Paint It and They will Come

Residents of the low-income Columbia City neighborhood in Seattle saw a block of empty storefronts as the perfect place for starting the revitalization of their neighborhood. So grabbing brushes, they painted their vision for the business district right on the buildings--showing an ice cream parlor, a hardware store, a corner grocery and other shops they wanted to see open up in the neighborhood. The project attracted a lot of attention, including from business owners, and before long the block was full of new stores for the neighborhood.

Life on the Streets

Ellen Vanderslice liked her neighborhood in Northwest Portland except for one thing: the roaring traffic on a street that stood between her house the local playground. She would nervously stand on the curb with her two toddlers, sometimes for several minutes while cars raced by, before she felt it was safe to cross. It was time to do something about the problem, she felt, so she helped start the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition. Raising the issue of pedestrian safety and comfort, the Coalition staged rallies and gained a lot of coverage in the local press. Local politicians suddenly noticed the issue and Vanderslice soon found herself with a job at City Hall drafting plans on how to make Portland more pedestrian-friendly.

Cooking up Community in a Toronto Park

Faced with a local park that was feeling increasingly unsafe, a small group of neighbors in Toronto decided to take matters into their own hands. They reached out to the kids that some folks considered "toughs" to help build a Portuguese-style bread oven in the park. This project helped bring the community together and created a place in the park where neighbors come together to cook dinner together. Other improvements have been made to Dufferin Grove Park, and it has become a community gathering spot for people of all ages.