Part of that new system will run through the Transit Center, a huge, bland parking lot that could be put to better use. To come up with a new use for the space, the city will set up a parking lot diary and let resident feedback determine the shape and function of their new urban park.
Open a gallery in your living room. If you think your apartment is cramped, maybe all it needs is a few paintings on the wall: Paul Soto turned his square-foot apartment in Los Angeles into a functioning gallery. Take over an empty storefront.
Numerous neighborhood groups, artists, and local business groups have turned empty commercial spaces into canvases and economic catalysts.
From Project Pop Up , which hosted an array of displays and shops in abandoned Pittsburgh Storefronts some of which have become permanent tenants to initiatives such as Chashama and SmartSpaces in New York, creatives are breathing new life into these underutilized spaces.
Fix up your local park. Does barely functional equipment take the fun out of your local playground? Would new basketball courts or equipment make the park next door more enticing?
To help guide those seeking to get their public parks in tip-top shape, the Center for Urban Pedagogy created a guide for building coalitions, activating the community, and petitioning local government for change.
Build a pop-up playground. No city resident is too old to play, and no city space is too small to become a playscape, even if just for a few hours. Gather loose parts wood scraps, old tires, cardboard boxes, stones and sponsor a session of Pop-Up Adventure Play.
When people of all shapes, sizes and colors come together to play in unexpected ways, communities grow stronger.
Start an urban orchard. This is more of a long-term solution to supporting parks and local agriculture. Build swing sets for adults. An increasing number of cities and designers are providing adults with places to relax, recreate, and workout. Plan a pop-up dog park. Ask kids to help design their own playgrounds. Involving children in the creative process for local parks and playgrounds not only guarantees the end results will be more engaging to the end user, but also it fosters an early appreciation for design.
Firms such as Public Workshop are renowned for working with a much younger set of client when making play spaces a reality. Turn a parking space into a park. Bustling streets can do much more than handle automobile traffic.
The concept has even become city policy; the Ground Play program allows sponsors in San Francisco to test similar projects and turn some into permanent public spaces, as does the People Street initiative in LA.
Slow down. A study in confirmed these results, finding that speeding was the main factor in 31 percent of all traffic fatalities.
Better yet, petition your city to implement a " 20 is plenty " zone for dense urban areas—98 percent of pedestrians hit at that rate of speed will live. Give directions to your entire city.
With a mission to get more "feet on the street," the Walk Your City project promotes more conversational, community-oriented wayfinding. Map a minute walking circle around your house. Measure and draw a two-mile radius circle around your house to determine your " walkshed ," the places you can easily walk. Making your neighborhood safe for cycling is important, but shifting suburban commutes can make a massive difference in safety and larger transportation patterns.
Initiatives like the Family Friendly Bikeways program in Chicago help connect riders across local cities and towns. Truly everything can be shared. Even kayaks. Paddle to work. Bike share and ride share have become commonplace. But paddling to work is another thing entirely. In Minneapolis, a paddle share system lets commuters ride the Mississippi, traveling between two stations on the mighty river. Since the boat docks are connected to the city bike share system, it uses both modes of transportation to get you to work.
Organize a local car-free day. Every September 22 cities around the world participate in a global Car-Free Day , showcasing the possibilities of a more progressive commute and the advantages of walkable streets and biking infrastructure. Want to be inspired? Check out 14 beautiful car-free cities. Paint a pop-up bike lane. Rather than talk about the impact of new bike lanes on the Macon, Georgia, transportation network Better Block went ahead and brought the vision to life with the help of cans of paint and support from the city and the Knight Foundation.
Take the bus. Often times we avoid certain areas or simply stay within our comfort zone, but the true city dweller should attempt to reach all areas of the place they call home. You'll be surprised to find that not everything you read—both positive and negative—is true. Obey traffic laws. Pedestrians should pay attention while crossing busy streets.
Everyone: Follow the rules of the road. Bicycle to new parts of your city. Slow Roll, a community bike ride series that started in Detroit, gathers riders to interact and explore new parts of the city, promoting riding in new neighborhoods, as well as expansions of bike lanes and bike share systems into underserved areas. Form a bicycle-friendly district.
Protect your bike lanes with plants. Vancouver took the protected bikeway one step further, turning the typical painted lanes into a planted greenway. Using self-watering planters instead of utilitarian poles not only safely separates bikes from cars, it improves the streetscape for all its users.
Fix up your bus stop. Is there a more bland and boring seat than a typical urban bus stop, a functional, feckless box of plastic? These key parts of urban infrastructure desperately need an upgrade , and people around the world are taking action.
Community groups met that call to action with sharp redesigns, from Bus Stop Moves in Cleveland, which covers station walls with fitness instructions, or Ride, Rally, Ride in Memphis , which transforms transit stops into cycling hubs. Build your own bridge. Nobody is suggesting that you try to one-up Robert Moses, but even a small span can make a difference. New York artist and chief engineer Jason Eppink often walked beneath the leaky Hell Gate Bridge Viaduct which flooded the sidewalk with a large puddle of dirty water.
His satirical remedy, the Astoria Scum River Bridge , a miniature elevated wooden walkway, earned plaudits from locals, and eventually shamed the bridge owners into fixing the leaky pipes. Cyclehack vienna w. Host a transportation hackathon. Pedaling meets prototyping at the worldwide innovation workshop Cyclehack , which gathers designers and riders in cities around the globe to build and test new concepts for a better bike tech.
Transportation Camp is an annual "unconference" for tackling tough transit problems. Just r ide a bike. Yes, riding a bike really can save the world. According to a study by the University of California at Davis , shifting more urban trips to bicycling, and cutting car use accordingly, could reduce urban transportation CO2 emissions by 50 percent worldwide by That seems especially feasible when you consider that half of all urban trips are a very bikeable six miles or less.
Organize a park-and-pedal. They can improve our health with community gardens, walking clubs and walk-in health clinics. Today, we should all do all we can to activate our neighborhoods by encouraging neighborhood associations, empowering neighborhoods to positively impact the community, and provide a framework and support for grass-roots projects. Organized neighborhoods can connect people through neighborhood clubs, block parties and can use technology for staying in touch and sharing information.
We can work together and plant more trees, organize a tool lending library, and share our talents by offering classes and workshops. This is the America I want to live in, and it is right here in my own neighborhood.
Make a list of landlords in your area. As owners of property in the community, landlords are responsible to the neighborhood and should be concerned with the health of that neighborhood. You can easily find out the name and address of the owner of the property by contacting your county assessor's office, using the online property search tool.
Walk around the block. It sounds simple, but it is a great way to meet neighbors, and get to know your neighborhood while getting a little exercise. Walk at night if you are comfortable doing so, and if not, your neighborhood needs more involvement.
Chat with neighbors and kids while walking, they will get to know you too. Drive slowly through your neighborhood. Stop signs, lights and speed bumps can slow traffic down, but so can you. By regularly driving slowly on neighborhood side streets, you encourage those in a hurry to find another rout rather than getting stuck behind a slow poke. Pick up litter near your home. Even if you didn't put it there. Most people are less likely to litter where they don't see litter already.
You can help stop littering in your neighborhood by taking away the litter that attracts it. Pet owners should make sure they pick up after their pets. Organize a neighborhood watch group or some other type of neighborhood organization.
If you are willing, decide what greater contribution you could make. But every now and then I would come home to find that my neighbors husband had dragged in our trash cans to our side yard. And it was always when my husband was traveling. I remember pulling up to the house and having a big smile on my face because I knew it was one less thing for me to have to do.
Before you leave for the grocery store, call up your neighbor and ask if they need anything. There have been so many times I have been cooking or even getting ready for a party and I realize I am short an ingredient or two.
Fabulous neighbors will call you that morning and ask if you need anything at the grocery store. Cook and extra meal and bring it over. We also all go through times where we have illnesses, new babies, surgeries, family emergencies, deaths and more.
Bringing over a simple meal can mean everything to a person in need of help. The whole family will appreciate it and you will feel so good that you helped.
0コメント