Yay Cranston Main Street districts!

How about communication for persuasion and behavior change, using storytelling to engage emotions? I'm thinking especially about climate change, and museums/zoos/aquariums would be a good source of readings.
Changing minds on climate change | Stories | Monterey Aquarium share.google/32aPH1Z0eeJ5...

Have to say, Temple Emanu-el in Providence is a pretty sacred place for me! But in general I would include places we would not want to see changed, be they natural or of historic significance.

Street 1: $300k
Street 2: $200k

I call it the Iway because that's what it was called in the Providence Children's Museum exhibit about it (that's sadly no longer there!)

And when they can't go outside, of course they go on screens.

So fun, I had to share!

Could neighbors park their cars in the street some of the time? Maybe one on each side in a couple of spots to make the driving area more narrow? Or even just put out some orange cones 6' from the curb? There were some out for a tree removal on my street and cars seemed to slow down.

For my neighbors who may be missing the trees that came down in recent storms, now would be a good time to plant some new ones!

Keynote Speaker Ed McMahon YouTube video by GrowSmart

I haven't seen the SK Dollar General, but when we had Ed McMahon come speak in 2023 about the economic value of keeping RI special as a place, he talked about chain store design right at the end of his talk, around minute 42: youtu.be/lxkN9biMwb4?...

"we are much better off as a society if we create cities safe enough for autonomous kids. When we give kids greater autonomy, we improve the lives of caregivers, as well, and we improve civic life overall."

I have a copy of the UMassD study summarized in the magazine linked here if anyone is interested. donahue.umass.edu/documents/MB...

In 2019ish I remember a lot of discussion about economic cooperation among "SouthCoastal New England," because on paper we have a lot of shared industries and demographics. But it seems like our lived experience is less regional now than it was in the past, despite the wind industry as a connector.

Kind of a RI dream come true to talk with Bill about my "why," social connection through place (and how @mainstreetri.bsky.social will help do that!) Come hear his keynote at the RI Smart Growth Awards event on Thursday!

Social life, not density, makes city dwellers happy Culdesac in Tempe, Arizona, has people-friendly courtyards and a walkable design, which leads to success. The formula is explained in Happy City.

How can the built environment build social connection? Read below, read the book, and then local friends can join the conversation at Grow Smart RI's Awards event on May 8!
www.cnu.org/publicsquare...

Screenshot with some text highlighted of Edward Erfurt of Strong Towns talking about Culdesac.

Screenshot with some text highlighted of Edward Erfurt of Strong Towns talking about Culdesac.

“This is completely different than our modern, conventional approach to development…We’ve just had this experiment for the last eight decades where we’ve opted to prioritize an isolated transportation system versus our natural way of working together as humans.”

When people live in vibrant, connected environments, they thrive. But in neglected, isolating “cages” issues like addiction and apathy flourish. If we want change, we must build better spaces that foster connection, purpose, and pride. Let’s create communities where people can truly thrive.

Shhh! Our next #MainStreetRI Roundtable explores ...The Secret Lives of Bus Stops!

Thurs Feb 27 @12pm.

You'd be surprised by how much there is to learn about bus stops & what's involved in installing one on your street. Join us! Free to Register:
tinyurl.com/3mp4fh6c

Mom was wrong: You should talk to strangers

Research backs this up!
Mom was wrong: You should talk to strangers search.app/tZxAFKhFavoF...

Take a look, RI friends!

I mapped out how to take the bus to my job. There actually is an express route to my shipyard....

But to get to it, I'd have to leave at 5pm the *day before* and sleep overnight in the PVD bus terminal to make it to my 6am start time.

Then I wouldn't get *home* til 6pm.

25 hour day to use a bus.

In all seriousness, I think we do have too many roads!

I so want to honor my kids' requests to bike and walk independently beyond our immediate neighborhood, but I can't - the built environment is not safe and the drivers aren't accustomed to having pedestrians around. All it would take is one driver to not notice them and they could be dead.

A collage of 16 photographs, each containing an image of a hand holding a book about city planning in front of an urban streetscape.

Reclaiming our communities from the car is about more than saving the planet. It’s about saving ourselves from the unsafe, unjust, unhealthy, unloveable places where we live.

Sixteen books we read this year that changed how we think about the process of building cities: an #UrbanismBookClub thread.

Visual representation of why it makes sense to invest in our Main Streets and downtowns!

With Bluesky user numbers rocketing, more official news accounts are arriving.

Here is a starter pack of major media outlets.

Feel free to repost, I’ll keep this updated as more arrive.

Ever notice how there's no such thing as an industrial-scale Main Street? Go to a great one and step off the storefronts; chances are you can do so in 5-8 seconds. Eminently interesting; you're never bored.

How the Ivy League Broke America The meritocracy isn’t working. We need something new.

www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...