Join CommunityMatters® on Wednesday, September 25, 2013 from 4-5pm Eastern for our free conference call! This month’s call will feature Andrew Howard of Better Block, plus we'll hear from Elena Traister and Lynee Wells - they've both spearheaded Better Block events in their local communities. Register Now!
Think about an area of town that you just can’t wait to leave; a place with vacant storefronts that may never be filled, or a block without much life. Could a committed group of local volunteers turn that place around in just one day?
Photo Credit: Filipe Martinez
Jason Roberts, part of Team Better Block, lived in one of these less-than-desirable places in Dallas, Texas. Yet, when he looked at the derelict buildings and the empty sidewalks he saw great potential, not desolation. Jason organized his community to create the first Better Block Project, a weekend event in Dallas’s Oak Cliff neighborhood.
Watch the video below to hear Jason’s story:
Using temporary demonstrations to test out pop-up businesses, create more inviting public spaces and add life to a tired block, Better Block projects transform scruffy, underused streets into vibrant and walkable places. These locally-driven demonstration projects bring neighbors together to experience and envision an area’s potential.
Armed with tips from Jason and Team Better Block, hundreds of communities across the globe have organized Better Block projects in their own backyards.
In the small town of North Adams, Massachusetts, students from the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts painted crosswalks, added decorations to light poles, and created the One Day Café – a pop-up coffee shop - to help revitalize Eagle Street.
Better Block efforts in Oyster Bay, Long Island transformed Audrey Avenue with a series of pop-ups, from a movie theater to a park, all for just over $1,300. By showing people the potential for local businesses to succeed, an area long characterized by vacancies and few pedestrian amenities in 2010 was fully occupied the following year.
Oyster Bay’s organizer, Isaac Kremer, didn’t stop there. He’s already planning another event in his new home of Middlesboro, Kentucky. We’re thrilled that Isaac is one of four winners of our Successful Communities Contest, garnering more than 250 votes in support of the project. Isaac’s team won $500 toward their Better Block Project, scheduled for late October. We’ll make sure to check back in with him after the event.
Out in the Rocky Mountains, Denver’s Better Block project in the Five Points neighborhood enlivened a local park with live music, free yoga, food trucks and storytelling. And, efforts in Grand Rapids, Michigan temporarily converted State Street SE from a neighborhood connector to a retail corridor.
While many of the interventions created during one- or two-day projects may disappear after the events are over, Better Block projects do create real and tangible change in communities. A survey of past projects shows that 71% have changed or are changing ordinances around complete streets and neighborhoods and 100% saw an increase in sales tax revenue.
Want to organize a Better Block project in your town? Don’t miss our next CommunityMatters call on Wednesday, September 25 from 4-5pm, featuring Andrew Howard from Team Better Block, Lynee Wells from Grand Rapids, Michigan and Elena Traister from North Adams, Massachusetts. They’ll tell us more about the benefits of the Better Block strategy, and they’ll share tips and tricks for organizing a project in your community.
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