A CITY IS ONLY AS VIBRANT AS ITS LIBRARY
02.25.2010 // by: Sarah
Sarah Lester is Stand’s former campaign coordinator and our resident library connoisseur. Here, in anticipation of next week’s City Share with Sari Feldman of the Cuyahoga County Public Library, she tells a little about her library philosophy and the experience of her library travels.
I love experiencing cities. To tap into the pulse of an unfamiliar city, there’s one place I always go. The library. To me, the library speaks louder and clearer than any brochure or tour guide, and it tells me how the city perceives itself and its people. Does the experience of a city stop as you pass through the library’s doors, or is it an extension of this experience?
Here’s my soapbox soliloquy.
A library should be a microcosm of its community—a place where people are encouraged to gather, to interact with each other and with new ideas. It’s more than a static archive for books. It’s a free resource for people and a place to build community. What happens when a library becomes a hub for planning and learning and playing, when it welcomes the messy intersection of community and the creative process? This process isn’t always clean and it’s not always quiet.
The libraries I’ve visited in the last six months are doing something right. I take pictures, I ask questions, and then I come home. I appreciate our local library for what it is - but that doesn’t stop me from wanting more. What if we really put this public resource to use? We can do more with what we have - we can be more relevant, more multi-purpose, more people-friendly, more creative, more talkative.
Fairhope, Alabama. With a population of 14,000 residents, this small-town library averages 700 visitors per day, and 17,000 visitors per month. Now that’s a library!
Seattle, Washington. The downtown central library literally brought me to tears. Clearly, whoever transformed the old “brutalist” architecture into today’s marvel loved more than books - they loved people. It’s a creative design that begs to be used, to be lived in; it reflects an understanding that a library is far more than an archive for books.
Vancouver, Canada. Surrounding the library’s quiet interior are small kiosk-cafes. Don’t leave - just step put of the stacks. Grab a book, find a friend, and talk to your heart’s content.
Indianapolis, Indiana. The Learning Curve at the Central Indy library made me want to be a kid again. Thankfully, they let big kids share in the fun.
Last year, the City of Chattanooga’s Library Task Force released “The Challenge of Change,” a comprehensive analysis of our library system. With this report in mind, along with the Chattanooga Hamilton County Bicentennial LIbrary‘s recent (though very small) boost in funding, we hope that Chattanoogans will either begin or continue to ask: What would make our libraries better? Join us next Wednesday, March 3 for a City Share focused on libraries, featuring Sari Feldman, the director of the Cuyahoga County Public Library system of Cleveland, Ohio and its surrounding suburbs since 2003. For the last year, Feldman has also served as president of the Public Library Association.
Since Feldman became director, The Cuyahoga County Public Library has been on a mission to be at the center of community life by providing an environment where reading, lifelong learning and civic engagement thrive. Due to its renewed commitment to innovative and inclusive programming, friendly design, and continually progressive content, the library has since been named by Hennen’s American Public Library Rating System as the #1 library in the nation for its size for the last 6 years and is among the Library Journal‘s current Star Libraries.
If you plan to attend, please RSVP to blair [at] chattanoogastand [dot] com.
REINVENTING URBAN SPACES
02.10.2010 // by: Alison
From the Lula Lake Land Trust to the Tennessee River Gorge and our local chapter of The Trust for Public Land, Chattanooga’s green spaces have benefited greatly from land trusts over the last 20 years. It’s in large part because of these conservation efforts that Chattanooga has become known as “the scenic city.” At the same time, however, large portions of property within our city’s urban core have been either overlooked or ignored. Where land trusts aim to ensure livable communities through preservation of the natural environment, land banks do so through a focus on the built environment: either repairing or repurposing residential, commercial and industrial properties that are acquired through the tax foreclosure process.
Flint, Michigan has long been known as a casualty of the automotive industry, and roughly a third of its houses currently stand vacant. In 2002, the Genesee County Land Bank was created in order to address the thousands of abandoned properties that were deteriorating all over Flint. In the eight years since its inception, the land bank has acquired over 4,000 such properties and has instituted ten programs to variously repurpose them: Planning and Outreach, Brownfield Redevelopment, Development, Adopt-a-Lot, Clean and Green, Demolition, Housing Renovation, Sales, Side Lot Transfer and Foreclosure Prevention.
Land banks can serve as planning tools for revitalizing and directing reinvestment back into blighted neighborhoods. And in the last few years, The Genesee County land bank has become a model for cities such as Ann Arbor, Indianapolis and Little Rock because it satisfies community needs on both a short and long-term scale. In the short term, fiscal aid is provided in the midst of an economic downturn and wide-spread mortgage crisis; while in the long term, the groundwork is laid for lasting neighborhood renewal.
Dan Kildee is Genesee County’s treasurer as well as being the Land Bank’s chairman. He’ll be joining us for next Wednesday’s City Share to discuss the importance of reinventing urban spaces.
Please join us for this enlightening presentation followed by thoughtful discussion from 12-1 pm on Wednesday, February 17 at CreateHere.
Lunch will be provided by the King Smokehouse on Main. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to blair [at] chattanoogastand [dot] com.
For footage of last week’s City Share, visit the Action Lab.
SUPPORT “STAND & DELIVER: EDUCATION”
02.02.2010 // by: Veronique
Stand and CreateHere are pleased to announce our participation in the Refresh Project, a vetting process for innovative ideas sponsored by Pepsi and GOOD. Our project is Stand & Deliver, a six-month community change process focused on improving education in Chattanooga. Awards are determined by a public vote, and polls are open February 1 through February 28.
We’re asking anyone who supports education to get the vote out during the entire month of February! Users can vote daily for up to ten different projects, which means you can cast 28 votes for Stand & Deliver, and up to 280 votes for projects that are revitalizing communities across the country. On Monday, our application goes live, available here.
But what’s the project? Stand & Deliver starts with the production and distribution of ground-setting documents—infographics, best practices, Stand data, and local interviews. These research pieces will be widely available in several formats, and will play a major role in engaging 1000+ people in two 24-hour citizen summits, to be held in October, 2010. During these summits, citizens will pitch potential projects, produce asset maps, connect with diverse skills sets, and act on the needs, and strengths, of local education. We’re asking for $50,000 to make this project possible.
So, how can you get involved?
First, vote for Stand & Deliver today and continue to do so during the entire month of February. Visit http://www.refresheverything.com/createhere to vote.
Next, spread the word: reach out to neighbors, co-workers, and friends. Education is everyone’s business.
Finally, think big, and act accordingly. We believe all the ingredients for innovation and community renewal are already here: it’s just a matter of connecting people, ideas, and action. Help us kick-off this exciting project, and help us deliver on a promise to make our community better.
Page 1 of 1 pages