Throughout this final quarter of the year, the URBACT Local Groups (ULGs) in each city have been deeply involved in a series of collaborative meetings. These sessions have served as a valuable forum for co-creating Integrated Action Plan (IAP) visions and objectives and defining the Small Scale Actions (implemented already in some cities like Krakow and Granada).
Fourth transnational meeting in Cesena
Cities@Heart organised the fourth URBACT transnational network meeting in Cesena, Italy, delving into the city's initiatives aimed at enhancing the livability and identity of its historic centre. The visits provided a deeper appreciation of the city’s rich heritage and its integration into the urban landscape, underscoring the importance of culture in fostering vibrant, inclusive communities.
A selection of Cesena’s good practices:
Market rebranding
The Wednesday and Saturday street market, which is experiencing an important phase of renewal generated by the natural generational turnover, is at the center of a branding and marketing project. The new graphic design and slogan "Where the city meets" is part of a project by the municipal administration and trade associations to renew street furniture, remove architectural barriers, and replace damaged pavements along Viale Mazzoni. The goal is to revitalize the market’s identity, ensuring it endures over time. This initiative aims to enhance the market's image, modernize the area, improve accessibility, and boost the visibility of services and products, increasing its appeal to operators, customers, residents, and tourists alike.
Coordinated events calendar
In the municipality of Cesena, several events are coordinated through various public calls; in particular, the summer events call, the winter events call and the tourism call. These are public notices in which the municipality provides funding to businesses and associations that pass the selection process, which are responsible for organizing activities in both the historic center and the outskirts.
In addition to the funding, the municipality helps coordinate these events, the shared calendar across sectors provides a clear view of all events throughout the year, leading to better coordination and fewer overlaps. By coordinating all these cultural, gastronomic, sports, and volunteer events, the goal is to develop a unified strategy for activating the historic center.
Abaco: aesthetic guidelines for public space
Abaco improves the quality of the city center by balancing public spaces between commercial use and citizens' needs while preserving cultural and architectural heritage. The Abaco manual integrates the Regulation of Public Land Occupation (Soprintendenza), identifies designated portions of squares, porches, and streets in the city center for bars' and restaurants' serving areas and specifies the required furniture, materials, and colors for each area. Abaco offers a comprehensive view of different areas, addresses post-COVID rebalancing of squares, aligns regulations with the national Code of Cultural Heritage, and simplifies the application process for restaurant and bar owners, extending permit duration from one year to five.
The Quarter’s Thematic Webinars
Our Last-Mile Logistics webinar was a great introduction to current urban logistics challenges and new innovations we need to live locally and globally-connected cities. Laetitia Dablanc, Professor at Université Gustave Eiffel and Head of the Logistics City Chair presented best practices and lessons from European cities illustrating the role last-mile logistics play in integrated and sustainable urban development. According to Dablanc, “city logistics represents more than the mere transportation of goods within urban areas. It can be defined as any service provision contributing to efficiently managing the movements of goods in cities and providing innovative responses to customer demands (City Logistics).
During the webinar, Cities@Heart proposed how cities and companies can improve the current system
Logistics Spatial Planning
Vehicle specialization
Curbside Management
Embracing New Technologies
Low-Emission Zones (LEZs)
Off-Peak Hour Deliveries
Find the full article on Last-Mile Logistics here.
December’s Cities@Heart Thematic Webinar on inclusion provided a thought-provoking exploration of how cities can better serve the diverse needs of women, children, and the elderly. Marina Milosev, key contributor to the London Legacy Development Corporation’s Handbook Creating places that work for Women and Girls, Urban Planner and Specialist in Gender-Sensitive Urban Design, presented the overall context and challenges which make the case for a gender-aware approach.
Braga's Ciclo Expresso programme to encourage green mobility for schoolchildren in the city centre
Following this introduction, three case studies were presented. The first explored how to design for children and incorporate them into the design process in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, Paris. The second focused on creating welcoming streets for older adults in Barcelona. Lastly, the third case study examined how to shift transportation modes to make schools healthier and more accessible for everyone in Braga. Together, these expert contributions inspired us to envision and build cities that truly work for everyone.
The Mid-Term Review
The Mid-Term Review (MTR) highlights the network's progress, supported by the Lead Partner, Lead Expert and URBACT Secretariat. Despite partners' positive perceptions of the knowledge activities implemented so far, challenges such as bureaucracy, stakeholder engagement, and limited political backing risk delaying IAPs. To address this, the network is focusing on enhancing stakeholder involvement, political support, and capacity-building activities to overcome resource and coordination challenges.
Next year, the network will prioritize tailored knowledge-sharing products and improved monitoring frameworks to strengthen integrated urban development. Building on successful collaborations with peer networks, efforts will focus on creating synergies, enhancing digital tools, and fostering independent exchanges to deliver sustainable and inclusive city centre revitalization strategies.
The full quarterly report is available on our URBACT page in PDF and interactive formats.
