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"My dream neighborhood": Community Design and Participation
Session Four Plan
My Dream Neighborhood: Community Design and Participation
Session 11
Group Members:
Peter Kraai - OCC kraaip{at}sunyocc.ed
Joe - musician joebass123{at}aol.com
Fran Lawlor - CCE fml7{at}cornell.edu
Maureen Wakefield - SUNY ESF mwakefield{at}esf.edu
Peter King - SUNY ESF pdking{at}syr.edu
Daniel Stazzone - Home HQ daniels{at}homehq.org
Amanda Pascall – SNAG ssideaction{at}gmail.com
Rachel May – ENSPIRE enspire{at}syr.edu
Deetta Frary - Blodgett School Community Liaison dfrary16{at}scsd.us
Elizabeth Slate - The Alchemical Nursery Project alchemicalnursery{at}fastmail.fm
Community Goal and Need:
All too often development in neighborhoods is planned with little or no input from the general public. Like the other sessions of the Sustainability Academy, the Dream Neighborhood session is aimed at empowering the community members by involving them in the process of neighborhood planning and design.
Goals:
5 Articulate sense of place – parks, transportation, groceries, farms, nature centers, bike paths, commercial areas, etc.
6 Articulate Dream Neighborhood
7 Compare and contrast real neighborhood with the dream neighborhood ideal
8 Identify changes needed and priorities, then feasibility.
9 Establish urban ecovillage
10 Policy level: Work with city to develop open lots for urban farms: a city-wide community gardening network
How communities are planned:
1 Diversity of neighborhoods
2 Lowering carbon footprint
3 20% food - need organic farmers, some have space for community gardens
4 40% architecture
5 20% infrastructure
6 20% transportation - pedestrian safety (year round), bicycle trails
Session Format:
11 An individual interactive session with presenters and clips from an interesting film. There will be tables provided as well for organizations that would like to have some visibility and promote their contributions to the dream neighborhood vision.
Venue Set-up
12 Tables for presenters
13 Flip chart and markers / white boards
14 Signage, large post-its
15 Maps
16 Overhead projector (and screen?)
17 Laptop and LCD projector (and screen?)
18 Internet connection (google)
19 Cafeteria style space with tables and chairs
20 Tables for organizations to set up with information for those who are interested
1. Participants Arrival
As guests arrive, different versions of “green maps” that have been made for other cities will be on display. There will be five – ten minutes for people to look at different maps and to explore tables of various organization set up around the edges of the room.
1. Formal Welcome:
MC (see list of potential experts and organizations) asks everyone to take seats. Quick overview: how do people plan neighborhoods, and how can those involved in the process ensure that their designs are the best decisions for the community (general public participation and focus groups, experienced leaders and experts to guide the process, taking a holistic approach and ideas from the green movement to ensure a healthy and sustainable neighborhood plan).
2. Popcorn & Movie: “A Convenient Truth”
Show clips from the movie about Curitiba, Brazil, highlighting their work with the low-income housing, transportation, parks, and recycling.
Items:
* popcorn, machine and volunteers to run/dispense
* napkins, serving units
* beverages? serving units
* disposal of the above (use biodegradable products that can be composted)
* DVD, laptop, projector
* appropriate screen/darkened room
2. Exercise in Community Planning and Design:
On two separate tables, there will be copies of a large satellite map of the neighborhood. People will choose from a hat as they walk in, which will determine what table they sit at (#1 or #2). After the movie, people will be asked to sit down in two groups at the tables and draw a circle around the school.
For table #1: With the school as the focal center, define existing attributes of the community with respect to the school (and Skiddy Park) as the heart of the community.
For table #2: With the school as the focal center, identify areas that are in need of some attention and re-design. If possible, provide suggestions for what they would like to see.
Each group will then present their map to the group and a brief discussion will follow.
à Here is where the Center of Excellence can come in and talk about their work with the LEED-ND pilot program, and specifically their intentions to create a green map of the Near West Side. Make it clear that the work the people in the two focus groups have done contributes to their efforts.
Items:
* Hat and an equal number of tickets with #s 1 and 2 on them.
* Maps from Home Headquarters
* Samples of Green Maps (Liz Slate has some – need to contact green mappers for more examples)
* Markers for the map exercise
* Easel for presenting maps
3. Post-session challenge
MC discusses the take-aways of the session for the group, and leads a brief discussion amongst the community participants and organizations represented regarding the post session challenge:
21 Find a neighborhood organization or two that is represented at the meeting who will be willing to take the lead on acquiring funding for a project by writing for grants.
22 Select a feasible, high priority change and create a work group to begin plans to implement the change.
23 Link with experts and community organizations to tackle the project:
Short term: workshop attendees set simple achievable goals that the individual/small group can achieve (i.e. get a bike rack)
Long term: Find a group dedicated to the same goal, join it and move forward (get lighted bike paths to and from school and into community)
Potential Experts and Organizations for Presentations and Information Tables:
City-wide:
Dean Biancavilla – Urban Design Center
SU School of Architecture
Ed Bogucz, Mark Lichtenstein, Tamara Rosanio, Ana Fernandez – Syracuse Center of Excellence
Chuckie Holstein - FOCUS
Fernando Ortiz - City of Syracuse Community Development Department (SDAT team)
Steve Kearny - City of Syracuse Economic Development Department
City of Syracuse Neighborhood Planning Department
Tomorrow’s Neighborhoods Today
Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative
Kate Clark - City of Syracuse Public Art Commission
Nancy Cantor – SU Chancellor, civic engagement proponent
Paul Driscoll, Daniel Stazzone - Home HeadQuarters?
Mary Beth Frey - Syracuse Hunger Project
Don Hughes - Bike!CNY
Joe Heath – Onondaga Nation legal advisor
Dick Degraff - CSA-CNY, Grindstone Farm
Brian Luton - Farmer
Cheryl Doble - Landscape Architect, ESF
Kevin Stack – Northeast Green Building Consultants
Jonell Allen – SU Community Geographer, Mapping (GIS)
Sam Sage – Atlantic States Legal Foundation
School Administrator/Superintendent
Community leaders/active members
County Executive
Councilor (at large)
Planning Board (member)
Local institutions (see below) à
Westside Specific:
Marilyn Higgins, Mark Barone - The Near West Side Initiative
Connective Corridor
The Delavan Center
The Redhouse
Tim Molton & his electronics recycling and innovation warehouse
Mark Naef - The Community Warehouse (Naef Recycling, etc)
Greg Wright - Habitat for Humanity – the ReStore?, etc
Jubilee Homes – Onondaga Earth Corps partnering for community garden
Community Test Kitchen
St. Lucy’s
Laurel Frega - Spanish Action League
Huntington Family Center
Westside PEACE
Boy and Girls Club
Vincent House
Christopher Community
Sheena Solomon - The Gifford Foundation
Rick Destito – the Gear Factory
Kind Coffee guy
Paul Nojaim - Nojaims
Emanuel Carter (West Side neighborhood design studios from this past year)
SU Architecture School (Skiddy park designs, designs for Home HQ houses in horseshoe
target area)
Matt Potteiger (community gardening studies w/ landscape architecture students at ESF)
Resources and Take Aways:
23 Information (pamphlets, etc) from different organizations and presenters re: their projects and initiatives; ways to get plugged in and involved in the community and neighborhood
24 Sign up to become a member of an eco-village: The Alchemical Nursery Project groupsite registration page on a laptop
25 Copy of eco-village protocol: The Alchemical Nursery Project information, Urban Alliance for Sustainability, and The Rhizome Collective pamphlets
26 Website: Center for Health, Environment and Justice
27 Website: the Green Flag Program
28 Website: Green Maps
29 Website: Urban Alliance for Sustainability
30 Website: Congress for New Urbanism
31 Website: The Rhizome Collective
32 Website: Intentional Communities/Global Ecovillage Network
33 Website: The LA Ecovillage
34 Website: The Urban Ecovillage Network
35 Website: The Alchemical Nursery Project (www.alchemicalnursery.org)
36 Website: Food Not Lawns