Blog
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September 17 is PARK(ing) Day Tuesday, August 31, 2010
On September 17, 2010, the Chattanooga community has a unique opportunity to participate in PARK(ing) Day, an annual open-source global event that celebrates public space by temporarily transforming urban parking spaces in creative and innovative ways for the low cost of a few coins in a parking meter.
We’re teaming up with Outdoor Chattanooga this year to host and facilitate PARK(ing) Day. Businesses, organizations, individuals, creatives, and engaged community members are all encouraged to participate and to attend a free, informational meeting this Friday, September 3, from 9-10 AM at CreateHere. Coffee and donuts will be served and all ideas—partial or fully realized—will be welcomed and valued.
PARK(ing) Day began in San Francisco in 2005 when an art and design studio named Rebar transformed a single metered parking space into a temporary public park in a section of the city that was lacking public space. Many other cities have joined in on this annual event since then and September 17 will mark Chattanooga’s third year of participation.
An event like PARK(ing) Day gives us the opportunity to demonstrate how more urban green space would make an indelible impact on the way we live, work, and play in Chattanooga and across the country. We’re one of many cities participating and we get to demonstrate the local flavor, personality, and imagination we have in Chattanooga as it pertains to urban green space.
If you’ve been hanging around here at the blog, you’ll have noticed that less than two weeks ago we hosted City R&D, a summit of forty of Chattanooga’s best and brightest minds that focused on issues of connectivity in the city. One of four primary discussions we had at City R&D was the use of public parking areas to generate interest in the local economy and to build community.
The mission of PARK(ing) Day, as stated on parkingday.org, fits perfectly with this vision: “to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat.”
To participate in Chattanooga’s PARK(ing) Day or for more information about CreateHere, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Client-Designer Speed Dating Monday, August 30, 2010
Times are tight and resources are limited, but communication needs are as pressing as ever for entrepreneurs, small businesses and non-profits. So much time can be spent researching the best (and most affordable) brand strategists and professionals that important business and marketing opportunities can be overlooked and even missed.
With respect for a limited amount of research time, AIGA Chattanooga is hosting a Client-Designer Speed Dating event on Tuesday, September 14 at 6 PM at The Blue Plate. Local entrepreneurs and representatives from businesses and non-profits are invited for an evening featuring The Blue Plate’s fantastic food and time to mingle with some of Chattanooga’s top-notch design talent.
This one-hour event is divided into six short, manageable ten-minute sessions for prospective clients to meet and speak with six different designers. After that, it’s fair game for everyone to eat, drink and mingle.
If you’re interested, the only requirements are registration at the AIGA website, a $15 fee, and a one-page information sheet you’ll need to fill out to share with the designers during your speed dates (you’ll need to make six copies). That’s it. If you have any questions feel free to contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Space is very limited, so apply soon!
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City R&D: Bright Minds, Increased Connectivity Friday, August 27, 2010
Four potentially transformative ideas for the future of connectivity between downtown Chattanooga and Enterprise South were generated last Friday at City R&D, a summit composed of more than forty of the best and brightest minds in Chattanooga.
Our participation in City R&D was driven by one of the most important things that we learned from 26,263 responses to the Chattanooga Stand survey: citizens are worried about pollution, traffic, congestion and other issues of growth. Exploring connectivity between our urban core and the emerging center of commerce known as Enterprise South was a great opportunity to gather many of our city’s great minds together to think about how we might connect our city for common betterment.
While Chattanooga has a rich history of public planning and civic action, this particular civic muscle always stands in danger of atrophy. City R&D served as a chance to remember that we are all greater when we work together across disciplines on common issues.
In our opinion, City R&D was a win by lunch as our diverse group of business and non-profit professionals, civic leaders, artists, and architects began the day by traveling to the Enterprise South Fire Department via multiple highway, bike, and public transportation routes. Many participants experienced their city—its problems and opportunities—with fresh eyes. We consider the work that happened in the afternoon to be the icing on the cake for moving Chattanooga forward.
As for how each project explored lives on, we’ll be sharing the work produced at City R&D with as many stakeholders as possible and will be looking for additional forums to explore bike lane advocacy, public art connectivity between downtown and Enterprise South, animation of public and private spaces in less animated areas, and the possibility of light rail connectivity in the areas studied.
There are many resources available if you want to get acquainted with the work done at City R&D. Download a summary of the outcomes of our day that includes an info-graphic of our four major outcomes, check out our Flickr Stream from the day, or watch an impromptu set of bus interviews that one our teams shot during their travels.
And, of course, special thanks goes out to GOOD Magazine and the rest of our partners for helping make this event happen: AIGA, The American Institute of Architects, The Benwood Foundation, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Association, the City of Chattanooga, Hamilton County, and The Lyndhurst Foundation.
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City R&D for Chattanooga Monday, August 09, 2010
We’re pleased to announce that on August 20, Chattanooga will play a part in City R&D, a national project sponsored by Los Angeles-based GOOD Magazine and inspired by Chattanooga’s rich history of civic innovation.
Chattanooga’s City R&D event is an all-day charrette (something Chattanoogans can apparently concoct in their sleep) facilitated by CreateHere and composed of local multi-disciplinary professionals, civic leaders, and stakeholders gathering to tackle challenges associated with the city’s urban, built environment. The end-goal is reinvention and development (R and D)—specifically, a new way of thinking about multimodal transportation in Chattanooga and the issue of connectivity between areas of commerce and culture.
With the addition of industry to the city, Chattanooga will soon face a new set of environmental challenges. In consideration of new jobs, City R&D will address multimodal transportation between downtown Chattanooga and Enterprise South, an issue that has been the topic of many local conversations.
In May of this year, Josh McManus, co-founder and creative strategist at CreateHere, applied for City R&D through GOOD Magazine. “Because of the timeliness of this opportunity, the question City R&D will answer for Chattanooga is one of connectivity,” he said. “How can we connect the downtown urban core with this rapidly emerging industry center of Enterprise South in a way that capitalizes on the rich history and environmental assets of our area?”
This question has attracted the attention of many organizations and local figures, providing City R&D with partnerships in Chattanooga and beyond. CreateHere’s partners include AIGA, The American Institute of Architects, The Benwood Foundation, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Association, the City of Chattanooga, Hamilton County, and The Lyndhurst Foundation.
“City R&D is an important opportunity to stimulate growth both economically and culturally,” said Councilman Peter Murphy, one of the many city leaders participating in the August 21 event. “With new growth, Chattanooga is going to see opportunities that didn’t exist before. Those opportunities will stimulate new interaction and relationship-building between diverse people and groups.”
By the end of City R&D, participating parties will have explored existing and emerging ideas for multimodal transportation between downtown Chattanooga and Enterprise South in the form of a map depicting personal, professional, and environmental assets. This map will help facilitate powerful new partnerships.
The City R&D summit will require its strong coalition of diverse participants to go the extra mile in establishing actions (not plans) that correspond to the multimodal transportation challenge. “Reinvention and development are vital,” says Josh McManus, “but implementation is just as crucial.”
For more information about City R&D and CreateHere, email info [at] createhere [dot] org or visit CreateHere.org.
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Stand & Deliver Partner Profile: Girls Inc. of Chattanooga Wednesday, August 04, 2010
You don’t have to be an elected official or a city planner to think about what goes into the making of a city—you don’t even have to be old enough to vote. The girls who attended the July session of Girls Inc. of Chattanooga’s Tech-Know-Girl summer camp for girls ages 6 to 8 built a model of their very own all-girl city.
The all-girl city has many businesses including a mall, a bank, a daycare center, a restaurant, and a beauty salon, as well as The Dark and Scary Movie Theatre, a venue that only shows scary movies. The girls also planned the layout of the city’s roads and divided their city into areas for businesses and homes. Each girl designed her own business and home. Throughout July, the girls visited local technology businesses in Chattanooga and learned about how technology affects their daily lives. They took what they learned and made plans for a city that they later build from recycled objects they brought from home.
After construction was complete, the girls chose their roles within the city. The positions included city mayor, bank president, mall manager, business owners, and daycare administrator. Seven-year old city mayor Nia Townsend of Harrison Elementary School explained that, “We made our city out of things we don’t use anymore. We all brought it from home, and now the stuff can be used again.” The idea of sustainability was a reoccurring theme in the camp and the girls learned how important a healthy environment is to a city’s future.
The Tech-Know-Girl camp is one of the many programs that make up Girls Inc. of Chattanooga, an organization that seeks to inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold by providing a healthy and positive environment where girls can enjoy being girls; enriching programs that nurture their capacity for personal achievement, confident adulthood and economic independence; and by advocating for an equitable society. Girls Inc. offers informal educational, cultural and recreational activities through in-school, after-school, seasonal break camps and career academies that are age and gender-appropriate and research and outcome-based. Since 1961, Girls Inc. of Chattanooga has served over 23,000 girls.
Building a model city, like all Girls Inc. programs, helps girls learn from an early age that they can play a role in what happens around them. Through the Tech-Know-Girl camp, the girls have learned about the ubiquitous roles that technology plays in their lives—from transportation to infrastructure—and how technology is a key element to their all-girl city. They also learned about the many components of a city and the community they live in. As 8-year-old Director of Urban Development, Raven Lanier of Lakeside Elementary put it, “In our city there is a bank and a beauty salon and a restaurant, but the people live all together in one place, and that’s called a neighborhood.”
