On January 12, 2012, I woke up exhausted, but excited since I knew this was our last class and I was going to have my Saturdays back. Truthfully, the weekends are the main time I get to spend with my 8 month old daughter and wife, so having my Saturdays back to spend with them is going to be nice. On another note, I don't get to go on anymore interesting and informational tours. Our first guest speakers of the day were Rik Adamski (will bring you to one of Rik's videos) and Debby Stein (will bring you to Debby's website). Rik started the first hour off talking about DIY (do it yourself) or Tactical Urbanism. DIY Urbanism works from the bottom up. In other words, you do small scale projects to pay attention to details and build the community from the ground up. Working on small aspects of certain areas will help the citizens of the community notice and the project doesn't become too overwhelming. The other great aspect of this is ordinary citizens and people of the community can participate and make a difference and take pride in their community. The main reason why this campaign came about is because the government is out of money. The area closest to home is The Race St Project, which they're trying to spruce up Race St in Fort Worth. Rik stated they are trying to create public art and repaint the buildings in the area. Race St was actually my wife's beat for the first few years she was on the department. I remember talking to her on the phone many times when she would be answering a call on Race St and all of the issues they had in that area. For ordinary people to be taking matters into their own hands to help a neighborhood and make it better, that is extremely beneficial and cost efficient. A lot of the people who live in that area do not have a lot of money, so having people like Rik who really care to turn around the neighborhood, I'm sure means a lot to them. Rik also mentioned many simple things that most people don't even think of. For example, parking day is where you park your car in a spot, put money in the meter, and just hang out by grilling, playing ping pong, etc. Parking day is all about making the area more comfortable. The above picture is actually an example of a parking day done in San Francisco. Rik made the topic of tactical urbanism fun and casual as well as informative. It is definitely an interesting way to improve neighborhoods in the small frame and cities in the large frame.
Our next guest speaker was Debby Stein, who also focused on DIY Urbanism. She was very enthusiastic about visual art and how her mind always wants to make things better, which is perfect for DIY Urbanism. She talked a lot about the Race St Project, which she became interested in by reading about the Plaza District. She went to check out the area and spoke to the community leaders about what she wanted to do to spruce up the area and they were ecstatic about it. Debby was really excited because the Plaza District is considered 1 of the 16 urban villages in the city of Fort Worth. An urban village is an area designated for redevelopment. A very interesting fact Debby stated was that she has her real estate license so she can be more credible to the neighborhood leaders when she poses her ideas to them. That is a very good and useful idea because she is showing that she cares about connecting and communicating with the people, but also that she is paying attention to the laws and restrictions of the area she wants to fix up. Another good point she made is that in order to be successful at DIY Urbanism, you must be flexible when working with the people in the neighborhood and the city itself. If you are too forceful, most of the time the neighborhood leaders will not respond or be supportive.
Both of these speakers made great points of being energy efficient as in doing things yourself instead of relying on the government for all of the funds. They made very good points about taking advantage of your creative side by creating art, repainting buildings, cleaning up a block, etc. Probably the most random idea that I would have never thought of, but is really interesting to help bring some business and liven up a neighborhood or area, are the parking days. That is a very simple and efficient way for someone to become involved even if they don't have the money to invest in helping rejuvenate a neighborhood. Knowing that there are easy ways out there to go green is very motivating for me to make a difference.
Once we were done with the speakers in the classroom, we were able to walk up to the building containing the information on the Trinity River Vision. I've mainly heard about this from my wife because the current police academy is going to be underwater when the project is done so the city has been talking about where they're going to have their new police academy. Once we arrived, Shanna Cate told us all about the Trinity River Vision. She stated that the reason this project came about was in 2000 and 2001, they held public meetings asking citizens what they wanted out of their river and they overwhelmingly said a waterfront just like San Antonio. Honestly, I celebrated my 30th birthday on the San Antonio Riverwalk and it was great. The atmosphere was fun and energetic, which made my birthday even better. If Fort Worth had something like that, it would be right in my backyard and I would be able to take advantage as much as I wanted. In other words, it would be great!
Shanna stated that there are three projects they are working on: The Trinity Uptown Project, which is the waterfront development and urban neighborhood; The Gateway Park Project, which is to build out the park; and The TRE Experience, which is improving the trails. Shanna explained that people also wanted more recreation and access to the river, which is difficult now because of the extensive levies we have. The levies were put in after the flood of 1949 destroying a lot of property and people. With the project going in, it will not only bring in a recreational and urban development, but will also have the integrity of the levies to prevent flooding, which is very economical. With this project going in, it will create more tax revenue, more jobs, and more housing. In regards to sustainability, this project will have the city of Fort Worth being a main attraction for residents and tourists, which will keep money flowing into the city, keep citizens happy, and put the city on the map as a tourist attraction even more than it already is.
The next stop was a walking tour with Bill Peterson and Matt Oliver at Fort Worth Fire Station #1. When we were en route from the Trinity River tour, some cold wind picked up and raindrops started. We met up with the gentlemen and got inside. While we were warming up, one of the first things said during their introductions was that that they were scoutmasters. That grabbed my attention because I am an Eagle Scout. Bill and Matt are a couple of architects that walked us through 150 years of Fort Worth history at Fire Station #1. They took us on, what they referred to as, the four stages of Fort Worth. In the first stage, when Fort Worth was first established, buildings were built as if they were a human body. They were built to be protected from the sun with most, if not all, windows avoiding the sun. The now ancient buildings had high ceilings, so there was a distribution of air, with the hot air towards the top and cool air where the people were. The second stage was when the railroads came by Fort Worth during the industrial revolution, and the population boomed. The third stage was when petroleum picked up, giving Fort Worth the most disposable income it had ever seen. This was around the 1980’s when Fort Worth’s sky scrapers were built. The buildings were filled with many people, but waste and sickness spread more fluid than ever. We are now in the fourth stage. The trend that has happened through stages 1 through 4 is that each one has moved further from sustainability respectively.
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This picture is while we were walking through downtown Fort Worth with Bill and Matt. They were telling us about all of the big buildings in the city and how they were built in the 1980's. They stated the buildings were built from petroleum money to show the prestige of the city and to get the most people in a space to work. Unfortunately, none of these buildings were built with energy efficiency or sustainability in mind.
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