The photo for this story (and my own experience) shows that the new parking ramp (which had about 6-8 cars parked in it during Bike to the Bricks) is good for one thing:Taking photos!

I hate to gush, but this park makes my heart flutter…

And the fact that this entry is titled, “Bulldozing Cities,” as part of the GOOD 100 should cause you a great deal of concern…

“So why is my suggestion that my hometown of Flint should shrink…creating such a stir?”Well, I’d say that it’s because you never took the idea to the citizens.  It wasn’t the Land Bank’s fault that the ‘cat was let out of the bag,’ but it is the Land Bank’s fault for stoking the resulting hysteria.  Instead of coming out and stating exactly what “shrinking” meant (and could mean) to the citizens of Flint, talking to them, getting their ideas on what a smaller city means or looks like, you went to the national and international media.  You were inviting Rush Limbaugh to come to Flint to talk about the idea before you even bothered to ask the actual citizens living there.  Only now, over half a year since initial up-roar, are citizen’s getting a chance to engage the Land Bank in this idea.  But we’re now faced with months and months of ill-will, misunderstandings, and a great deal of confusion and frustration about the intent of the Land Bank and its partners.  And we’re not even going to talk about shrinking anymore, because that’s bad and now has lots of “negative connotations,” and provide some information about Flint’s situation, but not enough to really change the way people look at, envision or approach the problem, and get people’s idea on what “green” stuff they want the vacant land to be.”Shrinking” Flint could be the most amazing and visionary process this city has ever seen–one that could positively impact not just Flint, but cities like it.  Instead, because of the way this subject has been handled–a “process” that I’ve been completely dumbfounded by since the very beginning–it looks a lot like we’re now faced with a level of work that’s going to be on par with the sort of political pandering and lowest-common-denominator type thinking that’s put Flint in this position in the first place!I want better, and this city deserves better.

Funny…  I missed this when GOOD originally posted it, but then, it was easy to with all the attention it was getting.  The level of hysterics that this whole thing got whipped up to was astounding.I live here in Flint and have to say that it seems like everyone else knows more about this whole process than we do.  Dan Kildee with the Genesee County Land Bank has taken every opportunity to float his ideas and opinion about shrinking Flint to everyone BUT the city’s citizen’s.It’s a tragic situation really, because “shrinking” does hold so much potential for bettering the city and establishing a model for other urban areas, but there’s been no public discussion, no seminars, forums, events, nothing to educate, inform, or engage the citizens who’d be affected by the process.  There was even a deliberate attempt by the county and regional economic development figures to get a specific master plan process in place (because we haven’t had one for 4 decades) before our new mayor was elected because he was adamantly against any and all concepts of “shrinking” because his constituents wanted their neighborhoods to be just like they used to and like any good politician, he’s promised them that.And sense then, we’ve heard relatively very little about “shrinkage.”  Things have moved to a more subtle, less visible process that’s primarily engaged the main “shrinkage” supporters.  That Brookings report?  No published documentation or reports that I can find and the general idea is that this is all pretty much just things people have talked about doing but not put any follow-through into.

I absolutely love this film.  And while it isn’t what it appears to be initially, it’s still completely thrilling.

The photo for this story (and my own experience) shows that the new parking ramp (which had about 6-8 cars parked in it during Bike to the Bricks) is good for one thing:Taking photos!

I hate to gush, but this park makes my heart flutter…

And the fact that this entry is titled, “Bulldozing Cities,” as part of the GOOD 100 should cause you a great deal of concern…

“So why is my suggestion that my hometown of Flint should shrink…creating such a stir?”Well, I’d say that it’s because you never took the idea to the citizens.  It wasn’t the Land Bank’s fault that the ‘cat was let out of the bag,’ but it is the Land Bank’s fault for stoking the resulting hysteria.  Instead of coming out and stating exactly what “shrinking” meant (and could mean) to the citizens of Flint, talking to them, getting their ideas on what a smaller city means or looks like, you went to the national and international media.  You were inviting Rush Limbaugh to come to Flint to talk about the idea before you even bothered to ask the actual citizens living there.  Only now, over half a year since initial up-roar, are citizen’s getting a chance to engage the Land Bank in this idea.  But we’re now faced with months and months of ill-will, misunderstandings, and a great deal of confusion and frustration about the intent of the Land Bank and its partners.  And we’re not even going to talk about shrinking anymore, because that’s bad and now has lots of “negative connotations,” and provide some information about Flint’s situation, but not enough to really change the way people look at, envision or approach the problem, and get people’s idea on what “green” stuff they want the vacant land to be.”Shrinking” Flint could be the most amazing and visionary process this city has ever seen–one that could positively impact not just Flint, but cities like it.  Instead, because of the way this subject has been handled–a “process” that I’ve been completely dumbfounded by since the very beginning–it looks a lot like we’re now faced with a level of work that’s going to be on par with the sort of political pandering and lowest-common-denominator type thinking that’s put Flint in this position in the first place!I want better, and this city deserves better.

Funny…  I missed this when GOOD originally posted it, but then, it was easy to with all the attention it was getting.  The level of hysterics that this whole thing got whipped up to was astounding.I live here in Flint and have to say that it seems like everyone else knows more about this whole process than we do.  Dan Kildee with the Genesee County Land Bank has taken every opportunity to float his ideas and opinion about shrinking Flint to everyone BUT the city’s citizen’s.It’s a tragic situation really, because “shrinking” does hold so much potential for bettering the city and establishing a model for other urban areas, but there’s been no public discussion, no seminars, forums, events, nothing to educate, inform, or engage the citizens who’d be affected by the process.  There was even a deliberate attempt by the county and regional economic development figures to get a specific master plan process in place (because we haven’t had one for 4 decades) before our new mayor was elected because he was adamantly against any and all concepts of “shrinking” because his constituents wanted their neighborhoods to be just like they used to and like any good politician, he’s promised them that.And sense then, we’ve heard relatively very little about “shrinkage.”  Things have moved to a more subtle, less visible process that’s primarily engaged the main “shrinkage” supporters.  That Brookings report?  No published documentation or reports that I can find and the general idea is that this is all pretty much just things people have talked about doing but not put any follow-through into.

I absolutely love this film.  And while it isn’t what it appears to be initially, it’s still completely thrilling.

Two of the biggest (and FREE!) sketching/editing tools are GIMP and Google SketchUp.  GIMP is a digital image editor and SketchUp is a 3D modeling program (great for blocking out building masses, streets, trees, etc., printing or transfering to an image editor, then tracing by hand or photo-editing.

Anonymous, when I was in school, we used a range of tools.  The simplest (and cheapest) was to take digital photos of the site, print them out and tape them together, then (using trace paper) trace over them while sketching in the new elements and tracing the old ones we wanted to keep.  Also, there’s a huge variety of drawing, sketching software available for a range of prices.  Many have reduced student prices.  We used (and still use) the Adobe Creative Suite: Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.

Crud…  The image didn’t post…

“This is the kind of holistic approach to ‘livable streets’ that we love to see.”Aweseome.  That’s exactly what the project was seeking to accomplish.”It would have been nice to see some human beings in the rendering…”Will Etling has had the ‘populated version of the rendering Since April.  Maybe he could post it now…?  Ooh!  Wait…<IMG alt=”The populated version… “… nearly empty alley is sort of an easy target for a redesign…”Not when you compare it to a street…All complaints aside, though, good job to all the winners (and non-winners).  It’s great to know there’s so many folks out there thinking about and visualizing this sort of thing!