Mara Mintzer
Placemaking with Children and Youth - Episode 6
Cities are often shaped by experts, policy, and process.
But what happens when young people are trusted to help lead the work?
In this episode of The Sidewalk Ballet, we explore what cities can become when youth are treated not as voices to consult, but as collaborators to trust.
Part One: Child-Friendly Cities, with Mara Mintzer
We begin in Boulder, Colorado with Mara Mintzer, co-founder and Executive Director of Growing Up Boulder, a nationally recognized leader in youth civic engagement and child-friendly city practices.
Mara challenges a core assumption of city-building: that children are future citizens, rather than current ones. Through partnerships with city departments, schools, and community organizations, Growing Up Boulder has helped young people shape master plans, parks, transportation systems, and public spaces across the city.
Mara is also co-author of Placemaking with Children and Youth: Participatory Practices for Planning Sustainable Communities, a practical guide for youth-centered civic engagement.
Part Two: Youth-Led Libraries of the Future — NYC
The second half of the episode shifts to New York City and a team of fellows from the Urban Design Forum’s Forefront Fellowship Program.
Through a six-month, youth-centered research project, the team explored a simple but powerful question:
What could a library be if young people helped design it?
Working with teens across Manhattan and Brooklyn—including at the High Line and the Free Black Women’s Library in Bed-Stuy—the team built a process grounded in trust, collaboration, and care.
A Shared Thread
Across Boulder and New York, a common lesson emerges:
youth don’t just offer opinions — they offer clarity.
They help us see cities not as systems to manage, but as places to belong.
This episode is an invitation to rethink who we listen to, how we design, and what becomes possible when we trust young people to help shape our shared spaces.
Featured in this Episode
