Are you familiar with hubs, havens or hangouts? If not, become more knowledgeable about these in your community, since they are there or may be around in the future. They have become part of community development in many locales. There is a need to consider how they fit in to downtowns and central business districts as well as rural communities in the Pocono-Northeast. They can be places to avoid loneliness and have been written up in a recent issue of “Planning,” the magazine of the American Planning Association. These new community words become avenues to pursue by local governments, whether in this region, or other places in the United States.
They are partially becoming a sensible answer to the loneliness plague caused by COVID-19 and the pandemic. How this process can best work is spelled out in the aforementioned article, but we can add value to the discussion by taking a look at this region and adding to the means by which our municipalities can add value to their role. The social infrastructure of the region can benefit from considering ways to prevent loneliness and utilize the above word accordingly.
The “Planning” article states that “for decades, we haven’t invested enough in the design and management of places where connections happen. … it’s time for planners, policymakers and designers to lead the way.”…