99 Ideas for Making Your Town More Playful from CM

As summer approaches, you may be looking for ways to make your neighborhood, town, or city more fun and engaging. If you are, our friends at CommunityMatters have a ton of ideas for way you can do that!

CM recently shared two posts (here and here) with ideas for making your space more engaging and out of the ordinary. So to help give you food for thought for the summer months, we put the lists together below. They also hosted a conference call about it called Creating Fun Places that you can listen to here.

We hope these ideas will get your creative juices flowing and help you make your summer more interesting! Thanks to CM staffer Caitlyn Horose for putting all of these together!

75 Seriously Fun Ways to Make Your Town More Playful

1. Join the CommunityMatters conference call on play and placemaking
2. Turn the subway into a swing set
3. Munch people with your eyes
   

   Photo credit: Audrey Penven

4. Turn your street into a Play Street
5. Let sidewalks be trampolines
6. Play pong with traffic lights
7. Transform a set of stairs into a piano
8. Give pedestrians the keys to your city
9. Host a hummingbirdman rally
10. Embed games in public seating
11. Think more like a roller coaster designer
12. Rethink the public library as a place for play
13. Start a citywide festival of play
14. Challenge people to try alternative transportation
15. Create a local currency, then turn it into a game
16. Get all ethereal and make a playground in the air
17. Install a swing just about anywhere
18. Make a plan for engaging your community in play
19. Give everyone on the street a nametag for a day
20. Turn your laundromat into an art studio
21. Paste silly thoughtbubbles in your neighborhood
22. Fix crumbling infrastructure with legos
23. Make cupcakes for strangers
24. Transform a bike lane into a video game
25. Knit your bridge
    

    Photo credit: flickr user Mr. T in DC

26. Create space for sharing compliments among friends
27. Organize a public play day
28. Play a massive game, like megasoccer
29. Try out tiny game, like dum-dum
30. Turn shopping into a game
31. Create a playground for adults
32. Make friends in a ball pit
33. Create a virtual block party
34. Turn a parking lane into a mini golf course
35. Use stickers to brainstorm new ideas
36. Pretend an urban space is way more wild
37. Use your smartphone to create a scavenger hunt wherever you are
38. Have more fun with bike paths. Can you say “Whoopdeedoo?”
39. Install playful public seating
40. Make your sidewalk sound like the ocean (or a farm)
41. Replace stairs with slides
42. Experiment with shadows
43. Stop littering with a fun trashcan
44. Play games with found bottlecaps
45. Transform bus stops into swingsets
46. Imagine a more playful playground
47. Use a public fountain as a pool
48. Pledge to be more playful
49. Start a DIY neighborhood summer camp
50. Share toys at a neighborhood gathering place
51. Play trash bin basketball
52. Build your own cardboard arcade
53. Reimagine bus stops
54. Turn your neighborhood into an art project
55. Organize a playground tour
56. Increase access to play
    

    Photo credit: Paul Krueger

57. Make your city a Playful City USA
58. Create a neighborhood golf course with help from a smartphone
59. Have fun with secret spaces
60. Paint those ugly utility boxes
61. Build a pop-up playground
62. Cause scenes with a prank collective inspired by Improv Everywhere
63. Add color to crosswalks
64. Soften your sidewalk
65. Rethink building facades
66. Install creative bike parking
67. Find a new use for that old phone booth
68. What’s more fun than a colorful piazza?
69. Paint a bridge like it is built with legos
70. Upgrade a chain-link fence
71. Write memories of childhood play all over your street
72. Create a pop-up play shop
73. Organize a street party
74. Add some life to your parking meters
75. Drats! We need one more idea to get to #75. Help us out by sharing your thoughts in the comments below!

That was the initial list. But then a few weeks later after lots of suggestions, CM came up with 25 more fun ideas:

25 (More) Ways to Make Your Town More Playful

1. Add cheer to the streets with tiny notes.
2. Host a temporary tattoo parlor.
3. Get out on the street with a popcorn machine. Idea from @wemakegood
4. Three words: Cardboard Animal Picnic. Inspired by Patrick McDonnell
5. Stop standing and start sitting with bench bombing.
6. Install a Givebox. Idea from @wanderingzito
7. Start a bell box mural project.
8. Conduct pointless surveys. Idea from @uncustomaryart
9. Put on a one man (or woman) flash mob. Another idea from @uncustomaryart
10. Build a treehouse for grownups.
11. Transform a decaying building into a folding public theater. Idea from @Kaid_at_NRDC
12. Use scaffolding as a place to linger.
13. Turn heartbeats into music.
14. Create a mini golf course in an empty parking lot.
15. Remind strangers that they are beautiful.
16. Play around with baggage carousels.
17. Establish Living Innovation Zones.
18. Install temporary, lego-like bike lanes.
19. Fill your city with friendly robotic trash cans.
20. Bubble your city.
21. Host a stilt walking tournament. Idea from Bill “Stretch” Coleman
22. Have a little fun with curb-side sewers.
23. Turn your alley into a movie theater. Idea from Debbie in Fort Collins, Colorado
24. Plant a vacant lot with cabbage. Lots of it. Idea from Barry Thomas
25. Host a chalk art festival. Idea from Kelli at KickstartFarmington.org

Still hungry for inspiration? Listen to our conference call on Creating Fun Places, featuring Mike Lanza of Playborhood and Brian Corrigan of Oh Heck Yeah.

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