If we think we don’t have the time and money to do it right, what makes you think we have the time and money to do it over?”
– Dr. Mark Nicholson of Billings, Montana, speaking in favor of a Complete Streets policy
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via the National Complete Streets e-newsletter
Putting a car in a garage is like putting something in a bag that’s already in a bag.
~ Jen, from Traverse City passed on via friend
Something like that.
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Just breezed into Madison…
… almost as if they were expecting people to arrive on bikes.
~ Text message from Bob Otwell
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* Follow this link to read about Laura and Bob’s Continental Cruise.
UPDATE: 10:05 Cleaned up some typos…
Because much recent change has been unhealthy and change is rabid, seemingly beyond our control, we want to freeze our communities as they are. We do this to protect our psyches and our investments. Unable to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy change, we simplistically conclude that all change is bad, trapping us in already unfulfilling habitation. Resilience empowers us to change in ecologically healthy ways.“
~ Randolph Hester, Design for Ecological Democracy
Resistance to change is strong in Traverse City. In some cases, for good reason. In others, and perhaps more often, quite questionable reasons. We won’t get into the details on any specifics today, but when I hear the phrase “you/we need to protect the character of our neighborhoods” I fear the NIMBY has been released. I simply don’t know what that phrase means; we all have different perspectives on our neighborhoods and I don’t think anyone is out to destroy them.
In fairness, I try to be aware of my own negative and quite predictable reactions to change when it surfaces. I ask myself, “why am I resisting this?” “What’s another way to look at this?” “I’m a blinded by something?”
I’m of a generation raised on change. We see a need for it in almost every corner. Ecologically, we’ve inherited a system that is only beginning to value, and really understand, the significance of protecting our land and water. Economically, we’ve inherited a system built on inequality and wastefulness. Socially, we came after the civil rights movement; treating everyone fairly is the norm and that goes beyond simple skin color differences. Yet, we still see people who can’t stand that someone else is different from themselves. That needs to change.
I think Hester’s approach is helpful to find balance. He writes about three principles to community development: the resilient form, the enabling form and the impelling form.
In short, and all I really wanted to say today, in order to for Traverse City to protect anything, we are going to need to accept some change and embrace our inner YIMBYs.
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* Locally, Dave Barrons explores community resilience in a myriad of ways on his show Investigating Resilience. Recent shows have discussed the role of placemaking in resilient communities, and previous shows have explored education, providing for people with disabilities, birding, economics, public health, the local food movement, water issues…
Indifference towards people and the reality in which they live is actually the one and only cardinal sin in design.”
~ Dieter Rams, renowned industrial designer
I’m not a designer; I’m a consumer and I appreciate design that is intuitive, informative, sharp. Dieter Rams has inspired clean design that fits this idea for decades.
“Design should not dominate things, should not dominate people. It should help people. That’s its role.” This applies to tiny gadgets as well as public spaces; entire cities.
Treat yourself for 7 minutes. This video will help you think today.
via BrainPickings (Thank you)
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UPDATED 1PM 5/31: After the transcript was made available, the quote was corrected* and accredited.
There’s always going to be groups of grumpy folks that came up during a time when streets were only for cars. And so, they’re going to have to adapt.
~ Tommy Wells, Washington D.C. council-member in support of D.C.’s bike share program (NPR)
Exactly. Good leadership recognizes when the grumpy dinosaurs are simply road blocks to good policies. I can think of several dinosaurs in positions of authority in NW Lower Michigan’s little corner who need to adapt or get out of the way.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: I woke up to the above quote on the radio, so it might be slightly off. I’ll correct it once the full story is available later today at: Bikeshare Program Rides High In D.C.
* Quote originally published as: “There will always be the grumpy people who grew up in the time when streets were just for cars. They are going to have to adapt.”
Leadership [is] building empathy for the people that you’re entrusted to help. Once you understand what they really value, it’s easy because you can mostly give it to them. You can give them the freedom or direction that they want.”
~ David Kelley, Designing Curious Employees (Fast Co.)
Kelly is describing the relationship he promotes between owners and employees, but it is also what we need more of in the relationship between elected/appointed/hired representatives and the citizenry they represent. We need a better process of communication in our communities in order for them to thrive and truly reflect more of our values. It takes work, dedicated listening skills, and leadership qualities that can help individuals step out of their own reality.
Kelly sums up the above quote with, “the way I would measure leadership is this: of the people that are working with me, how many wake up in the morning thinking that the company is theirs?”
Traverse City’s current mayor expressed similar thoughts concerning the value of empathy applied to governance last fall when he shared the stage with the Chairman of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Derek Bailey, at the 2010 Great Lakes Bioneers Conference (MyWHaT).
Wouldn’t it be nice to have more local representatives encouraging and developing a sense of ownership amongst all of us? There are some who try, but there are plenty who seemingly don’t give-a-damn.
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You can’t just lay under a rock and expect the world to change. The only way we can change things for the better is to connect with each other. The connections are what matter and It doesn’t have to just be in the middle east.”
~ A.B., Student at Northwestern Michigan College
This is the final pull-away by a student (initials A.B.) after studying the diffusion of the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Focusing on the role of social media, the 18-year-old concluded that the internet was simply a tool to make more effective human connections that were, and are, already trying to come together.
And, when people connect and ideas are shared, anything is possible.
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What tools, online and in your community, are you using to connect with being human?
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It was inexpressibly beautiful. I drove transfixed.“
~ Author Bill Bryson, The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-town America
This is Bryson’s comment upon driving along the Grand Traverse Bay in the early 1980′s. Strong praise from a book full of strong criticism of the sprawl seen across the country.
Traverse City’s downtown earned praise as well:
“Traverse City looked to be a wonderful old town that seemed not to have changed since about 1948. It still has a Woolworth’s, a J.C. Penny, an old-fashioned movie theater called the State and a timeless cafe, the Sydney, with black booths and a long soda fountain. You just don’t see places like that anymore.”
Times Change, Sometimes
This passage of The Lost Continent was sent to me from someone relatively new to Traverse City and full of good ideas. He encouraged me to read the humorist’s take on things like box stores, parking lots, sidewalks (or missing sidewalks) and other place focussed observations. As we were recently discussing the attraction to and popularity of Traverse City, he added in his email this thought: “We should honor Traverse City by making sure the new, high density development occurs downtown. We need to draw that “Portland line” around the city to keep farm and city separate, but close, and to keep our “wonderful old town.”
I haven’t read Bryson’s books, but in the 1980′s, our sprawl was just finding it’s groove. Bryson could have easily missed it. However, as a community we have often embraced sprawl as inevitable and continue to do so by making priority the servicing of that sprawl (South Airport, BLA…). I’d like to trust that we will alter that pattern in the next decade, however, I’m not certain we have it in us.
Yesterday, I bought a vacuum where buffalo used to roam and it certainly wasn’t “inexpressibly beautiful.”
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Thanks for the thoughts W.C.–Ding!Ding!
You are progressing on something, and that’s, [what it's] all about. You want to keep moving…having a progress in your life.“
~ Ueli Steck, Swiss Climber
A break from the norm today: a little Monday morning inspiration watching Ueli Steck “run” up the 13,025 foot tall Eiger. Take the 4 minutes and watch Steck climb to the top of this Swiss mountain in just under 3 hours.
Have fun at work today; break the status quo.
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via TheDish
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