Extra special thanks to those that made it out today in spite of the threat of rain. I forgot my camera but, as usual, someone took some photos that are better than mine would be and put them up on CHS. Anyway, it was great to see old friends, meet new ones, and spend some time with the likes of John Boylan and Alex Steffen.
Our next official event will be the Capitol Hill Garage Sale on June 6th. Come hunt for bargains, meet neighbors, and claim this space as ours. Hopefully JT can make it out to DJ again and we're even talking about bringing in a food truck to serve the hungry bargain-hunters.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Calls for Ideas
Both the Seattle Design Commission and local chapter of the AIA are looking for ideas about re-activating vacant urban space. Click here and here for the respective announcements.
I'm of the opinion that we should submit ideas for the People's Parking Lot to both organizations but with one thing in mind. I am, obviously, all for the re-activation of unused space but my real concern is what happens when and if we recover from the current financial situation? Do the same sorts of project restart on the spaces they have left abandoned for all these months? Are the temporary projects just a band-aid for the interim? To date the activities we have organized for the lot have been in good fun, but I'm concerned that as this fun is institutionalized, it might become watered down. I do want to participate in these projects but think we need to do something with a critical edge; something that looks beyond the "wackiness" of "feeding wallabies downtown" and more to what happens when the money returns.
I'm of the opinion that we should submit ideas for the People's Parking Lot to both organizations but with one thing in mind. I am, obviously, all for the re-activation of unused space but my real concern is what happens when and if we recover from the current financial situation? Do the same sorts of project restart on the spaces they have left abandoned for all these months? Are the temporary projects just a band-aid for the interim? To date the activities we have organized for the lot have been in good fun, but I'm concerned that as this fun is institutionalized, it might become watered down. I do want to participate in these projects but think we need to do something with a critical edge; something that looks beyond the "wackiness" of "feeding wallabies downtown" and more to what happens when the money returns.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Reminder: Re-Imagining Cities
Tonight, 7 pm, at Vermillion: John Boylan's Conversation, "Re-Imagining Cities."
From John's website:
The Story
We start with a simple question: What are the ways in which we re-imagine a city? In Seattle, there has been a lot of talk about remaking our town, at many levels. Most of that talk lately seems to revolve around the need to move people: the mayor’s talk of more mass transit, the push for a new waterfront tunnel and a new 520 bridge, the affect of Sound Transit’s new stations on Capitol Hill and the University District.
But can we rethink our city outside of that focus on big transit projects? Simply, how do we rethink what a city can be? Often it starts with a simple “what if?” question that leads to a huge project: “What if we had a monorail, or a big new park in the Cascade neighborhood?” Or sometimes it’s more fantastic, as in, “What if civilization were to fall apart? Would Seattle become a series of villages? And what would they look like?” But is “what if?” the best way to re-imagine a city? What else is there? And most important, what sort of imaginings can actually lead to a re-imagined city?
For this conversation I’ve invited four guests who loosely represent four ways of re-imagining cities. For me Sarah Bergmann represents a viral and activist approach: think through a small project, execute it, and then work on ways to grow it and spread it across a city. Transformation grows from a small kernel. Ray Gastil is a city planner and urban designer, and brings to the conversation a background in architecture, formal city planning, and a rigor of urban design. I asked Kurt Kiefer to join the discussion as well, in part because of a thought experiment he ran not long ago. He took an artist’s eye to the idea of what would happen if global warming were to turn Queen Anne hill into an island. How would the hill change? Would the new island be able to sustain itself? Finally, Alex Steffen rounds out the list. As a writer, editor, and international lecturer, Alex has been doing a lot of observing and thinking about how cities work and how they need to change. At a set of lectures at Town Hall in February, he called for Seattle to reach citywide carbon neutrality by 2030.
Come and talk about how you would re-imagine your city.
From John's website:
The Story
We start with a simple question: What are the ways in which we re-imagine a city? In Seattle, there has been a lot of talk about remaking our town, at many levels. Most of that talk lately seems to revolve around the need to move people: the mayor’s talk of more mass transit, the push for a new waterfront tunnel and a new 520 bridge, the affect of Sound Transit’s new stations on Capitol Hill and the University District.
But can we rethink our city outside of that focus on big transit projects? Simply, how do we rethink what a city can be? Often it starts with a simple “what if?” question that leads to a huge project: “What if we had a monorail, or a big new park in the Cascade neighborhood?” Or sometimes it’s more fantastic, as in, “What if civilization were to fall apart? Would Seattle become a series of villages? And what would they look like?” But is “what if?” the best way to re-imagine a city? What else is there? And most important, what sort of imaginings can actually lead to a re-imagined city?
For this conversation I’ve invited four guests who loosely represent four ways of re-imagining cities. For me Sarah Bergmann represents a viral and activist approach: think through a small project, execute it, and then work on ways to grow it and spread it across a city. Transformation grows from a small kernel. Ray Gastil is a city planner and urban designer, and brings to the conversation a background in architecture, formal city planning, and a rigor of urban design. I asked Kurt Kiefer to join the discussion as well, in part because of a thought experiment he ran not long ago. He took an artist’s eye to the idea of what would happen if global warming were to turn Queen Anne hill into an island. How would the hill change? Would the new island be able to sustain itself? Finally, Alex Steffen rounds out the list. As a writer, editor, and international lecturer, Alex has been doing a lot of observing and thinking about how cities work and how they need to change. At a set of lectures at Town Hall in February, he called for Seattle to reach citywide carbon neutrality by 2030.
Come and talk about how you would re-imagine your city.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Garage Sale is a Go
Just got word from the property owners about the Capitol Hill Garage Sale on June 5th: It's a go! If you're interested in setting up at the lot, follow the link above to register. Again, this is what it looked like last year.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
A Note from New York
Am I a mean person?
Original message:
Hi,
My name is Kathryn. I am contacting you on behalf of Friedland Realty (www.friedlandrealty.com). Friedland sells and leases commercial property in Metropolitan, NY. Currently, they are working on a lot of projects in the Bronx and Westchester to increase commerce and promote growth. As I primarily write content for Friedland, I was wondering if you accept guest posts on your blog relating to green infrastructure and architecture. I’d love the opportunity to share an informative and educational article with you and the readers of (peoplesparkinglot.blogspot.com). Please let me know if this is something you are interested in.
Best regards,
Kathryn
My response:
hi kathryn,
thanks for the message but i have to decline for two major reasons:
1) 99% of the blog content concerns one site in seattle.
2) said site was a popular symbolic place for the neighborhood and was ruined by people in your industry: a classic case of gentrification where they bought old buildings that small businesspeople and artist-types had made popular, and tried to make a fast buck off it with their reactionary designs and overpriced rents. i know that's the way the world works, but the readers of my site and the neighbors that i try to 'organize' have no sympathy for the industry until it responds to what we value. we'll probably never win this fight (the owner of the property lets us use it now but we have to get insurance and follow their rules) but i'll never do anything to 'support commerce or promote growth' unless it is something radically different from the current paradigm. prove to me that you're not an agent of a shallow, exorbitant profit-seeking business enterprise; that you care about the daily experience of 'place' and the residents who already live there (regardless of their income), and maybe i'll share your marketing material with my readers.
in the meantime, good luck with your financial crisis,
keith
http://peoplesparkinglot.blogspot.com
I'm actually not even sure this message was sent to me by a real person, but I'm hoping it is read by one...
Original message:
Hi,
My name is Kathryn. I am contacting you on behalf of Friedland Realty (www.friedlandrealty.com). Friedland sells and leases commercial property in Metropolitan, NY. Currently, they are working on a lot of projects in the Bronx and Westchester to increase commerce and promote growth. As I primarily write content for Friedland, I was wondering if you accept guest posts on your blog relating to green infrastructure and architecture. I’d love the opportunity to share an informative and educational article with you and the readers of (peoplesparkinglot.blogspot.com). Please let me know if this is something you are interested in.
Best regards,
Kathryn
My response:
hi kathryn,
thanks for the message but i have to decline for two major reasons:
1) 99% of the blog content concerns one site in seattle.
2) said site was a popular symbolic place for the neighborhood and was ruined by people in your industry: a classic case of gentrification where they bought old buildings that small businesspeople and artist-types had made popular, and tried to make a fast buck off it with their reactionary designs and overpriced rents. i know that's the way the world works, but the readers of my site and the neighbors that i try to 'organize' have no sympathy for the industry until it responds to what we value. we'll probably never win this fight (the owner of the property lets us use it now but we have to get insurance and follow their rules) but i'll never do anything to 'support commerce or promote growth' unless it is something radically different from the current paradigm. prove to me that you're not an agent of a shallow, exorbitant profit-seeking business enterprise; that you care about the daily experience of 'place' and the residents who already live there (regardless of their income), and maybe i'll share your marketing material with my readers.
in the meantime, good luck with your financial crisis,
keith
http://peoplesparkinglot.blogspot.com
I'm actually not even sure this message was sent to me by a real person, but I'm hoping it is read by one...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Earth Day Free Day Signage
Thanks to the lovely and talented Catherine Bailey for drawing up this Earth Day Free Day flier for us. I'm going to add website info to it tomorrow, but I like it so much I wanted to go ahead and share. Feel free (read: please) to print out a few copies on the sly at work and hang them up in your favorite places around the city. Or print four to a page, cut them out, and drop them off at your favorite cafes and record stores...
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