Tactical Urbanism

Our first presentation of day 3 was over an interesting and growing sustainability effort known as Tactical Urbanism. Our first presenter was Rik Adamanski from Team Better Block. Team Better Block works with cities, developers, and stakeholders to create inexpensive and positive changes that improve and revitalize underused properties. Team Better Block creates a series of “quick win” projects that bring attention to developments prior to creation. Their team works with developers to identify and test improvements to provide higher ROI by increasing the project’s overall benefit to the community. Team Better Block also works with city governments to identify underperforming properties in order to generate interest and reinvestment through community outreach. For their efforts they have been recognized by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and GOOD Magazine.

To make a city work you need people walking and interacting with their community. There is a big drive towards an urban walkable lifestyle which you can see in the areas of 7th Street and Magnolia in Fort Worth. The real issue is regulations made by the cities that mandate how everything is built, and if you don't want to build to their regulations then you can't be there. To some it's the American Dream; to others a bureaucratic mess that is unfriendly and impersonal. To change the way cities work you have to start with small strategies. Create areas of street art or fix issues with drainage or buildings. One of the more creative solutions is called parking day. This is when a group of people take over a designated parking spot to do something fun for the day. You can have a library, cook on a grill, or do some yoga. Another solution is known as Walk Rally. People will put up signs tailored to the city that tell others how far of a walk it is to an interesting part of the city to help get people out of their cars and walking.



 One really interesting concept is "Guerrilla Bike Lanes" where the people have started painting in bike lanes in areas where the city was either taking too long or did not have the money to invest. The problematic situation here is that many cities end up spending money to go cover the self-made lanes up. Cities are starting to realize that leaving these self-made lanes is more efficient for the city and saves them time and money. The city of Fort Worth is also starting to learn more about "pop-up retail". It's a new concept where someone can take over an empty rental space for a day and sell their goods. This introduces a way to make money for the renters and have a new business in the area every day or week which keeps consumer's interest. Currently there are issues with insurance that are keeping the city from fully realizing this concept but Fort Worth is trying to find the best solution to implement better policies.



Now there is a fine line between legal and officially sanctioned efforts and illegal vandalism. Since it is becoming more commonplace and is taking place worldwide, cities are becoming more responsive and assisting groups in community development. For example, in New York there was a movement to shut down Time Square to car traffic and make it more of a community center where people walked, shopped, and ate. It would have taken New York years and millions of dollars to do a study of how shutting down Broadway would effect traffic and walking traffic. Instead, the city set up an experiment where they put out chairs and shut down two blocks of Manhattan to see how people would react. At a cost of only $5112 for the chairs, the city was able to conclude that the experiment was a success in every way possible and has now

Another very public effort was the Volkswagon experiment called "The Fun Theory". At a subway station in Stockholm, the company noticed that most individuals are taking the escalator and avoiding the stairs so they wanted to see if making the stairs more fun would change people's behavior. They replaced the staircase with electronic boards that made musical notes. They found that 66% more people than before were taking the stairs. The video below shows the process and the effect the experiment had on the station.

To close out the class, Debby Stein who was involved in Better Block's embRACE the Street project, gave us some information on the growing Riverside area of Fort Worth and how to participate in urban projects. She has lived in Fort Worth for 25 years and has lived in Boston, LA, and New York. She is active in real estate, the arts, and city government. The embRACE the Street project took place on September 8th and 9th on the 2800 and 2900 blocks of Race street in the Riverside area. Multiple businesses have signed on and more are taking part every day. There are streetscape improvements, art galleries, cultural food ventures, and tactical do-it-yourself (DIY) urbanism development projects. The area continues to need development and she encouraged us all to take part in generating ideas and contacting her for ways we could assist.

I highly encourage my readers to look into ways that Tactical Urbanism can be used to better their communities in a safe and beneficial way. Having participated in these types of projects in the past I can assure you it is an extremely fun and rewarding way to assist your community. In the end, these are our living spaces and we are responsible for making the areas in which we live a fun, safe, and enjoyable environment with or without the assistance of the city. All I can say is believe in yourself, believe in your community, and you won't believe how easily you can get a group together to better the areas you all share.

To see more videos and photos of Tactical Urbanism please visit my other pages.