Playfulness is a great incubator of ideas.
Here are some cool urban design projects going on that were set up to capture the public's creativity.
ReConnect invited proposals -- serious or frivolous -- for the future of Vancouver's viaducts and the Eastern Core. People from 13 countries sent ideas in. Vote on your favourites here.
This Space asked Strathcona residents to vote on a sustainable business that would fill an empty space in their neighbourhood. They went for a food store selling local products, and now they want votes on what to name it: http://thisspace.ca/?p=1464
In North Vancouver a local cafe owner, on his own coin, has got the community involved in "design jams"that have mobilized City Council to throw in some money to keep them going: http://www.nsnews.com/news/story.html?id=5740193
