The results of our work in 2020 are a set of design recommendations and prototypes addressing immediate needs for COVID-19 awareness campaigns, open air dining, and outdoor education and cultural programming. Several prototypes have now been implemented, and Van Alen Institute and the Urban Design Forum are actively fundraising to support additional implementation — with more than $100,000 regranted to community partners to date.
Neighborhoods’ needs also went beyond design and physical interventions. Working groups organized financial workshops for small businesses, drafted legal templates, and collaborated with senior staff at City agencies to help neighborhoods navigate programs like Open Streets and Open Restaurants.
Online Toolkit
To see the designs, guidelines, and strategies from the initiative’s first cohort, visit neighborhoodsnow.nyc, a digital toolkit featuring 40+ designs, strategies, and resources created by our Neighborhoods Now teams.
Browse by category or search by keyword for tools to aid community-based pandemic recovery. Detailed reports from each group, posted below, provide full context for each resource and greater insight into this collaborative, community-led process.
Social Distancing Signage
In collaboration with our community partners, three graphic design firms — Partner & Partners, Pentagram, and Two Twelve — created bold, colorful, and simple posters to convey COVID-19 safety protocols. Free to download, these posters encourage mask usage, social distancing, and hand-washing. There are 50+ posters available in Arabic, Bengali, English, and Spanish. Download as many as you like.