COLOR + CITY
- Hannah Bardo wrote in Graffiti, Design and Urban
Brazilian graffiti artists are beautifying their cities and inspiring their fellow citizens through an innovative, online collaboration that connects people willing to offer a space to those willing to paint it! The movement has taken off and hopes to spread internationally.
5:00 P.M., September 3rd, 1967
Sweden changed from driving on the left side to driving on the right - this was the result
Senegalese Buses are Awesome: Check Out This Pimped Out ‘Car Rapide’
- Mary Slosson wrote in Global Citizenship and Transportation
They’re ubiquitous in Dakar: the bright blue and yellow car rapide buses that criss-cross Senegal’s capital city.
For the uninitiated, Senegal’s most popular form of public transportation can be chaotic and overwhelming. The buses, custom made from discarded vehicles by the city’s brilliantly inventive mechanics, chug along the streets with the back door open and the driver’s assistant shouting out the route.
Four Bullet Points From Seth Godin For Doing Design That’s Important, Not Pretty
- Erykah St.Louis posted in Design, Creativity and Seth Godin
Speaking to an NYU auditorium full of self-defined “creatives,” marketing guru Seth Godin began with a rendition of the alphabet song and ended with a call to action: “I have no doubt the people in this room are going to succeed. The question is: Are you going to matter?”
It’s the kind of question Godin poses on his blog, in his 17 bestselling books and throughout his many public talks: catchy, inspiring and vague enough to apply to anyone involved in a creative endeavor.
Turns Out Bike Lanes Are Really Good for Local Business
- Meghan Neal wrote in Business, Transportation and Cities
Good news for bike activists: Making a safe place on streets for cyclists (and pedestrians) boosts sales for the small businesses in the area.
This according to a recent report from the New York Department of Transportation. The study found that on commercial blocks where new bike lanes were built, the businesses saw a nearly 50 percent increase in sales.
Join us for our Fix Your Street Challenge on the last Saturday of May. Click here to say you’ll Do It and be sure to share stories of transportation innovation all month.
Citizen Building Block #17: Take Public Transportation
- Stef McDonald wrote in Building Blocks Of Citizenship and Transportation
If you have a car, you know the convenience of getting in and driving directly to where you want to go. You might enjoy this enough to wonder why you should bother taking public transportation at all. But you can give back and gain so much by taking the train, bus, subway, or ferry. Start with the environmental benefits of leaving your car behind in favor of public transit: reducing carbon emissions and our collective use of non-renewable oil. It can be good for people, too. Without having to fill up at the pump, you can save money on gas and vehicle maintenance. And without having to pay attention to the road, you’re free to read a magazine, prepare for a presentation, or study for an exam. When you’re sharing a ride on public transit, you can interact with other passengers—or discretely eavesdrop on conversations. You can daydream or doze, solve a crossword puzzle or play a word game with friends on your smartphone. Do it for a day, a week, or simply more often.
How Stairs Work
Innovation in the Streets: It’s Transportation Month
- Stef McDonald wrote in Living, Transportation and News
Let’s face it: getting from point A to point B isn’t always easy. Or fast. Or convenient. Or green. Think about how often we gripe about getting to where we need to go, whether it’s commuting to work, running to the grocery store, or driving to your kid’s T-ball game. Transportation can be a real bitch.
GOOD HQ is in Los Angeles, which recently reclaimed the honor of being named the worst city for traffic in the U.S. You can imagine the conversations by our water cooler. We started to talk about transportation in our city and then other places—and then other countries. We’ve decided to put our attention to the issue of Transportation for the month of May.
Illustration by Kate Slovin
In 1897, a Bicycle Superhighway Was the Future of California Transit
- Yasha Wallin posted in Transportation, Bikes and Biking
In 1897, a wealthy American businessman named Horace Dobbins began construction on a private, for-profit bicycle superhighway that would stretch from Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles. It may seem like a preposterous notion now—everyone knows Angelenos don’t get out of their cars—but at the time, amidst the height of a pre-automobile worldwide cycling boom, the idea attracted the attention of some hugely powerful players. And it almost got built.
The GOOD Fix Your Street Challenge
- GOOD HQ wrote in Transportation
On the last Saturday of May, we’re urging the GOOD community to take action with our Fix Your Street Challenge. What’s that? Commit to doing something to fix your street and snap a few before and after photos while you’re at it. Click that button below to say you’ll ‘Do It’ and tag those photos using #Goodstreets or send them to us by email at community at goodinc dot com before June.
Looking for inspiration? We’ve got it right here, with good ideas, tips and resources.
Illustration by Kate Slovin
Infographic: Improving the World, One Patent at a Time
- GOOD Partnerships and FFunction contributed in Technology, Innovation and Infographics
This content was produced by GOOD with support of IBM
Every Tuesday, thousands of patents are issued in the United States, with more than 250,000 issued in 2012. Patents recognize inventors and protect the originality of their ideas, so they can continue to create the innovations that power the world around us. From the technology you carry in your pocket to the type of flowers in your garden, they’ve all come from patents. For 20 years running, IBM has been awarded the most U.S. patents with 6,478 issued in 2013 alone. Check out some of their patents in the infographic above.
—
Also: Check out IBM’s tumblr, IBMblr. We’re big fans.
Learn About Your Local History
- Stef McDonald wrote in Building Blocks Of Citizenship and Neighboring
How much do you know about your neighborhood’s history? This week, take time to uncover the secrets of the town or city you call home. Find out who that park is named after and who else roamed the halls of the high school. Finally stop to read the plaque on the side of that building you walk by every day. Start with your local library, search Google and Wikipedia, check in with your local historical society, or slide up and bend the ear of the bartender serving cocktails at your local dive. You can come away with a more solid sense of place with what you learn about your local history and may just be inspired by those who have come before you.
Illustration by Jessica De Jesus
Starting a New Tradition: Georgia Students Hold School’s First-Ever Integrated Prom
- Liz Dwyer wrote in Education, Race and Georgia
A group of high school seniors at Wilcox County High School in rural south Georgia made history this past weekend by bucking their community’s longstanding tradition of racially segregated proms—yes, one prom for white teens and one for black teens. Indeed, thanks to the inspiring students behind the Integrated Prom movement, for the first time ever, black and white students in the community dressed up and danced the night away together.
How does a community get around having a prom that’s open to everyone without violating any civil rights laws? Easy. You just don’t let the school sponsor it. After the courts integrated the schools in the area, proms became private, invite-only events. White parents began raising funds for an all-white senior prom, leaving black families with no choice but to follow suit and host proms for their children.
Yes, this still goes on on 2013, and not just in this town, either. And yes, some white Wilcox students still attended the all-white only prom. But as you can see from the video above, what happens when students say they’ve had enough and take action is truly inspiring.
Roar of the Crowd: Social Media Cheers of Encouragement for Jason Collins
- Stef McDonald shared in Sports and Living
When news broke that pro basketball player Jason Collins came out as gay, supporters—from fellow athletes to a former President—flocked to Twitter to send him words of support and thanks. In his Sports Illustrated story, he wrote, “I wish I wasn’t the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, ‘I’m different.’ If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I’m raising my hand.” In this case, tweets of support are like virtual high-fives. Way to go.
