It's one of life's great mysteries: you can travel to a thousand cities
and eat at a hundred fancy restaurants and drink a dozen craft beers at
each of the bars along the way. But a meal never tastes as good as one
at your favorite neighborhood haunt. And according to Philadelphia's sustainability leaders, this phenomenon is not just good
for your appetite, it can be good for your neighborhood and your city as
well.
Based on a concept created by the
William Penn Foundation,
partners from the
Sustainable Business Network,
Azavea and
NPower created
Common Space, a new mapping platform that creates a network of
neighborhood establishments within a certain walkable, bikeable or busable distance to help residents support local business.
"The really cool thing is, I can map my friend's common space as well as my own," says SBN Executive Director Leanne Krueger-Braneky. "So if I am leaving from my office in Center City and meeting my husband who is coming from our house in West Philadelphia, he could say he is going to bike for 15 minutes and I could say I was going to walk for 20 minutes and Common Space will map the area where we would be able to meet up and map local culture events and businesses in that field."
Partnering with tastemakers like
UWISHUNU and
Yelp, Common Space shows you the best spots in your transit area, allowing you the most sustainable way possible to hit your next favorite haunt. After their trial run, organizers hope to partner with citywide festivals and cultural events like LiveArts and Philly Beer Week.
"Sustainability was one of the values William Penn outlined, which is why they wanted to partner with us," Krueger-Braneky says. "Because the application does encourage walking, biking, and public transit, it's a way of showing what's going on in the city while encouraging alternative transit."
Source: Leanne Krueger-Braneky, SBN
Writer: John Steele