Tactical Urbanism is a growing movement of creative place-making. More and more communities are taking back their streets by temporarily changing the environment to make it more biker, pedestrian, and people-friendly. Tactical Urbanism can sometimes entail guerilla tactics, for instance when a group of bikers enlarges a bike lane with cones to make the ride a little safer. It also can be sanctioned by the city, like the awesome projects I have been helping to create with Asheville’s own Streak Tweaks. Street Tweaks is a group made up of folks from the AARP NC Mountain Region, Blue Ridge Bicycle Club, Asheville on Bikes and other concerned citizens. In 2018 Street Tweaks worked on a project on Coxe Avenue to help enhance the safety of the street as well as create a community vibe there. I helped paint larger bike lanes, pedestrian crossings, and a beautiful butterfly mural that ran the length of the wide avenue. While this project, and many tactical urbanism projects are temporary, they give us an idea of what our city would look and feel like if we made our streets safer and more welcoming to the folks who are not driving cars. And cars are slowed down by the design. What emerges is a sense of possibility around community building. We get to experience the essence of a place in a less hurried state. There is more space and opportunity to look around and smell the flowers, say hello to a passing neighbor, and embrace a sense of playfulness.
This year Street Tweaks is working on the Westwood Waynseville intersection in West Asheville, a confusing intersection for both cars, bikers, and pedestrians alike. Street Tweaks is designing this intersection so that cars slow down with the aid of a traffic circle and walkers have more space by painting in cross walks and walk-ways. Again, while this project is temporary it invites conversation around how we move through our city, what we want to emphasize in our environments, and how we value the safety of our citizens.
I’m excited to be apart of this project and will be hosting an Art of Belonging experience on April 22nd at the intersection. At this street event, we will invite neighbors and community members to share their ideas for the aesthetic design of the street. We will have lots of street to paint and this of course gives us the opportunity to collaborate. I’m thrilled to engage folks in this process. How often do we have the opportunity to affect change in our environments in a direct way? And when we see the fruits of our labor, what is the result? Connection, beauty, ownership, empowerment, joy - a reminder that we are mighty when we choose to take action together. I’ll keep you posted on how it all unfolds.
For more information about tactical urbanism, check out http://tacticalurbanismguide.com/about/ and Street Tweaks here.
