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Community is one of the strongest elements to successful cities and promoting that community is an unfortunately non tangible effort. Cities often don’t know how to be effective in this area and individuals who are doing things often don’t have a way to get their voice heard.
I have a crazy idea that may not turn into anything. But I want to give it a shot, so here goes..
In the comments below put down one cool community building thing that other people may not have heard of before. I am not going to narrow it down more than that because I want to give everyone a chance to be creative. It does not have to be happening already or a big orchestrated event it could be throwing rocks in the river or cleaning up a block downtown. And if you like what you came up with try it out, put a date and time here and see if anyone shows up.
9 responses so far ↓
1 Jonathan "Axl" Ward // Jun 28, 2008 at 7:25 am
Happy Birthday, Levi!!!
I am very proud of you.
2 Jonathan "Axl" Ward // Jun 28, 2008 at 7:31 am
This is not a revolutionary idea…how about community dinners/celebrations. LIke a block party, but not just for the residents of the neighborhood. Reach out and invite the homeless, widows, and orphans. A great party in which people not only get together and fellowship, but also serve the needy.
3 dustin // Jun 28, 2008 at 8:56 am
I enjoy the 2nd Saturday Clean-up in Oak Park! This is a great event where members of the community including students from Sac High and others get together and help clean-up a specific area in Oak Park. every month, a new spot. Brian Fischer of midtowngrid.com is the point person and always has a great morning planned. So if you want to make a full day of the 2nd Saturday Art Walk and would like to meet new people, check out their website and come help clean-up that morning and enjoy good art later that night!
4 dustin // Jun 28, 2008 at 8:57 am
oh, and Happy Birthday!
5 Allison // Jun 28, 2008 at 9:16 am
Sometimes poor architectural/city design have to be overcome in order for people to create a sense of community, while some cities are much more conducive to community-building social interactions. In either case, I agree that efforts to help people feel a sense of community among their fellow city-dwellers is an important element for a city that is to be socially vibrant and sustainable.
The non-”tangible” (to use your term), aspect of community makes me think of the spirit of conviviality and neighborliness that people experience in communities where they feel welcome, safe and stable. “Tangible” efforts aimed at creating and sustaining these feelings are basically attempts to bring people together emotionally and physically so that these feelings can be nurtured.
Emotionally, people might be asked to choose a city nickname or to enter into a contest for the official city bird, animal, tree, song, etc. These are silly ideas that result in amusing stories for participants and residents, and stories are an important part of community-building. And of course a city nickname, song, etc. gives the city an identity that people can attach themselves to.
“Physical” efforts to bring people together can be done on small (neighborhood) or large (city-wide) scales. Free concerts in the park. An annual parade or fireworks event. A pool party, talent show, or block party. These allow people to meet other community members, get of sense of where they fit into the community, and - hopefully- develop a connection to them and a desire to maintain the elements that make a group of people feel like a community.
In the end, it is the people - not the buildings- that make a community, so your rally for community-building events is a great one!
6 Brian // Jun 28, 2008 at 11:51 am
This post reminded me of a Radiolab radio program which focuses on the topic of emergence. About 2/3 of the way through the program, they talk about the spontaneous emergence of neighborhoods. It’s really an interesting look at how a ‘main street’ of a neighborhood develops.
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2005/02/18
(for anyone who hasn’t listened to radiolab, I highly recommend it)
7 William Burg // Jun 28, 2008 at 3:32 pm
As usual, my example comes from history. In talking to folks who grew up in neighborhoods like Southside Park, the sense of community was tangible and inescapable. That community existed because the people in the neighborhood interacted with each other, worked with each other, went to school, shopped, played, all within a close geographic area. Not dispersed and atomized, in the late 20th century model, in separate cars with work and home and shopping separated by miles.
Most of what people call “small-town feel” is actually the sort of neighborhood that appears in dense urban environments, and is most evident where mobility is limited: where people run into each other a lot, familiarity grows. Without sounding too much like a broken record, the simplest way to grow community is just encouraging people to walk to stuff. Part of that process can be creating things to walk to…a store or a restaurant or a concert in the park…or creating places to walk from…like human-scale dense housing…or even just places to walk.
8 levi // Jun 29, 2008 at 7:37 am
How in the heck did everyone figure out it was my birthday? We have a joke around LJ Urban about birthday martyrs (people who don’t tell anyone its their birthday) and I am always a birthday martyr. I would rather hide… First off thanks Dustin for mentioning the oak park clean up days. I had not heard of them before and am glad to hear that they are going on. How many people participate? I would love to see this grow on a larger scale and suspect that it will. I have been trying to come up with a event that we can do ourselves. There are enough people reading this blog that I think we could start something really big. (ideas welcome)
Allison: I love your statment “In the end, it is the people - not the buildings- that make a community” Its so true. I think I used to think that it was the other way around but am finally starting to see that its the people first and the place follows.
W Burg: I could not agree more… Get out and walk!!
9 Erik // Jul 1, 2008 at 4:36 pm
One of the great things about city living is the pubilc realm - the physical place where different people in the community can interact. I’m a musician, and I love playing music on the street when I get the chance — the Fete de la Musique a few weekends ago was an official celebration of this, but I see no reason why people shouldn’t busk on a street corner more often.
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