Troy Community Works!

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existing221EMain_plan

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Last week TCW held our second Sip, Savor, Share event for donors and volunteers and we were so lucky to have Meera Parthasarathy from Spatial Synergy Studio present the first look at the redesigned 221 E. Main.    I’m sure you’ll have the same “oohhhs” and “awwww’s” that our audience did when they first saw these renderings.  This is only the first draft, I’m sure there will be more changes.  However, it is an opportunity for the community to really see the vision our TCW Board has had for this building. There are only a few images here, but you can click the link for a look at the entire 7 slide powerpoint presentation.

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Our board has always had the goal of turning this vacant building into a mixed use building incorporating a residential apartment, office spaces, and retail spaces.  During our first look at the redevelopment plan we hope to pursue LEED certification and possibly even obtain LEED-silver status.  We’ll be sure to let the community know some of the green features we hope to be putting in place, but you can already see the plans to incorporate a rain garden to minimize run off.  Check back with us often to see how the project is coming along.

TCW is seeking to hire a part time housing counselor to meet with our Miami County Foreclosure Clients and to develop our homebuyer and homeowner education programs.  Please see the job description for more information and contact TCW if you are interested. Housing Counselor Job Description.

Recently I had the pleasure to hear one of my favorite neighborhood activitists speak; Jay Walljasper-former editor of Utne Magazine and author of The Great Neighborhood Book.  He spoke at the 24th annual Miami Valley Planning & Zoning Workshop-one of my favorite workshops in the area.  At the workshop Jay gave two talks-the first of which was a list of 24 Ways to Make A Great Community.  Many of his suggestions are so simple, yet make a profound impact.  But I’ll let you be the judge of that-here’s his list of 24 things.

1. Give people a place to hang out.  Like hang out on the street in sidewalk cafe’s, corner pocket parks, businesses with a water bowl for dogs.

2. Give people something to see.  Public art, great signs, interesting planters.

3. Give people something to do.

4. Give people a place to walk; a place that is nice and easy to get to, that connects to other places. In Jay’s words “Walking is a human connection machine!”

5. Give people a place to sit down.

6. Give people a place to bike (and make sure those places are safely connected to where they live & work).

7. Give people a chance to take transit.

8. Smile, greet & wave at each other.

9. Make the streets safe (i.e. have eyes on the street).

10. Make the streets safe for drivers and pedestrians (i.e. use traffic calming).

11. Don’t forget about the kids.  A great deal of children live under involuntary house arrest because parents are afraid of unsafe streets and they have no walking/biking connection to the places they want to go.

12. Don’t forget about elderly people.

13. Let your community go to the dogs.  What tends to be good for the dogs is good for people.

14. Reclaim your front yard-move from the back patio to the front and greet your neighbors.

15. It takes a village to raise a community-a village can be a state of mind not just a physical location.

16. Don’t fear density.

17. Don’t give up hope.

18. Build on what’s good to make it better; utilize Asset Based Community Development (ABCD).

19. Never underestimate the power of people working together!

20. Never underestimate the power of a good meal!

21. Start small-the little things add up.

22. Rediscover the commons.

23. Learn from everywhere.

24. Take time to enjoy your community.  Here he quoted a poet (Wordsworth? Thoreau?) “I rise in the morning torn between my desire to improve the world and to enjoy it.”

I’ll likely refer to these and his other talk “How to Save the World on Your Block” in later posts, but for now enjoy Jay’s list and think about how we can build our community!