ShareAnIdea expo

[marsden_online]

Met up with shenya to wander around the expo this afternoon. First time I've been into the [whoever the sponsor is now] arena. It was busy, but not crowded although there were a lot of people listening to the speakers, possibly as many as were making their way around the stands.

It didn't take too long to wander around the displays and whack some sticky notes up. Mostly versions of suggestions I've already submitted online, but it eventually occurred to me the value of having other people there read them as well as whoever ends up making the plan - or at least whoever gets to sort out all the suggestions and report up on the themes.

A lot of the trends I'd already seen on the website/twitter stream were strongly evident - a clean green city, bike lanes, fewer cars in the city, good public transport, boutique shops, restaurants, inner-city living. One trend I hadn't noted before can be summarised as "keep the yoof out" - I didn't agree with that so I whacked up a note suggesting graffiti parks, skateboard arenas, places for youth to congregate.

[pops over to the suggestion site to add]

A city has a future because of it's young people. Don't "keep the yoof out" - give them places to be active in the way of their generation

I brought the feedback form home with me to write up longer-form answers to the questions as "homework", then I'll hand it in at the local service center.

Comments

[mrangel.livejournal.com]

I went along for a while yesterday afternoon, the guy from Gehl Architects was good. I made one submission on kintsugi and the need to repair heritage buildings such that it is obvious that they were in an earthquake; one on the need for small, hidden spaces, and the ability to come upon new things around corners; and one on the need to have places of unstructured community in the city, more like a bar or common room than concert hall or food court. That last one was the shortest, and I think I will have to rephrase and expand upon it to make it clear that young people are allowed to just hang around and talk, and that they're not going to attack adults, even if they are dressed funny and listening to not-really-music.