Tuesday 13th May 2025 evening was the first (23 to go) Ville de Luxembourg neighborhood town-halls . . . that follow-up on VdL’s inspiring November 2025 Ideation Workshop and VdL’s 24-neighborhood-districts “Apéri’tours. At the 3-day Ideation Workshop, citizen-led volunteer teams from all 24 neighborhood districts of the capital gathered to share visions, pain-points, and proposals for re-imagining urban life. Looking through the United Nations SDG-11 prism (Make Cities and Human Settlements inclusive + safe + resilient & sustainable) . . . here are a few highlights:
Cents – The Launchpad for a New Civic Spirit?
Cents’ Schwaarzt Haus community-hall was filled with neighbors + Alderwomen & Aldermen (listed alphabetically: Échevins Maurice Bauer + Simone Beissel + Corinne Cahen + Patrick Goldschmidt) and Ville de Luxembourg Mayor Lydie Polfer.
Along all the walls of the Hall were easy-to-read pages from the Cents neighborhood’s qualitative evaluation report . . . from the Ville de Luxembourg’s Apéri’tour. You can download the 24-page 🇫🇷French-language Évaluation PDF: https://www.vdl.lu/sites/default/files/media/ni/document/CENTS%20-%20Evaluation%20qualitative.pdf). Here is information on 2024’s VdL Apéri-tours: https://www.vdl.lu/en/city/get-involved/2024-year-citys-24-districts/aperitours-are-back.
Cents residents highlighted themes that align serendipitously with a citizen-led “CENT(s)ral Park” proposal:
▷ desire for nature, calm, and space for inter-generational interaction
▷ traffic-calming + speed-calming + parking-calming
▷ shared gathering points
The CENT(s)ral Park addresses every one of these. It makes space. It reconnects people. It calms noise with music . . . replaces asphalt with plants . . . and instead of separation? Presence. At last November’s Ideation Workshop, a longtime Cents resident pitched her dream: CENT(s)ral Park . . . a participatory public space with . . .
▷ a Rodelbahn (recreational slide/sledding track)
▷ concerts
▷ a mobile buvette (refreshment kiosk)
▷ a multi-generational garden
What did I see? I saw an SDG-imagination Youth4planet engine.
What questions follow me now? Here are 7:
▷ can we design citizen-led public spaces . . . that live up to our nation’s agreed adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development?
▷ if CENT(s)ral Park were framed explicitly around SDG targets . . . including Participatory Urban Planning (SDG 11.3) . . . would this vision move “faster” from last night’s applause to incarnation?
▷ to the EU Climate Pact Benelux Pact family: What if every neighborhood meeting across Luxembourg (and the BeNeLux and Europe) were also a micro-climate assembly?
▷ what tools do we need to scale bottom-up visions like the CENT(s)ral Park . . . into measurable Carbon Savings and Resilience Metrics?
▷ to Youth4planet stakeholders: how can we help amplify stories like this one . . . and inspire other VdL neighborhood districts?
▷ What would intergenerational stewardship look like . . . when local youth + adults & elders co-steward their space?
▷ how do you see CENT(s)ral Park as a launchpad for upskilling, inclusion and well-being in the Cents community?
▷ What are your questions? Email me: christian@youth4planet.org
MERCI Villmols Échevins Maurice Bauer + Simone Beissel + Corinne Cahen + Patrick Goldschmidt and Ville de Luxembourg Mayor Lydie Polfer for this opportunity to see co-construction town-halls . . . of civics + joy + health + community + Decency . . . in action.
Useful links:
Ville de Luxembourg Calendar for Follow-up Town-Hall Meetings https://www.vdl.lu/fr/actualites/quartiersplang-aperitours-la-suite
Ville de Luxembourg Facebook page for Cents Town-hall https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=Ville.de.Luxembourg&set=a.1058818422941578
United Nations SDGs . . . all 17 Goals https://sdgs.un.org/goals
Ville de Luxembourg’s “The Apéri’tours are back! https://www.vdl.lu/en/city/get-involved/2024-year-citys-24-districts/aperitours-are-back
Cycling Embassy of Denmark’s “Safe Cyclists start with Cycling Games” https://www.cyklistforbundet.dk/english/cycling-games
Healthy Streets online assessments:
▷ qualitative = choose “Feeling Survey” to the top question “How healthy is my street?” https://surveys.healthystreets.com/
▷ quantitative (choose “Measurement Survey” to the top question “How healthy is my street?”) assessments: https://surveys.healthystreets.com/
Download Youth4Planet Ambassador Christian Thalacker’s 3rd December 2024 Liveable Cities presentation PDF to Ville de Luxembourg https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lQ_W3wKcM_50EgccSjXbrmYamgEMghVJ/view?usp=sharing
