Dude! Where’s my inspiration?
A silo is a terrible place to live.
si·lo
pronunciation -[sahy-loh], plural -los, verb, -loed, -lo·ing.
–nounAs in, “All too often, people from different parts of the city government operate within their own silos.” A term that once was exclusively used by farmers and coal-miners to describe grain or coal storage, a “silo” now also refers to the closed-minded state of a person or group of people lacking interaction with those who think differently.(Next American City, issue 20, pg 9)
In a nutshell, NAC is telling us to get out of the house every once in a while. I need to be reminded to do that myself, as my little world is quite insulated at times. True, there is less turmoil disrupting routines, but the free-flow of ideas is also detoured. So I got out of the house.
It started in Toronto with our Centre for Social Innovation tour a couple of weeks ago. That reminded me of the power of a space that encouraged creative interaction in a professional setting. The contageousness of creativity goes a long way to inspiring innovation.
Yet, not to be outdone, along comes the Creative Cities Summit 2.0 in Detroit this week. If the right side of my brain managed to sleep through CSI (unlikely), CCS2.0 was definitely a wake-up call whose snooze button wouldn’t be ignored.
Forget for a moment that the attendees were priviledged to have the “Big 3″ of the creativity movement on stage at the same time; Richard Florida (Rise of the Creative Class, Flight of the Creative Class, and Who’s Your City), Charles Landry (The Art of City Making, The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators, and The Intercultural City) and John Howkins (The Creative Economy, amongst many others). The rest of the speakers list, while not as high profile, was no less inspirational.
I found my inspiration!
And I’m trying to pass that along to you. Impossible - as my writing skills are severly lacking. Maybe my fellow attendees, Pina and Adriano Ciotoli (WindsorEats) will be able to acomplish this task a little better than I am.
I got the chance to meet one of my favourite radio personalities, Carol Colletta (she even agreed to appear on ScaleDown Radio!!!), as well as Doug Farr, one of the midwest’s leading green architects. I also met Anamaria Willis, who taught me everything I could hope to learn (in the 45 minute break-out session - I will be placing a few follow up phone calls) about following a dream of mine and developing artist live/work space. Immensely informative, entertaining and useful stuff that I am ecstatic to have been exposed to, but that’s not where I found my elusive inspiration.
That was found in Bill Strickland and Majora Carter. These two people taught me that the impossible is, indeed, possible and that I cannot - should not - be sidetracked or delayed by adversity.
Bill Strickland was a boy who found his creativity through the caring of a teacher in the halls of his eementary school. Strickland was introduced to the transformative properties of exercising his creativity through a chunk of clay on a potters wheel. He grew up to head the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild to share his experience with other at-risk kids in his urban Pittsburgh neighbourhood. The Bidwell Training Center followed soon after, only to propogate across the country and beyond their nation’s borders. This is a big, burly man who started out with the cards stacked against him, and now brings fresh cut flowers into his school daily because “every kid needs sunshine and fresh flowers.” I want his energy and dedication.
Then on the last day we were introduced to Majora Carter. Like Strickland, Carter had what seemed to be the entire universe to overcome in her South Bronx neighbourhood. Violence was routine (she lost her brother in a drive-by shooting) and blight was everywhere. Environmental racism was upon them;
…if power plants, waste handling, chemical plants and transport systems were located in wealthy areas as quickly and easily as in poor areas, we would have had a clean, green economy decades ago…
So she did something about it. She started cleaning up her neighbourhood and recruiting more of her neighbours to help. She took her dog for a walk one day, only to find that there was actually an accessible (once the tons of refuse was cleared away) route to the nearby river. This was her first major project - writing a $1.25M Federal Transportation planning grant for the South Bronx Greenway with 11 miles of alternative transport, local economic development, low-impact storm-water management, and recreational space. This led to the first new South Bronx water front park in over 60 years. I’ll let you read about what else this woman has accomplished in her short period of time on this earth, because the list is exhaustive. We were trying to figure out just how old she was, because her accomplishments were befitting a much more seasoned activist.
Yeah, I found my inspiration. In the next few days, CCS2.0 has promised to have a lot of its interactive media available online, and I want to pass it along to you. So be sure to check back in with us because I want you to have this inspire you as well.
Tags: community building, Creative Class, event
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it really was a great conference. what inspired me was that it wasn’t government that initiated changes in the surrounding environments…it was every day people. while some of the money did eventually come from government funding, it seems quite a bit of it also came from priviate individuals and companies. but it was the initiation of these projects by ordinary people who wanted to make change in their community that inspired me the most. they believed in something and acted on it.
it’s easy to point out all the bad about a city. i know i’m often guilty of it. what is more difficult is changing what we feel is negative and creating it into something good for our city. we live here and we need to create the city we want to live in. that’s pretty much what i learned over the three days. it was great to hear the positives.
btw thanks for hanging out with us chris
are you having ciotoli withdrawals yet?
My Ciotoli DT’s started the minute I got out of the car Wednesday, P. Yes - the car. Not the tunnel bus! I also noticed you posted this comment earlier than you ever showed up for one of the CCS2.0 sessions
It can be done! Look at Gateway Public Park on Riverside and Cameron, look at River West Village, though it was a true urban village in the late ’80s. Regardless of the levelling of most of the area (now known as city centre west lands as if it is some kind of wasteland to be avoided) it still has a small dedicated group of residents that help each other out to keep the area clean and spruced up.
PC is right it always starts with individuals and with great non-profit companies like Green-Shield Canada who put so much money behind local projects and other non-profits, the money can start to flow. When local, provincial and federal gov’ts see that they too want in.
But it starts with YOU fellow readers! What have YOU done for YOUR city or even YOUR neighbourhood to make the positive, necessary changes needed to make Windsor a 21st century city worth living in? It is up to US to make the initial move, do the ground work and see what blossoms. You would be surprised at the results.
Great blog Chris. I’m curious to know what you thought of Doug Farr. As you know his book ‘Sustainable Urbanism’ has been a personal inspiration to me. It would be interesting to hear what he had to say in person.
Also, I once had the pleasure of putting things into context for me by explaining how ‘the impossible is, indeed, possible’ by using a very interesting and straightforward example. All that he said was ‘take a look around the room in which you are sitting at all of the objects that were created by humans. At one point in time EVERYTHING in the room was an impossible to solve problem yet it is all here at this present time’. This man was Jim Rough. If you want to see a way of thinking creatively and ‘outside’ the box, take a look at his website.
I liked Farr, RY. Talk about an animated individual! He was wearing a button on his lapel that stated “Sex is better within 1/4 mile of a transit station” I was ready to buy his book until the cashier told me it was $75.00! I bought two Charles Landry books for the same price. Maybe I can borrow your copy when you’re finished with it
“would be interesting to hear what he had to say in person.” You may get your chance. The organizers of CCS2.0 have stated that they will be putting much of the conference video they shot online. Keep reading SD as I will post it when-and-if that happens.
I am feeling the need to break the apathy and self-doubt in this city with one big, successful venture that residents will look at with awe and pride. Anyone want to join me?
I am feeling the need to break the apathy and self-doubt in this city with one big, successful venture that residents will look at with awe and pride. Anyone want to join me?–> Isn’t that sort of like a ’silver bullet’ solution Chris? j/k
What do you have in mind?
I’m in.
i guess i’ll join ya chris…why not
You guys and gals have to sign the dotted line before I give any clues away
too late…i already know the details
haha