Our Friday update here at kickstART farmington highlights some great articles we’ve read this week dealing with art, creative placemaking, and building great communities. You’re sure to find some inspiration to make your life and our community even better!

1. Remove Traffic Signals?: A critical element is to slow design speeds radically — comfortably below 20 miles per hour — so that pedestrians, bicyclists, cars, trucks, buses, and even handicapped people can mix in a continuously flowing dance.

2. An Illegal Lemonade Stand and Building Community: Our willingness to engage each other in community — to admit that we don’t exist in a vacuum and that our happiness and prosperity are inextricably linked to our relationships with others — is not optional.

3. The Instant Playground Game: Things happen when people are instigated to interact … If you’re walking down the street, or in a park, even when you want to talk to someone, sometimes you don’t do it. So the game itself was in a way an excuse for people to talk to other people.

4. Giving a Community a Soul: Neighborhoods that are widely considered charming or full of character are typically designed to make pedestrians feel cozy by having buildings that are attractive, human-scaled, and engaging to the street, and streets that are narrow and lined with appealing sidewalks.

5. Love is the Secret to a Happy Life: We are happiest when we have a place in the world, when we love and are loved, when we make the most of our gifts.