The Limits of 'Kickstarter Urbanism'

Kickstarter, as Alexandra Lange noted in a recent article on Design Observer, is good at taking cool designs for watches or bike seats from idea to reality. But though the crowd-sourced fundraising website is also being used as a platform to build up funding for larger, city-focused projects, Lange argues that "Kickstarter urbanism" is not really possible.

One particularly notable example she points to is the so-called LowLine, a project aimed at turning an abandoned underground trolley terminal in Manhattan into a new public park. The project received more than $155,000 in support on Kickstarter – surpassing its goal. And while the idea of creating the park is grand, the results of this successful fundraising campaign will be much smaller and more pragmatic, mainly focusing on developing the cool fiber optic design that will help bring sunlight down into what's currently a dank underground.