Public safety

Active sidewalks help make a place feel and be safer.

Learn more about our approach to placemaking and mobility

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People can only be comfortable in places where they feel safe. Places that feel unsafe (even if they are in fact safe) will deter visitors and residents from walking freely around their neighborhood, from patronizing their local businesses, and from participating in the public life of their community.

Community Design Group's approach to addressing and improving public safety centers on two core beliefs: that an environment that increases connection between people can ease mistrust and increase comfort and safety; and that the choices made in the design process can result in the creation of spaces that encourage or discourage illicit activity.

Our community organizing practice employs an arts-based community development approach that fosters opportunity for the creation of community-owned places and spaces.

Our design practice responds to and includes consideration of CPTED best practices. CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) is a safety strategy formulated on the premise that the proper design and effective use of the physical environment can lead to a reduction in crime, and to the creation of safer, more comfortable and more inviting places in our cities.