places - https://www.pps.org/

• People for Bikes' Quick Builds for Better Streets guide - http://www.peopleforbikes.org/blog/entry/new-report-a-nine-ingredient-recipe-for-fast-flexible-changes-to-city-stree

Tactical Urbanism in Texas Main Street 

Rhythm of the Streets - San Marcos 

San Marcos created an interactive event using tactical urbanism techniques as a way to  demonstrate possible downtown amenities and experiences that could be incorporated into the rewrite of their local Land Development Code and Transportation Master Plan. Code rewrites and master planning typically take place in a board room and on paper. This event brought to life some of the elements that will improve the downtown experience and served as an engaging way for the community to express their wants and needs.

The day’s activities will included:

• an interactive open house at the vacant OST Liquor building to kick-off the Transportation Master Plan Update and the Code SMTX land development code rewrite projects

• a portion of South LBJ Drive from Martin Luther King Drive to Hopkins Street was transformed into “two-way for a day” through the use of temporary street striping to designate distinct, bold lines for bike lanes and more prominent crosswalks

• streetlights and crosswalks were synced to accommodate traffic and appropriate roadway signage were installed to facilitate the street conversion

• bicycle tune-ups and activities were featured on the east side of the Courthouse Square on LBJ Drive

• a temporary “parklet” was installed at the corner of San Antonio and LBJ Drive

• an “Urban Oasis” experience was set up at a cool-down pop-up park at 150 S. LBJ and featured free snow cones and yard games

• a pet adoption event also took place at a local business, Stinky Dawg

• an Art Bazaar was set up at the corner of LBJ and MLK Drives and was open for artists and retailers to set up shop

The event was presented by the City of San Marcos Development Services, Public Services-Transportation, and Engineering & Capital Improvements Departments and Main Street. It was coordinated with another event, Foodstock, a live music and community event, as well as the Farmer’s Market.  Volunteers were utilized for every part of the event and the City also accepted donations for materials for the different pop-up installations. See more here.

Parking Day - Brownsville 

Main Street Brownsville partnered with buildingcommunityWORKSHOP [bc] to create a local event for PARK(ing) Day, a global event where citizens, artists, and activists collaborate to temporarily transform  parking spaces into temporary public places for people to enjoy instead of cars.  Main Street Brownsville and [bc] solicited participation from local designers and various Downtown Brownsville businesses and organizations to take part in PARK(ing) Day by transforming metered parking spaces in front of their establishments. 

Better Block Texarkana 

Better Block Texarkana was a project designed to give the residents of Texarkana, USA a picture of what downtown Texarkana could be.  Main Street Texarkana and volunteers brought thousands to downtown to see vacant buildings filled with retail shops, food and children's activities. For one day over 40 business opened up shop along Broad Street, and thousands of live plants were placed up and down the street. It resulted in at least three new businesses in the area and others under consideration.