Half a year after our inaugural Better Block Middlesboro event in 2013, we were back at it with a second Better Block event. This time it was a new location and whole new projects across the street from where all of the activities had happened before. Here is the story of how we build a better block again. April 2,
The lessons I’ve learned as a downtown manager over the past 15 years could easily fill a book, or probably several. But if I had to distill everything down to a simple message, it would be this: Take risks, and make mistakes. Be open to unexpected surprises along the way. Dare to be great every day. My career often seems
What self-respecting main Street manager would turn down an opportunity to transform a block of their downtown in 48 hours for $1,000 or less? That’s how I met Mike Lydon of Street Plans Collaborative in 2010. He visited me in Oyster Bay, New York, where I was the director of a Main Street program restoring Theodore Roosevelt’s home town. Lydon
Just a few blocks away from the Capitol Market in Charleston is the East End Bazaar. While it doesn’t look like much, this market space serves a valuable function supporting farmers and makers. The low-cost and temporary looking structures here are the exact opposite of the Capitol Market. Both serve an important function contributing to the social, economic, and civic
During our Better Block Middlesborough event with Mike Lydon in October 2013, he suggested I look up Chuck Marohn with Strong Towns. I saw he was speaking in Huntington a few weeks later, so I took off on a 400 mile plus road trip to see him. My first stop in Huntington was with the Tri-State Community Foundation. Previously I
Artist Candy Chang is associated with the “It’s Good to be Here” stencil. We first became familiar with the messaging around 2013. It has since been duplicated in numerous other towns.
Application in Kentucky Building on this model it was applied in Middlesboro, Kentucky during the Better Block event held there in 2013. Another stencil promoted the event “Build a Better Block Middlesboro.” Finally, the “Greater in the Crater” stencil expressed the fact that Middlesboro is a city that was built in a meteorite crater formed 200 million years ago.
Better Block Middlesboro was a community planning event that mobilized over 100 volunteers and attracted more than $25,000 including an award from the Successful Communities Contest which Middlesboro won, that helped to fund this project. In a two month period ideas were rapidly iterated, proposed, refined, and fully implemented to demonstrate to the community that positive change was possible and
This series of articles was first written to coincide with Better Block Middlesborough in October 2013. It has since been published here in full to show 30 different ideas to help make places better. Managing the Event #1: Think Incrementally #2: Build a Better Block #3: Encourage Public Participation #4: Temporary to Permanent #5: Pre-vitalization #6: Leverage the Power of
Proxy is a pavement to plaza project with a beer garden in several shipping containers on a former asphalt parking lot.