How Walking Around Your City Can Lead to Something Great
By some estimates (including the CBC), there were 100 people on the walk we took on Tuesday night, in the rain, throughout downtown Windsor.
The attendance alone was inspiring, but what really made the experience so incredible for me was the energy that everyone brought. When we stopped and took a moment to briefly talk about the potential of the Downtown Transit terminal, or the Canderel Building’s huge space, or the properties for lease on Ouellette, the old bingo hall, the House, the city’s storefronts on Pelissier, we got excited together. Things started to feel remotely possible.
It’s that sense of possibility that’s so important right now for our city.
At today’s Artscape Placemaking Workshop at the AGW, we heard some really amazing stories about the work at Artscape has done, the work of Bert and crew at AS220 in Providence, things that started as truly small ideas and have since become cultural movements. It’s all possible, we just need to find the time to walk around a bit more often together.
Then, we need to start getting into some space. And, we should be in a space next to one another, or at least down the block from one another, so we can see one another more often, and we can go for walks and imagine more new things. And then, one day, we’ll look back and say, “remember that walk we took with 90-something other people on that really cold and rainy night…”
Sound good?
P.S. If anyone has any photos or video from the walk, I’d love to see them!
![Laura Paolini of Bell Payphone Labs arrived yesterday with a mission to bust open her payphones. We found all the tools and help we needed out on the street. Otherwise, business as usual down on Pelissier, with one week left to go! The Department of Unusual Certainties have been re-arranging their workspace. These boys are [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/IMG_8367-150x150.jpg "SRSI, Day 21: Busting Open Payphones")
![SCAVENGE THE CITY: An Algorithmic Walk with Broken City Lab is happening on Sunday, March 29th at 6pm. Starting at Phog Lounge, we’ll be handing out a custom algorithm (a set of instructions), using a fancy computer program that we write, to take you and whomever you want to walk with, around the downtownish area [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/scavengethecityposter-v1-150x150.jpg "Scavenge The City")
![We finished putting soil and seeds into the magnetic planters and set them on a sunny window ledge to start germinating. We figured the planters would stand a better chance at surviving (and staying in place longer than just overnight) if there were some wildflowers starting to grow. We also went to the downtown space [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/img_24681-150x150.jpg "Seeds in the Planters, Waiting to Grow")
![Today was another great, amazingly fun and productive day in 406 Pelissier! We did a lot of material tests, figured out some more details on our book, met some new people, and generally enjoyed having a dedicated workspace. It’s going to be very hard to give up this space. The day started by spreading out [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/IMG_0742-150x150.jpg "Being Productive Again: Day 2")
![Danielle and I have been in St.Catharines at Brock University working with an Ecopsychology class on a public art project (details to follow in coming week(s). We’re only here for a few days to help get the class started, but it’s been incredibly fun working with a bunch of strangers. We’ve explored the campus and [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/IMG_0155-150x150.jpg "Field Report from St.Catharines")
![The Eco-House was bumpin’ Friday night! Amongst a slew of other undergoing projects, Michelle, Rosina, Josh and I we’re all hard at work, trying to get everything organized for our upcoming event and final installment of Save The City that’s taking place this Friday at the Art Gallery of Windsor! Rosina and I tackled the Save The City [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/IMG_4835web-150x150.jpg "Getting things done!")
![Arriving in Winnipeg late Sunday night, we were met with our first taste of winter for the year. It seemed like the right introduction to Winnipeg. This residency and exhibition is all about exploring the narratives that are (and are not) circulated about the city of Winnipeg, and perhaps any story of Winnipeg should indeed [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/IMG_59522-150x150.jpg "Martha Street Studio Residency Day 1: Winnipeg / Winterpeg")
![The Storefront Residencies for Social Innovation invites the radical re-imagining of the possibilities for economic stimulus and process-driven practice, situating those very possibilities in the heart of Windsor in vacant storefronts. Facilitated by Broken City Lab, the Storefront Residencies for Social Innovation will call on artists, writers, designers, entrepreneurs, not-for-profits, hobby shops, restauranteurs, librarians, musicians, architects, archivists, and other [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/SRSI-11x17-3-520px-rgb-150x150.jpg "Call for Proposals: The Storefront Residencies for Social Innovation")
![Back in January, we asked nearly 40 people two questions: Why did you first come to Windsor? and Why are you still here? We asked those questions at an event called, Listen to the City, which was the first part of the five-month long project, Save the City. It was an incredible night. The answers [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Listentothecity2-150x150.jpg "Listen to the City: an Overview")
![Sara and I spent some time planning out some very preliminary designs for our Grades for Public Spaces project. The gist of the project is to have a series of rubrics to annotate / grade public space — or rather, use those rubrics as a tool to generate conversation and engagement in the use and rethinking [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/IMG_6597-150x150.jpg "Grades for Public Spaces (design phase)")
![We’ll be visiting Philadelphia to explore the development of short- and long-term projects in collaboration with the Mural Arts Program and community organizations in the city. During our visit, Mural Arts and Philly Works will be hosting a public presentation of our work, and a stimulating conversation about how artists can engage people in conversations [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/philly-150x150.jpg "Exploring Philadelphia & Public Talk with Mural Arts & Philly Works")
![We spent the better part of Day 2 of our Extended Field Trip #001 in Peterborough at the wonderful Artspace talking to some new people, synthesizing some questions from our broad understanding of the city so far, and trying to get a sense of what if anything there is to change about this place. We [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/IMG_3499-150x150.jpg "Extended Field Trip Day 2: Mapping")
![Darren, Josh, and I met with some folks from the Sandwich Community Health Centre and Maya from FedUp to start discussing community gardens. The meeting went well, serving as a good starting point to start figuring out what we might be able to do in Sandwich. The SCHC is working on a site on Prince Road, [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/communitygarden-aerial-150x150.jpg "Brainstorming Community Gardens")
![First decisions of the day to be made — whether to commit or not to painting the letters black or white. Somehow this has been one of the longest ongoing discussions we’ve had for a while. The next step though is to paint and test in the wild. The letters from the table view. Notes [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_9260-4-150x150.jpg "First Decisions of the Day … and notes from breakfast")
![Thursday was the Storefront Success Stories Speed Dating for Store Owners event down on Pelissier for SRSI, and Justin set up a window installation using the Arduino. Using the same format as the text on the billboards running in Windsor until July 15th as part of the conclusion of Save The City, The Arduino in [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/IMG_1618-150x150.jpg "SRSI, Day 28: Speed Dating for Store Owners")
![Paul writes with great news that the Max patch he’s been working on for our window installation project can now capture audio, upload it to a server and tweet a notification. We’re meeting on Wednesday to discuss the next steps and to plan workshops for the winter! Also, with Twitter, I spent a bus and [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2012-12-08_00-12-49-150x150.png "Tech Update: Drift & Window Install + Twitter")
![From yesterday afternoon — testing the stamp that Rosina set up and the cards we just got back from the printers. We also got a fun package from Hamilton Artist Inc. that included some of the “questionnaires” we did from the last art crawl. These will eventually make their way into our forthcoming publication. Detail, [...]](http://d1ugx41kvdwavn.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_9738-150x150.jpg "Letter Library Card & Stamp Test, Example, etc.")
Justin, I just wanted to thank you (and Tom) for the great tour of empty spaces in downtown Windsor. Opportunities abound. As I mentioned to our group at the end of the Creative Placemaking Workshop, Windsorites are starting to see the possibilities and think outside the box. It’s through communication and interaction that out-of-the-box thinkers like Windsor’s artist community will be inspired and then inspire others. Well done and thank you, sir.
Oh man. I wish I could have went! Besides the rain, the walk was probably great. It seems like it rains almost every time a walk is organized. Hmmm…
It looks like the walk was unreal. I was stuck in class trying desperately to learn something, though I have no doubt that I would’ve learned loads more had I attended the walk instead. I’d love to see more photos, PS!
I enjoyed the whole evening! The rain just made the indoor spaces all the more special. It was very nice to meet enthusiastic people who were visiting Windsor to learn about Windsor and its conditions. This was the best introduction they could have received. I believe we need to move forward with collaborative artist spaces in the downtown area – who is up for further discussion?
What I really got out of this all was a renewed sense of possibility and a real hope that we might indeed be able to find some shareable space sooner rather than later. I’m certainly up for more discussion … it’d be really great to have a storefront space for BCL on a more permanent basis.