A Better Seven Cities
Words Jesse Scaccia
Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
… at the tip of our salivating tongues.
Tidewaterians, HamptonRoadites, SevenCitiers,
I address you as part of a sweeping, ambitious, civic-minded, literary-spirited, metaphorphilogical project we’re conducting here at 24sevencities.com.
We’re trying to put together a list of missing pieces to this area being more of a place that liberal, artistically-minded people like us (me?) would want to take root. I encourage you to think about the cities you love, and ask yourself, what are the programs there that make it a Place? Maybe you’re into Portland’s community bike project, or maybe Christo’s gates in Central Park got your blood a little more thumpin thumpin, or even Paris’ abundance of sidewalk cafes, the way they make you feel like you’re walking through a postcard.
There’s also a lot of good here already. What is it? How can this site help bring it out?
I think you get it. Get back at me, even if it’s just one or two word answers.
Dig it.
Jesse
jesse@24sevencities.com
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Jesse is the editor in chief of AltDaily, and he's going to take this bio seriously, but not so seriously that he's going to continue in the third person. I've been involved with a bunch of local projects and civic groups in various roles, including: Hampton Roads, The Canvas; Art | Everywhere, Street Performance in Norfolk; Survive Norfolk; Hampton Roads Pride/Out in the Park; Bike Norfolk; re:Vision Norfolk, and such.
I originally came to Norfolk as a Perry Morgan fellow in ODU's creative writing program. Before that I bummed around quite a bit, writing stacks of books that never got published, hitchhiking, couchsurfing, riding the Greyhound up down and back across this country. Some of my favorite jobs and volunteer gigs have included working on organic farms in Ireland; being first mate on an old sail boat in Holland; working at a long-term home for young men in South Africa; being a journalist and high school teacher in New York and California; washing dishes in Yosemite National Park; teaching English in DC and swimming in Florida; and interning at ESPN in Bristol, which was much less cool that you'd want it to be. My career highlights have been having three of my op-eds run in the New York Times, and being the executive producer of a six-part docu-drama on BET. Because school is cool I have three master's degrees (ODU for MFA, NYU for magazine journalism, University of Connecticut for secondary English education). I live in Norfolk because I believe in its potential. Email your ideas or nicely couched criticism to jesse@altdaily.com.
Other posts by Jesse Scaccia.
Other posts by Jesse Scaccia.
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Love the Ocean View parade every year!
I though we were Hampton Roadesians? LOL
I can’t say I want the region “more liberal” (whatever that means), but I’d like places like the Virginia Beach Town Center to be more pedestrian friendly – vehicle free, actually. I thin the Beach had a great opportunity to create an area like many European cities have (particularly Germany, from what I saw) where pedestrians are the norm, and sidewalk cafes are prevalent. It could still be pulled off by closing traffic from Central Park Ave. from Bank to Columbus (as a start). Heck, they could even do it on a temporary, weekend basis like New Orleans does to Bourbon St, or Philly does to South St.
I certainly agree with the previous post on an overall incorporation of smart growth principles to this regions new projects and revitilazation of older spaces. How we build not only effects us in the very direct way of dictating how we interact with the world about us, but in the more subtle and possibly more powerful way of how we think. Our homes, our communities, our public spaces, and businesses give us a sense of connectivity or isolation, openness or restrictiveness, and possibilities for the future or stagnation in the present. Without a significant shift in how we view the use of land and city/regional planning we will build ourselves into a lifestyle that may not be what we wanted.
Many regions when looking to the future held a series of charrettes in which the public was invited to weigh in on what the they hoped the region would grow to be and how they could get there. I would love to see Hampton Roads develop and advertise an ongoing process for the citizenry to make their voices heard and keep an eye to the future. This process could be intiated by 24sevencities.com.
To avoid rambling I will leave a couple of concrete suggestions my personal liberal bent would like to see.
Bikes. Bikes. Bikes. A public system? Dedicated bike lanes, city sponsored biking events, a non-profit dedicated to underwriting a public program.
Really Really Free Market: This program is active and successful around the country. A free yard sale is the best synopsis. Everything offered is free, and not just things. People come out and offer services as well. Face painting, hair cuts, bike repairs, impromptu lectures, art classes… you name it. The physical objects you may take home from a really really free market are simply the icing on the cake. The real benefit is the community building it encourages, The horizontal bonds, and sense of place that grow out of people coming together with no fiduciary motivations or considerations at all. A simple public forum for knowing those about you, and what they are about.
I will stop here for now. Where any city will go in the future is directly related to how far its citizens will go. I hope this post grows, and spills over to face to face conversations and action. Way to go 24sevencities.com for getting the ball rolling.