I came across this great report while working on a grant for a pop-up-park. The report helped me convey what I was looking to do to others in the office, as well as provided me with examples of other places that have been implementing similar ideas. Hope this is of help!

Tactical Urbanism – Short Term Action Long Term Change by MIKE LYDON/DAN BARTMAN/RONALD WOUDSTRA/AURASH KHAWARZAD (Attached in full below).

THE CHALLENGE
City planners and public leaders are frequently preoccupied with making large-scale, transformative change in the built environment. While stadiums, museums, large waterfront parks, and convention centers are all big-ticket items with measurable curb appeal—for some—such  projects require a substantial investment of time, as well as political, social, and fiscal capital. Moreover, their long term economic or social benefit cannot be guaranteed.

In the pursuit of progress, citizens are typically invited to engage in a process that is fundamentally broken: rather than being asked to  contribute to incremental change at the neighbohood or block level, residents are asked to react to proposals that are often conceived for
interests disconnected from their own, and at a scale for which they have little control. In the pursuit of resilient neighborhoods, cities, and metropolitican regions, surmounting the challenges inherent to this “public” process continues to prove difficult. Fortunately, alternative
tactics are available and ready for deployment.

TACTICAL URBANISM
Improving the livability of our towns and cities commonly starts at the street, block, or building scale. While larger scale efforts do have their place, incremental, smallscale improvements are increasingly seen as a way to stage more substantial investments. This approach allows a host of local actors to test new concepts before making substantial political and financial commitments. Sometimes sanctioned, sometimes not, these actions are commonly referred to as “guerilla urbanism,” “popup  urbanism,” “city repair,” or “D.I.Y. urbanism.” For the moment, we like “Tactical Urbanism,” which is an approach that features the following five characteristics:
• A deliberate, phased approach to instigating
change;
• The offering of local solutions for local planning
challenges;
• Short-term commitment and realistic expectations;
• Low-risks, with a possibly a high reward; and
• The development of social capital between citizens
and the building of organizational capacity between public-private institutions, non-profits, and their constituents.
While the term is not our own, we do believe it best describes the various initiatives surveyed herein. …..

Tactical Urbanism