Tag: Cool Cities

Sure why not.  They haven't been able to keep up with the roads, and those stupid bridge plans keep confusing them (oooohhhhh SHINY!) to the point of inefficiency.  Our communities already are suffering due to reduced revenue sharing for roads and street repairs, so lets make sure all streets and roads have AWESOME walking ability mandated on them.  More pressure from the state while the check book is being put away anyhow.  Good deal.  Below from the release:

Fast Facts:

• MDOT is sponsoring walkability audits in seven communities in August.
  
• The audit provides a hands-on evaluation of walking conditions in the community.
  
• The audit is designed for city engineers, planners, residents and others.
  
• Contact community organizer for details.

August 2, 2012 -- Interested in making your neighborhood or community more conducive to walking? The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is promoting a series of "walkability" audits in seven communities around the state, designed to provide a hands-on evaluation of the walking conditions in a portion of the community, and a discussion of design improvement ideas.

The walkability audits are designed to help city engineers, planners, officials, residents and others realize the benefits of providing a safe and attractive environment for walking. The free audits will be conducted by Dan Burden of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, who has 40 years of experience in developing, promoting and evaluating active transportation facilities, traffic calming practices and sustainable community design.

Audits will be conducted from Aug. 12 to17. For more details, contact the community organizer.

The 2012 schedule follows:

Dates Location Contact

Sunday, Aug. 12 Paw Paw l.nielsen@pawpaw.net
Monday, Aug. 13 Alpine Township s.thomas@alpinetwp.org
Monday, Aug. 13 Wyoming cochrant@wyomingmi.gov
Tuesday, Aug. 14 Meridian Township menser@meridian.mi.us
Wednesday, Aug. 15 Gaylord jeff@gaylord-otsego.com
Thursday, Aug. 16 Trenton bohling@msu.edu
Friday, Aug. 17 Detroit villagendet@aol.com

Don't Barrel Through Work Zones! - Drive Smart to Stay Alive.

No one has ever died by a collision with another human being. (that I am aware) And by golly, even if it takes you a few extra hours to get to work, it will be well worth it!

Exhibit A (literally): Grand Rapids

Rick DeVos this morning unveiled ArtPrize at a giant press conference on Lyon Square in front of the old Civic Theatre downtown.

ArtPrize is a two-and-a-half week annual festival, kicking off this fall that will effectively turn the entire downtown area into an art gallery as artists from around the world create and showcase new works of art while competing for a $250,000 grand prize, the largest art prize in the world.

Better yet, the winner will be selected by the public.  You, me, anyone.  

This sort of event does not exist anywhere else in the world.  This is a first-of-its-kind event and it is happening right here in GR.  And I don't mind telling you, I'm geeked!

Artists of all kinds from around the world converge on Grand Rapids.  Think paintings, sculptures, performance art, abstract, pop, photography... you name it.

Artists team with business owners and developers downtown through ArtPrize.org to host and showcase their work.  Whether it is in the lobby of an office complex, on the top of a hotel, the patio of a restaurant, a bridge, projecting something onto the side of a building... the possibilities seem pretty much endless.

Then regular folks see the work and vote for their favorites via text message or on the internet.  And not just Grand Rapidians.  Anyone and everyone... provided they've actually made the trip to Grand Rapids and registered to participate at one of the exhibits.  This has all the makings of a mammoth tourism draw.

The competition will be whittled down to the Top 10 after the first week.  Each of the finalists will be guaranteed thousands of dollars in cash but the big prizes are for first, second and third place.  $250,000, $100,000 and $50,000 respectively.

Former gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos and his wife Betsy (Rick's parents) were on hand for the announcement and have made a multi-year pledge to cover the prize money through the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation.  

No Grand Rapids tax dollars will be used to fund this program.  No state tax dollars or "Pure Michigan" spending will be needed to prop it up artificially.  

"The call is going to go out to thousands and thousands of artists (today) to kick this off," Rick DeVos told the Grand Rapids Press.

The event will help harness and show off the creative energy and "cultural capital" Grand Rapids has developed over the years, said Joseph Becherer, director of exhibitions and curator of sculpture at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.

"This kind of gift tied to this kind of ingenuity can only mean something positive for Grand Rapids as it is now, but also helping to imagine Grand Rapids as it will be tomorrow," Becherer said.

The competition begins September 23rd and the winner will be announced on October 8.