Photo credit: Michael Bolden

One of the most prevalent themes among the 358 entries to this year’s Knight Green Line Challenge was a hunger to improve public spaces in St. Paul, Minn. Applicants longed for more inviting streets and welcoming spaces that encourage lingering with friends and strangers alike. We believe this year’s cohort of 12 winners will help fulfill that need.

Several of the winning projects involve rapid prototyping. Jason Roberts and his Better Block wiki-block project – modeled on the WikiHouse movement – will develop the tools for everyone to participate in reshaping their city. Working in coalition with the Friendly Streets Initiative, Team Better Block will generate templates for all types of temporary street furniture, print them at the Science Museum and make them available publicly so that anyone with some time and spare wood can produce their own snap-together creations.

The Saint Paul Riverfront Corp. will adapt San Francisco’s successful Market Street Prototyping Festival to St. Paul’s river balcony. An open design competition will source the best ideas to improve public life; they’ll be installed and tested, and the results will help inform a long-term plan for a vibrant civic walkway on the river balcony.

Groups aren’t the only winners. Individual civic innovators will receive support for projects that include a new bike tool station at the intersection of the Griggs and Charles bikeways, crowd-sourced temporary wayfinding signage, and adding chairs and tables to downtown streets to encourage office workers to eat their lunches outside.

All of the winning projects have one thing in common: a belief in the potential of St Paul and a desire for the city to succeed. We believe that their projects will help create more vibrant neighborhoods alongside the light rail Green Line, and we’re excited to work, and learn, alongside them.

Thank you to everyone who submitted an idea, even if you didn’t win. Your passion for St. Paul was apparent, and we know you’ll continue working to make the city more successful. Thank you, also, to our dedicated community readers and partners who helped us promote the challenge and evaluate the applications.

Another funding opportunity, the Knight Cities Challenge, opens for applications Thursday, Oct. 1. And we are always interested in hearing new ideas that align with our strategy to advance talent, opportunity and engagement in St Paul. Sign up for our email newsletter to stay in touch with our work.

George Abbott is special assistant to the vice president for community and national initiatives and interim program director for St. Paul at Knight Foundation. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @garthurabbott. Green line photo by Michael D. Bolden.Knight Green Line Challenge Winners 2015

Charles and Griggs Bikeway Tool Station

Erin Pavlica, $4,410

To install a bike tool station at the intersection between the Charles Avenue and Griggs Avenue bikeways where riders and residents can stop, connect and learn more about bike maintenance

E=MC2

We Lighting LLC, $45,000

To strengthen the connection between downtown and the Mississippi River by creatively lighting the Sibley underpass

Friendship Forest

Amanda Lovelee, $43,000

To catalyze civic involvement by engaging a diverse group of residents in the planting of 500 trees in a new ‘friendship forest’

Improved Walkability through Signage

Matt Privratsky, $23,250

To encourage neighborhood exploration by installing new, more engaging wayfinding signs

Johnny Baby’s Rondo Park

Johnny Baby’s, $60,000

To transform an underutilized parking lot into a relaxing, green gathering space for Rondo residents, bikers and Green Line riders

Little Africa Cultural Corridor

African Economic Development Solutions, $60,000

To create a shared vision, action plan and design standards for the Little Africa corridor

Living Landmarks

Minnesota Historical Society, $35,723

To offer a series of new, community-led walking tours highlighting the unique strengths and qualities of Green Line neighborhoods

Mind if I Sit Here?

Heather Cole, $8,000

To promote interaction between friends and strangers by inviting people to take part in brown-bag conversations at roving bistro tables throughout downtown St. Paul

River Balcony Prototyping Festival

Saint Paul Riverfront Corporation, $100,000

To engage the community in a prototyping festival that helps develop a vibrant public life on St. Paul’s River Balcony

Rock the Public Meeting

St Paul Smart Trips, $45,000

To bring fresh ideas to transportation planning along the Green Line through creative, youth-led Frogtown neighborhood engagement activities

Rondo Commemorative Plaza and Garden

Rondo Ave, Inc., $75,000

To install technology designed to harvest and retell residents’ oral histories in this new public space

St. Paul Better Block Wiki-Block

Team Better Block, $75,000

To develop, prototype and open-source templates for snap-together urban street furniture that can be produced by anyone to transform a street or neighborhood