Framing a transformation for our cities

[RatherGoodFood]

Hello everyone! This is my first of hopefully many posts. To make a
long story short, I am interning for an organization that is seeking
to transform the urban landscape into one that is livable and
enjoyable for everyone. The main impetus behind this is that given
that population will increase in our greater metro region in the
coming 100 years we want to focus that population growth in cities to
save rural farmland, working forests, and open space. In order to do
this they want in part promote 5 broad areas around the issue of
housing that will hopefully make cities more livable. Up until this
point we have been using a phrase that just doesn’t evoke a powerful
frame.

I am wondering whether anyone has any ideas in how to encapsulate
these ideas in powerful frames that will help shape the debate in our
metro region. These are the five areas of what future housing
development should take into consideration:

1) Affordability
2) Access to Transit
3) Greenness
4) Different types (aka condos, townhouses, etc)
5) Housing for all (all people, all lifestyles, all ages, etc)

[janine kovac]

what is the phrase you are using now?

[RatherGoodFood]

"innovative housing," which is used by other groups to talk about
affordable housing in a new light (innovative housing inc, for
example).

On Jun 9, 2:26 pm, janine kovac <janine.ko...@gmail.com> wrote:
> what is the phrase you are using now?
>
> On Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 2:21 PM, RatherGoodFood

> <gordon.padelf...@gmail.com>wrote:

> > 5) Housing for all (all people, all lifestyles, all ages, etc)- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[janine kovac]

do you not like it b/c other groups are using it or is there something else you don't like about it?

[Andrea OUSE]

Hello Gordon

 

This sounds a lot like the principles of Smart Growth.  There is a lot of information out there about this, but the opponents are familiar with the terms, and use them to twist the overall meaning.  I did an internship for my MA in cultural anthropology with my state to help construct a plan to bring these ideas to the state.  Several conservative think tanks try to set up opposition between smart growth and the American Dream.  Very interesting and provocative.

 

Andrea Ouse

[Andrea OUSE]

[Andrea OUSE]

Another thought - you might also look into New Urbanism, transect zoning....... Andres Duany brought some of these ideas together in some of his architectural designs and urban planning.

 

Andrea

----- Original Message -----

From: RatherGoodFood

To: Rockridge Annex, temporary

Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2009 2:21 PM

Subject: [annex] Framing a transformation for our cities

[Rikard]

Hey Gordon. A couple of things to consider.

VALUES
What values are important for you? Livable cities are probably based
on empathy and responsibility and some other values. Some explanations
and examples

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20041206/lakoff/print

and

http://www.scribd.com/doc/16302582/George-Lakoff-Manifesto


CONTEXT
A house isn't an isolated entity, it's part of a context; a
neighborhood, the community, nature etcetera so I'd focus on the
neighborhood rather than the housing, call it "livable neighborhoods"
or.. maybe a synonym to neighborhood. One thing you could do is to
pick a value, find a metaphor for that value and use the metaphor in
your communication.
For example, opportunity could be described as a long road. If you are
building a school you use the long road to describe the school; Rubble
Road High, the Wanderers (the basketball team), American History class
could be called "A walk down memory lane" or. Oh it's starting to get
corny but you get the idea, use a metaphor based on a value.

There's probably more but it'd be interesting to hear more about your
organization. Is there a web site? Twitter?


-Rikard

[Andrea OUSE]

    A couple more ideas:  This needs to be more than "preaching to the choir."  Since the naysayers stress individualism, and the proponents stress community and empathy, a good way to frame these areas may be in the possibilities of options - mixed housing options (not just single socio-economic strata), transportation options (not just the automobile), options for green space within urban areas along with preservation of open space outside the urban area, options for social interaction (not just houses that are walled off from neighbors and garage to street access with no sidewalks), etc.  As long as people feel that they have some control over development and where they live and some choices, they should welcome a "livable" urban setting.  If people participate in development choices, they can take pride in their neighborhoods.  Options and choices allow people to have self determination instead of being told what to do and where to live or by having no economic choices within a city or urban neighborhood. 

Andrea

----- Original Message -----

From: RatherGoodFood

To: Rockridge Annex, temporary

Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2009 2:21 PM

Subject: [annex] Framing a transformation for our cities

[RatherGoodFood]

janine kovac:
The term innovative housing doesn't resonate locally. Apparently
people around here also are conservative in their views with respects
to future developments (lots of density NIMBYism), so "innovative"
wasn't helping alleviate people's anxieties about change.

Andrea OUSE (post1):
Yes the people I'm working for know a lot about the principles of
smart growth. The principles of Smart Growth are broken down into ten
sections, and none of the principles has as expansive meaning as we
would like it to have.

Rikard:
Thanks for the suggestions I'll mention something like that in my
report. I'd be interested to know whether you have any suggestions for
metaphors in particular. The group I'm interning for is a non-partisan
nonprofit, so I'd rather not cause any potential trouble for them by
posting their name, however unlikely that would be. Thanks for the
ideas!

Andrea OUSE (post 2):
From what I can gather people are beginning to see the importance of
framing the different housing options as an empowering choice. Hence
we, like other organizations, will probably end up talking about
"housing choice" or something to that effect, but that is a specific
component of what we want to see in future homes. I was tasked with
researching, and perhaps coming up with, an overarching word or phrase
to describe the 5 areas that I listed in the beginning.

Thanks for your thoughts everyone! I apologize that I can't give away
the name of the organization, but rest assured if you contribute a
good idea/frame I'll be sure to pass it along in my report, and it has
the possibility of really making an impact.

On Jun 9, 3:03 pm, janine kovac <janine.ko...@gmail.com> wrote:
> do you not like it b/c other groups are using it or is there something else
> you don't like about it?
>
> On Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 2:33 PM, RatherGoodFood

> <gordon.padelf...@gmail.com>wrote:

> > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[Amy Meier]

Welcome Gordon!

To be sure, this group is also non-partisan. Progressive but non-partisan.

Thanks for working on this with your group, overcrowding/management is for sure going to  rear its head more and more and it is great to know that folks are working on ways of making it sustainable.

As for a "nutshell" phrase here are a few gleaned from previous posts:

City of Dreams
City of My Dreams
City Alive
Living City
Growing Greener
My City is Home

The concepts need to be big and non-academic sounding (IMHO) to bring appeal to those that aren't even clued in to what you are talking about at first. I like inserting the "my" in there because it sort of includes those individualists who balk at "public housing" plans in any way shape or form and includes the American dream as it evolves to be more sustainable and healthful.

I recognize the importance of a 'hook' phrase to draw people in and become instantly recognizable, however, likely even more important is being true and consistent with your values throughout your communications. For instance, if you are planning/encouraging public transpo, you can still be friendly to those insisting on driving a car alone but friendly while allowing them to feel more of the true costs of driving alone (ie making parking expensive, passing a pollution tax, helping them with carpool organizing, planning car pool parking lots, making shared vehicles very convenient and cheap).

People who think greening is just a trend might be convinced if a large corporate building in town with lots of traffic did a large green wall http:
http://www.sustainabilityinstitutesc.org/enews_sept08.html
//www.brownstoner.com/GreenRoofReno/Green-Walls.jpg

The point being that green is not just for the unwashed masses. It can be corporate friendly, tidy, cost effective AND treat the community to beauty and clean air.

And as an insider, I hope that your organization seriously considers truly alternative buildings - not those with just a higher greener price tag. Cob building is one of my favorite methods and can be so beautiful.
http://webecoist.com/2009/02/02/earthen-architecture-natural-dirt-mud-brick-buildings/
Also, underground building is a way to get cities back to the earth, scroll down to the bottom of this article and you will see his future subdivisions plan.

http://www.undergroundhousing.com/primer.html

Even though you are approaching urban challenges, I'm sure some of the same issues come up at the ruralstudio out of Auburn. They've been quite economical and innovative in their approaches to housing.

One last housing name I'll drop is Nader Khalili. I happened across one of his articles and became fascinated at his "innovation" and did some more reading. I put "innovation" in quotes because really what he did is study ancient architecture and bring them into the present. Challenges such as cooling, housing the poor, group housing, housing integrity, beauty, were addressed and he often combined cross-ethnic methodologies. To be sure, he added his own innovations too, but my point is that we can look backward in order to move forward comfortably and sustainably.

Good Luck
Amy

EMAILING FOR THE GREATER GOOD Join me

> Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:13:40 -0700
> Subject: [annex] Re: Framing a transformation for our cities
> From: gordon.p...@gmail.com
> To: rockridge-an...@googlegroups.com

[Marv]

Hello,
I forwarded your appeal to my daughter-in-law who is employed in
development. These are her suggestions:

Yup, Smart Growth is a pretty well known concept which encapsulates
all of the concepts Gordon mentions. Sounds like he would like to come
up with a fresh phrase to concisely describe their intent. Another
similar ideology is the Triple Bottom Line - Planet, Profits and
People. Internet searches on either term would give you a wealth of
information on these approaches.

But for a slogan (if that is what he is looking for), what about
something like:

Living Smart by the Bay: Livable Housing for All

That's the best I can come up with right now.