We highlight here 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!
- Going Home with Wendell Berry: Well, part of manners used to be to say to somebody you just met, “Where you from?” And I quit asking it, because so many people say they’re from everywhere or nowhere…. We bought this home and twelve acres in the fall of 1964…. That put our children here, and now we’ve got grandchildren who are at home here. That comes from a decision that we made to be here, and to be here permanently.
- A Public Art & Lighting Initiative Enlivening a Former Industrial Center: There is now a sustained downtown energy of visitors taking in these pieces as well as residents rediscovering their own backyard through art experiences. Ultimately, this has led to a change in public perception.
- Was the Automotive Era a Terrible Mistake?: Sane, upstanding pedestrians didn’t murder one another as they ran errands around town. Sane, upstanding drivers did, or might at any moment, and thus required a new style of policing.
- Too Much Parking?: MAPC counted nearly 6,000 empty parking spaces—over 41 acres of pavement— representing an estimated $94.5 million in construction costs (or about $5,000 per housing unit in the survey).
- Why am I Scared to Ride a Bike?: And lots of these drivers are distracted. 48% of Americans talk on the phone while driving, and 14% text and read emails.