Blog
The Livability Game-Changer
Posted by Julia Klaiber on October 25, 2010 |
We couldn't have asked for more from the Livability Challenge than to leave our host city with the inspiration and momentum captured by this column in NUVO Newsweekly, Indianapolis' alternative newspaper.
In reflecting upon our ambition for the challenge - to make beauty, in the form of art, good design and nature, always present - NUVO contributing editor David Hoppe singled out the word "beauty" as a game-changer not just for Indy, but for American cities writ large. He writes:
"Making beauty the governing principle in how we think about city livability is a bold move. Its practicality is breathtakingly sensible. It begs the question: Where would you rather live, in a beautiful place or an ugly one?"
The Livability Challenge took place in Indianapolis on Oct 11-13. For more on the proceedings, including downloadable presentations, visit the US Initiative website.
From the Tweetdeck of @ccoletta at The Livability Challenge
Posted by Julia Klaiber on October 13, 2010 |
Tweeting from the Livability Challenge in Indianapolis, CEOs for Cities president and CEO Carol Coletta had this to say:
• 100 Acres, the Indianapolis Art and Nature Park, is a stunning asset. It must be connected to the city's trail system.
• Think of the city as a park. #cities
• "The U.S. is overstored by 30%." Carnegie Mellon's Don Carter at Indy CEOs for Cities Livability Challenge #cities
• Why not rain gardens all along the edges of 38th St. corridor? Get fed $$ to pay for stormwater benefits. #cities
• "When you have Turkish food trucks replacing Tavern on the Green, you know the world has changed." Adrian Benepe at CEOs for Cities.
• Adrian Benepe is sharing an "out of the big box" idea that converts decayed strip malls to food production centers. #cities
• Many cities are grappling w/what to do with '30s, 40s, 50s public spaces that are massive but that are not used.
• "In Indianapolis, you have some of the best neo-classical public space in the country. "- NYC Parks Guru Adrian Benepe #cities
• Ideas competitions are a good way to start a conversation about a project and its potential.
• Can Monument Circle (or any great public space needing fresh attention) become the place where all livability principles are demonstrated?
• Can we think about an arts system similar to green systems?
• Lily Yeh: Transform brokenness through art (and she has done it).
• Lily Yeh: In places where you don't know what to do, you can experiment and explore with art.
• Adrian Benepe: What's here now that we can work w/? How do we build coalition of existing interests? (This is why he gets so much done)
• NYC Parks Department runs the nation's largest welfare to work program. 6,000 "graduates" a yr. That's astonishing. #cities
• TPL Will Rogers: We should aspire to green space within a 10-minute walk of any citizen in any city.
• Adrian Benepe: Need to have aspirations around open space. Doesn't have to be expensive. School playgrnds, comm gardens, pop ups
Beautiful Indianapolis
Posted by Julia Klaiber on October 13, 2010 |
The Indianapolis Star published this great photo this great photo Livability Challenge participants biking the famed Indianapolis Cultural Trail. When asked after the tour concluded what he thought, The Trust for Public Land president Will Rogers quipped, "Why are we here?" Clearly this is a city that has already put a stake in the ground for aesthetics, putting the ambition to make art, good design and nature always present seem not so far out of reach after all.
The Grocery Loop
Posted by Julia Klaiber on October 05, 2010 |
Meeting our daily needs without owning a car means being able to walk, bike or take public transportation to get to work, see friends, run errands and even buy groceries. Unfortunately, high quality grocery stores are hard to come by in many urban neighborhoods, forcing even the most reticent among us to get in our cars and drive to the suburbs for fresh fruits and vegetables.
Not so in Providence.
At least not if graphic designer and US Initiative collaborator Lindsay Kinkade gets her way. With a team of graduate students from the Rhode Island School for Design, Lindsay has proposed a creative solution called The Grocery Loop, a food-centric bus route designed for the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. Stops include not only supermarkets but also farmers' markets and ethnic grocers. A graphic identity for an existing bus and a smart phone app further enhance the riders' experience.
It's so simple it makes you want to slap your hand to your forehead (our favorite kind of innovation at CEOs for Cities), but if it happens, it will meet a very real, daily need for residents of Providence.
Contest judges at A Better World by Design, a three-day conference held at RISD and Brown University, awarded The Grocery Loop top honors, citing its real-world applicability and scaleability to both small and large cities.
If you'd like to go where you need to go without owning a car, show your support for our Declaration of Interdependence.
Originally posted on the US blog. Join the US Initiative at www.ofbyandforus.org.
We’re Getting a Creativity Buzz in San Jose
Posted by Julia Klaiber on September 16, 2010 |
Tomorrow afternoon, thought leaders from Cisco, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Adobe Foundation and the Rockwell Group, among others, will participate in a strategic conversation to elevate the role of aesthetics in creating the next generation of great American cities.
Through guided discussion, they will join CEOs for Cities, the City of San Jose and 1stACT Silicon Valley in considering the following ambition: We can have access to beauty through art, good design and nature every day – amenities that drive attachment in communities and acknowledge the importance of quality-of-life measures in attracting leaders of the 21st century workforce.
The San Jose Brain Trust will be held at the San Jose Museum of Art in conjunction with the 01SJ Biennial, a program of ZER01 and the City of San Jose to "Build Your Own World" through the imagination of more than 100 local, national and international artists and designers. We expect rich collaboration and exciting new ideas to emerge from this stellar group of creative leaders. Be sure to read more about the 01SJ Biennial in the September issue of Fast Company.
Originally posted on the US blog: http://www.ofbyandforus.org/post/were-getting-a-creativity-buzz-in-san-jose/
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