New bike lanes in downtown Albuquerque:
https://universeodon.com/@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org/114140865060041993
@GhostOnTheHalfShell @ai6yr @TheEffekt
This is the ethos of #StrongTowns: to build #antifragile communities that are economically sustainable, and optimized for people (not petroconsumption, like car #culture).
“Through the ’80s and ’90s, rising rates of childhood obesity tracked neatly with the decline of children walking and biking to school, leading some researchers to draw a connection.”
#urbanism #StrongTowns
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2024/09/school-drop-off-cars-chaos/679869/
What If… we could reimagine our future as thriving, fairer, more resilient and more connected? How could that vision help us to move forward and take practical action towards a better future?
Transition Together have just brought out a free step-by-step guide to building a community vision, a great tool for making local change. The guide is designed to help groups and communities open up their imagination and start exploring what a better future could look like in their context. It helps to build a shared vision of what’s possible, a vital starting point to exploring how we can work together to make it a reality.
The guide is for any group that wants to expand their vision of what’s possible in the future and explore how they want to work towards it. It is designed for starting conversations within a local community and to create a space to hear different perspectives and needs. The exercise can also be used to investigate a single theme or issue, like food or transport, or by a group which isn’t place-based but wants to reimagine the future of their area of interest – like the arts or youth provision.
If you are from a community group that wants to invite the wider community into this process you might like to do this exercise within your organisation first. This lets you become really familiar with it before running it with a bigger audience, but also allows your members to fully contribute and explore your priorities and focus in a deeper, richer way.
The guide is based on the experience of the Transition Movement, a network of community groups in 50 countries; people working together locally to address the big, complex problems of our time. They do this by reimagining our local communities, and then taking practical action to help them become thriving, inclusive, more resilient places for everyone. ‘Transition’ simply means change and how we get from one thing to another – from a damaging, polluting, unequal present to a fairer, more resilient, regenerative future for all.
There are some 300 local Transition groups in communities across the UK. They are supported by Transition Together in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and by Scottish Communities Climate Action Network (SCCAN) in Scotland. This approach to visioning was developed during the global coronavirus pandemic and is inspired by Rob Hopkins’ work around What if, and the 3 horizons framework (https://www.h3uni.org/). This framework was developed to help navigate situations where there is a high level of uncertainty and also a high level of potential for change. It’s an approach that has been tried and tested by many local Transition groups working to take action from the ground up, and helped them go on to make changes in their community.
Find out more: www.transitiontogether.org.uk
You can down the guide HERE
https://owgf.org/2024/08/04/transition-togethers-free-step-by-step-guide/
In the early 2000’s Citizen Participation in Bologna Italy was at an all time low. Bureaucratic hurdles made it almost impossible for individuals to instigate civic ideas, with no clear pathways for implementing projects in communities. To address this issue, the city introduced radical new regulations aimed at simplifying and facilitating civic involvement. These changes enabled both citizens and private organizations to form collaboration pacts with the city to enhance public spaces. As well as these pacts, Bologna established innovation and collaboration labs throughout the city. The net result has been a massive boost in citizen engagement, with 100’s of new collaboration pacts being implemented and 10,000’s of people participating in projects. All over Bologna 100’s of public spaces will be improved though these pacts, thanks to the imagination and participation of citizens.
With so many benefits to an initiative like this, WHY IS EVERY CITY NOT DOING THIS? Benefits such as.
The Bologna Civic Imagination Office and District Labs initiative exemplifies how creative and participatory approaches can enhance urban development and community well-being.
In every city on this planet there are residents bursting with creativity and ideas on how to improve their public spaces. These ideas are not going to come to fruition in a “top down” bureaucracy. These ideas will never see the light of day, without a system in place for them gain public attention, discussion and possibly even implementation. In most cities there is just no sytem for this. If you want to improve the public realm then it’s just a trial an error process of contacting politicians, government workers, departments, councillors, journalists… Anyone and everyone in the hope that your idea might get through to “the powers that be.” There are funding grants, there are budget submissions and there are other approaches but no single system designed specifically for Participatory Urbanism, as they have in Bologna.
It was all born from a bench, because a citizen asked for permission to repaint a bench. We realised that in order to give permission to repaint the bench, we had to go through five different sectors of the municipal machinery — five different authorisations. We began to understand that something was not working.”
BOLOGNA MAYOR VIRGINIO MEROLA
I am left wondering, is this the big idea all Urbanists have to get behind? Is this the best way forward to improve the public realm. Should we all be writing to our MP’s, Senators and Councillors, promoting this idea, above all else?
The City of Bologna’s Civic Imagination Office and District Labs have been involved in many notable projects that highlight the initiative’s success in fostering community engagement and urban innovation. Some types of projects that have been instigated include;
I think about Melbourne Australia, where I live. I think about urbanism projects I am working on. I think about wonderful people and organisation I am following and am connected with. The Melbourne pollinator corridor – Streets Alive Yarra – YIMBY Melbourne – Melbourne Regen Network – “Friends Of” …. Groups Cycling advocacy Groups… All of these people and orgs would benefit from a Civic Imagination Office where they could present ideas.
There is a lot more to this project than what I talked about above so I encourage everyone to go and do some further research. I’ve attached a few links below but there a ton more stuff out there on t’internet.
Bologna Cities of Service Case Study (This is a great overview)
Bologna, the City with a ‘Civic Imagination Office’
Fondazioneinnovazioneurbana.it
Images are from here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/170557963@N02/albums
So what do we think people, “is this the big idea all Urbanists should get behind?”
Comments below…
Note:
This post was created in #WordPress and can be viewed in the #Fedivers at: @owgf.org@owgf.org
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https://owgf.org/2024/08/02/should-we-follow-bolognas-model-for-participatory-urbanism/
#StrongTowns #ushistory #housing #uspol #economy
20 min
History is useful.
Useful history on US housing and economy from the great depression since to today’s deeply messed up housing and economic structure. Also the US housing market can be fixed through local measures. Cities have taken the first step to loosen zoning laws; financing remains a channeling.
