Comments for Pedestrian City

Comment on Plan-It Earth by Natalie

Natalie — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 04:25:49 +0000

Here are some maps from Plan-It Earth, finally! I think there were about 24 in total, but I only have 11 up so far…https://picasaweb.google.com/pedestrian.city/PlanItEarth#

Comment on Plan-It Earth by Susan Chung

Susan Chung — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:25:17 +0000

Natalie, pleasure was all ours. your psychogeography is just the sort of thing I’d want to introduce to a biology class. Science and the arts ought to be merged in high school. students were happy to have you there to add to the variety of workshops. The AM workshops resulted in many co-design drawings with chickens and cob houses. Also rainbows.

I forgot to say: core group teens included one more. they are:

Veronika B, Tesicca T, Hobson L, Grace W. and Colin Cheng from Kits. I’m in awe of them. It would not surprise me to see great things from these young people in the future. Check out Hobs’ registration video for starters. filmed by Colin:

http://www.primeearth.org/projects/pie/registration.html

Comment on Plan-It Earth by alexg

alexg — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 08:28:14 +0000

I have to admit I prefer “Prince of Whales.” Incorrect though it may be, it does sound so much more majestic.

Comment on Plan-It Earth by Natalie

Natalie — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 05:39:43 +0000

Thanks for clarifying Susan. I’d also like to thank you for your involvement and dedication to the students to make this possible. I wish I had had a teacher like you when I was in high school. Had I not met you last May, I may never have been a part of this event. Thank you for introducing my work to the students.

Comment on Plan-It Earth by Natalie

Natalie — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 05:22:30 +0000

Thanks for catching my typo Brenda!

Comment on Plan-It Earth by Susan Chung

Susan Chung — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 05:05:42 +0000

I’d like to add that it was not just students from Prince of Wales involved.

We are very grateful that this conference was hosted by Prince of Wales Secondary, and many of the helpers on the ground were from Prince of Wales… but the youth committee who organized it came from 5 different schools: Churchill, Prince of Wales, St. Patrick, and Kitsilano Secondary schools. Core commitee members are Hobson Lin, Tesicca Truong, Veronika Bylicki and Grace Wicken. I was also part of the committee as their teacher sponsor. Mainly, my job was to feed them during our planning sessions, and to facilitate the implementation of their program at the school.

Helpers from Churchill Secondary met the PW helpers for the first time on Thursday though the team had been in email contact before. One of the churchill students commented that “if we were all part of one school, we’d be unstoppable!”

he core team is made up of ex trek students and a current PW student. They faced challenges including raising funding, finding workshop leaders, coordinating with Metro Van for the keynote activity and kickoff. As a result of their passion and enthusiasm, they managed to get the funding and support of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and Kevin Millsip, and from their peers from the Vancouver Foundation Youth Philanthropy Council.

They inspired a donation of professional services and time from the architectural, design and facilitation firms: Stantec, Co-Design Group, Small Studios. Furthermore, they managed to stay within the budget they allocated.

The student leaders demonstrated initiative, wisdom, and leadership. I am inspired by working with them.

Susan

Comment on Plan-It Earth by Brenda Austin

Brenda Austin — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:55:54 +0000

Hi Natalie: Thanks for keeping me updated. Just a point – the school is Prince of Wales (the country) rather than Whales (the mammal)!

Comment on Plan-It Earth by alexg

alexg — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 21:59:06 +0000

What a great opportunity to bring together such broad range or related methods and approaches! Wish I’d had workshops like that when i was in school.
I’ve always found streets names to be pretty necessary for locating things and giving directions, but maybe that’s because I’ve always lived in fairly central neighbourhoods where I can walk to most of my destinations. If I were a distance commuter who just drives into my garage at the end of the work day then I’d probably be much less aware of my neighbourhood streets. Vancouver is a city that historically has brought the suburbs into the core—many nieghbourhoods within Vancouver proper look and feel a lot like suburbs with few amenities within walking distance. If there’s nowhere to go in your neighbourhood then there’s no point in knowing the street names, so maybe that contributes to a degree of street amnesia on the part of vancouverites. Also, in a world of foursquare where people increasingly navigate by geo coordinates it could be that street names are losing their functional importance.

Comment on Plan-It Earth by Karen Fung

Karen Fung — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 21:30:49 +0000

Wow…so many of my favorite people doing such awesome stuff with youth! Thanks for sharing the experience, Natalie. It sounds incredibly educational.

The streets comment is a funny one, because it means they’ve never had to tell someone else where to find them – possibly because they are using cellphones and able to communicate about landmarks in real time? Or perhaps they don’t navigate themselves? All sorts of intriguing possibilities.

Comment on New Directions by Natalie

Natalie — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:15:02 +0000

Thanks for the link Alex. I am familiar with this project.
Regarding workshops for the “broader (and older) public”, I’ve done a few of these over the last year and 1/2 and want to shift my focus for a while. I’ve only ever worked with adults on memory maps and am very excited to engage a completely different demographic. Of course if there are opportunities for workshops with the broader public, I will pursue them.