Intersection Repair

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Ever dreamed of making the streets outside your abode more livable, pedestrian-friendly, and community-oriented?City Repair in Portland, Oregon hosts an annual Village Building Convergence where hundreds of people come together to build diverse projects for the benefit of their communites and to take back their streets via a process known as the Intersection Repair.This involves painting streets with a high-visiblity mural that creates a public square for residents to gather and one which gently encourages drivers to slow down when approaching these spaces. Over time the neighbors further enhance the transformation by adding amenities like benches, community bulletin boards, and introducing gardens & art. As you'll see, the possibilites are endless.StreetFilms visited three of the Intersection Repairs and spoke with Mark Lakeman co-founder of City Repair, Greg Raisman, the Portland DOT Liason, and scores of residents & volunteers about why they were doing it.

Barbara

I want this in my neighborhood right now!!
adam white

A wonderfully inspirational, visionary and moving peice. The conversion of intersections to communal plazas is simple yet brilliant. Kudos to the folks in Portland and to Clarence for sharing the images with us NYC dwellers.
http://www.bikefilmawards.org Andy

Inspired film Clarence - Sweet Street & People - Intersection Insurrection Reclaiming the Street in style.
http://www.crankmychain.com Dan Kaufman

A truly amazing video! Thanks for making it.

There is definitely a "Eugene" vibe (a good thing in my book) but each neighborhood had it's own feel. As this concept takes off it will be interesting to see the different flavors particular neighborhoods bring.
Mark Lakeman

What a wonderful effort in making this video, it really captures the experience of being in Portland during the Village Building Convergence! Great, great work!

Mark
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http://www.rakuloren.com raku

Clarence, sweet!
Thank you so much for sharing some of what makes Portland such an invigorating place to LIVE. While watching, I felt engaged, inspired, and hopeful that these seeds of peace that are being cast-out will sprout all over the world!
Linda

Great job, Clarence! It was so exciting to have you filming our efforts at the Freda's Tree intersection, and I hope our project will continue to inspire others.
Andree

Thanks, Clarence---It's so exciting to see our little neighborhood project captured so well and shared with like-minded folks. Great work!
Chris Marco

Clarence, what an outstanding job you did in 4 days! And it was up just days after the VBC ended! Next up should be Clarence: The Movie-Making-Maniac-Sasquatch (Sassie sits at a computer as his furry hands blaze across the keyboard in a blur...yes folks, it's a rare sighting of the movie-making-maniac!)

Yesterday, after some mild culture shock transitioning from the streets, stories, and hugs of the VBC to the bluetoothed, laptopped, mean airport, I left Portland. As soon as I got home, I watched this. It made me so happy to be transported back there! You really did a great job of capturing the spirit of joy and optimistic energy that is the VBC. Thanks so much for your hard work and even more for sharing it with all of us.

I had planned to take a few days off to rest, but your film has so inspired me that now I just want to get to work. Great work Clarence! Really, you're awesome. Whose streets? Our streets!
Darla

My nabe in Queens could use some of these. I am already friends with my neighbors. We could do this!

Once we had a tag sale on every corner of our intersection.
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/trorb/ Clarence

Thank you so much everyone here who posted (and those who emailed too.)

I have been very touched by the highly emotional feedback I have gotten. I was moved very much when putting this together, and am so glad that many others were equally so. Please keep the comments coming....
http://www.uas.coop Sue B.

Clarence, what a great job you did and so quickly! You captured the spirit of the people and place so well, it moved me to tears - especially seeing Lyn and John. Ah, VBC...I miss it so much already and can't wait for VBC8 (and Chris' film, too). Thank you, thank you!
http://cityrepair.org pedro, adri, and santiago

wow, clarence-- super job! we are totally impressed with how you plugged right into what we are doing here in portland, shot some film, and edited it into this real beautiful, on-point, inspiring film.

EVERYONE in the world knows-- when they search the deepest places of their heart--that the time has come to re-connect to ourselves, to each other, and to our common source of creation. who would have thought that we are the revolution embodied?! thanks for sharing our process of becoming in portland.

what's next?!
Shirley

Bravo Clarence, brilliant! I got a lump in my throat watching, it is so inspiring. Great for traffic safety, great for community, great for place. If only NYC would follow suit.
http://randomdude.com/blog/ Dustin

Great video! I would love to see this idea spread to cities everywhere.
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http://urbanplanningblog.com Pratik

Great video. Tried embedding on my Urban Planning Blog but somehow didn't work. Would be great if you could upload your videos to YouTube as well. Might get more 'eyeballs' and will spread the word.
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/trorb/ Clarence Eckerson, Jr.

Pratik,

Might just do that for a few of our videos. We have in the past but haven't put up many since the begining of the year.

Thanks.
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Joyce

There is the perfect neighborhood for this in my city! I love the whole idea! Great!
Stan

This would do best to go out to every Chamber of Commerce across the nation..God Bless America!!
http://ciclovia.org Greg Cantori

Does everyone see the wonderful 'intersection' of Ciclovia, a regular Sunday streets for the people event, and intersection repair? The communities hosting Ciclovia can leave a permanent symbol of their welcome all week as well as on Sunday! You are on to something big here.
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Fran

What a beautiful film! The music perfectly captures the warmth and friendship fostered by these community gathering places. I want to do this myself!
http://www.asmithphotography.com Angela

Inspirational! It's wonderful for a community to come together!
joe adamski

As a Portlander, I have enjoyed the benefits of City Repair and the place building they do. One thing I have noticed is that such efforts inspire folks who perhaps would not have thought of taking place building into their own hands to do so. my elderly neighbors heard about the work of city repair over the years and included a bench and a shade spot in their yard as they redid their front garden. When asked,they said they got the idea from the Village Buiding convergence.

Positive energy can inspire more positive energy.
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/dysprosio Joao Lacerda

Inspirational... Despite having watched it so many times, I always feel like watching it again. Maybe the urge to watch it will end when I finally get to do this in my neighborhood.

Congrats!
Steve

Mark, why don't you get a haircut or wash that head once in a while!
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Gcantori

Two completed in Baltimore! More to come......
Nick Berardi

This is a genuine change of consciousness that our world needs. Touche!
Slpartistphotghr

This is a major, positive breakthrough in trying to make streets more pleasant & safer for pedestrians. Especially needed in high traffic zones, peak traffic streets. Not just in USA but everywhere worldwide.

I would like to see this approach implemented into many of Australias' Metropolitan & Regional Streets across every state. Not just coming into Capital Regions, but other Regions, Rural areas including Lake Macquarie~Newcastle~Hunter Valley Region NSW, Australia.
Which is the 2nd largest Region in NSW, 2nd to Sydney Capital NSW Region...

In fact I want to also add something that is vital & in direct relation to this.
Being the constant dis-respect/overlooking of needs of pedestrians walking on pedestrian crossings with/without street lights.

So many times in my local & other regions in NSW Australia, I have had to as a pedestrian, along with other pedestrians be on a tight gard when approaching/walking on pedestrian crossing. Because of impatient, arrogant drivers who think they shouldn't have to slow down when approaching a pedestrian crossing, or are reluctant to stop to give way for pedestrians to safely walk across.

Then when myself/other pedestrians go to/do walk across you can sometimes feel their impatient expressions on their face. And can see their hurried, bad attitude by the way they are driving their cars.

Not good enough, not acceptable, just downright wrong. As all pedestrians & this goes for bicycle riders too have just as much right to walk on roads/paths designated for pedestrians, bicycle riders etc. Mind you some bicycle riders can be disrespectful to pedestrians. Then some car/truck drivers
dis-respectful to bicycle riders & pedestrians.

So something must be done to wakeup the often bad, arrogant attitudes of many car drivers in relation to how they sometimes view, treat pedestrians/pedestrian crossings.

And what's more all people from a human baby to the most senior person { in some cases } are pedestrians. And many pedestrians are also vehicle drivers. So this shows again the hypocricy, stupidity of many people.

There ought to be more signage displaying rules vehicle drivers must respect/obey to allow pedestrians to walk safely not having to hurry across p. crossings & not feel intimidated by drivers in anyway.
Not that I feel intimidated no way, but nor should we have to feel like thanking them { via signalling etc } for stopping to let us pedestrians cross in areas that pedestrians have right of way in first place... That's why the p. crossing are there for pedestrians to use/right of way. Penalties/Fees ought to come in towards rule breaking/disrespectful vehicle driver.

Hey another valid idea what about cameras too, to detect/ fine those vehicle drivers who don't slow down/stop ahead before crossing when pedestrians are approaching or already walking on pedestrians crossings, regardless of which type they are.

If police departments can place speed cameras, then they ought think about placing other detection cameras for detection for other purposes to help implement safer pedestrian crossings via helping to deter vehicle drivers from doing the wrong thing at p. crossings & if they're vehicle is caught on camera breaking the p. crossing rules etc then they are given a penalty ticket/fee just as people receive when caught driving under or over the speed limit.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Sharp/1165272061 Mark Sharp

That looks great. I would like to do something like this in my neighborhood, however, I live in a mixed-income, racially diverse neighborhood where the majority are renters, myself included. Homelessness is an occasional problem. The impression I got from the video is that these Portland neighborhoods are primarily filled with homeowners who share several commonalities. I definitely know that some of that stuff wouldn't last a week. So I'm wondering if something like this could work in my neighborhood as well? What do you think? Are there any examples?
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