kickstART Your Weekend with Some Good Reads: Valuing Experiences Not Things, Pedestrian Safety, Walkability, and Businesses Supporting the Arts

Our Friday update here at kickstART farmington highlights some great articles we’ve read this week dealing with art, creative placemaking, and building great communities. You’re sure to find some inspiration to make your life and our community even better!

1. Spending Money on Experiences, Not Things: Overall well-being can be advanced by providing an infrastructure that affords experiences—such as parks, trails, beaches—as much as it does material consumption.

2. 12 Steps to Making Pedestrians Safer: Every city should have a by-law of one sentence stating: “In this city, pedestrians come first”.

3. A Happy Commute: Active commuters tend to enjoy the journey more than those who passively endure either traffic congestion or transit crowds.

4. Business Support for the Arts: The arts inspire, provoke thought, spur creativity, and connect us in a shared experience. These are also the essential qualities of an enduring, successful business.

5. Low Cost Approach to Walkability: Narrow standard 12-foot travel lanes to 10 feet … extra (lane) width does nothing except to encourage speeding.