The city creative : the rise of urban placemaking in contemporary America In the wake of the Great Recession American cities from Philadelphia to San Diego saw an upsurge in hyperlocal placemaking small scale interventions aimed at encouraging greater equity and community engagement in growth and renewal. Michael H. Carriere and David Schalliols study of micro interventions at more than 200 sites in 39 cities combines archival research participant observation interviews site visits and powerful documentary photography. They find that formal and informal placemaking has become firmly entrenched as a mid level policy bridging local community development with regional economic master plans and they provide a kaleidoscopic overview of how such initiatives grow and sometimes collapse