These Four Big Ideas Are the Cornerstones of Good Neighboring
- Diana Lempel wrote in Cities, Neighborhoods and Social Capital
Recently, we here at Neighborday HQ have been asking ourselves: What are the ingredients of good neighboring? We think it comes down to four big ideas: social capital, neighborhood characters, third places, and sacred landscapes. You might notice these ideas sneaking into many of the Neighborday articles you read this month. Here’s a lowdown of those big ideas and the neighboring rockstars who developed them.
- BIG IDEA #1: Neighborhood social networks are more than just the sum of their parts.
- BIG IDEA #2: Neighborhoods have places where locals get together, and “everyone knows your name.
- BIG IDEA #3: Neighborhoods have “public characters,” whose eyes on the street are the most keen and the most constant.
- BIG IDEA #4: Neighborhoods have stories, secrets and memories.
Illustrations by Corinna Loo
Personality of Parisian Neighborhoods Explored Through Typography
- Yasha Wallin wrote in in Paris, Creativity and Animation
By now, we all know that Paris is a magical place—whether you’ve been there yourself or paid attention to the countless cultural homages to the city through movies, music, books, and art. While Paris’ personality is romanticized, if you dig deeper, each of the 20 Arrondissements, or neighborhoods, that make up this historical city have their own distinct voice. The Marais has longstanding ties to Parisian Jewish life, and today boasts trendy boutiques, art galleries, and the city’s biggest gay community; the Latin Quarter is bustling with students, cafes, and bars, while Oberkampf boasts more “unpredictable” nightlife; and if you visit Père Lachaise you’ll find the cemetery of the same name, forever home to The Doors’ Jim Morrison.
The creative agency Havas Worldwide Paris in collaboration with Flying V explored this varied iconography and characteristics of each area through this clever animation; depicting each hood through a typography based animation.
What’s your favorite neighborhood in Paris?
Why Dallas Is No Longer ‘The Butt of Everyone’s F*cking Joke’
- Patrick McDonnell wrote in Living, Cities and Urbanism
The other day I saw a poster on a friend’s Facebook that said “Welcome to Austin. Please don’t move here. I hear Dallas is great!” The accompanying description read: “My city is the butt of everyone’s f*cking joke.”
That sentiment really gets at the root of how people view Dallas. It’s not an Austin or Portland or Seattle. It doesn’t have that flavor and urban lifestyle where you can walk, bike, and ride public transportation easily, where there’s a diverse city life and robust population density. Interestingly, all three of the aforementioned cities lay claim to the “Keep [your city] Weird” slogan.
Social Designers: Why Our Own Neighborhoods Need Us as Much as Sub-Saharan Africa
- julie kim wrote in San Francisco, Social Design and Cities
Social change is a complex, messy business. It takes a long time. We’re best positioned to affect long-term outcomes when we stay home and work within our own communities.
Many of you are already enmeshed in local design activism. But do we see our work as designers as a form of community service? If not, I think we should. Think of programs and service delivery models like soup kitchens, Americorps, trash pick-up days. These models, more than global humanitarian work, are most relevant for designers looking to work locally.
‘The American Dream Starts With the Neighborhoods’: Why Harvey Milk is the Patron Saint of Neighborday
- GOOD HQ wrote in Living, San Francisco and Cities
You may have heard we’ve declared the last Saturday of April “Neighborday” and we’re encouraging you to spend some time that day getting to know the folks who live near you. April 27 will be a celebration of that basic human inter-connectedness that powers great neighborhoods—the kinds of places where we all want to live.
Overlooking Duboce Park in San Francisco sits the Harvey Milk Center for the Recreational Arts, a monument to a man devoted to creating thriving communities, one block at a time. One of the outside walls of this building contains a fragment of a quote from a little known speech he made in the early days of city politics: “The American Dream starts with the neighborhoods.”
Illustration by Jessica De Jesus
Most Americans Want a Walkable Neighborhood, Not a Big House
The symbol of American success often involves having the biggest house possible, but our outsized fantasies seem to be shifting. It turns out most of us value nearby stores and parks rather than McMansions. Luckily, that’s probably where we’re headed.
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