One day I am writing the application of the TED Prize and the next I am weeding the park

Writing the TED prize was a good mental exercise, and it took a painstaking amount of time to translate thoughts and images from my brain into clear American English, for as a dyslexic, I have clear concepts, images, an ideas, but not clear words.

 

Anyway, the writing is done (sent at the last minute 11.59 pm) and yesterday morning, I took my children to weed the playground…and think…yes think.

See, we have the Art in The park festival next Saturday and the park needs to look attractive…when people come to visit our park, I want them to be pleased and impress…and see themselves living in Mott Park.

See, the park is not in complete disrepair, but need so much help! When I collect the weeds, I see the people coming and using the park…and it seems to me that they do not have the urge to clean the park as I have..Why? Are they so used to decay in their lives that this is OK? Is it me that want the park to look like parks in Fenton? Is it me that has higher expectations?

The park has no flower, and yet because the time in which it  was designed for a Flint that was rich, very rich is a magnificent piece of urban design. I am amazed that has lasted so long..and yet, vandalism has paid it visit and some of the tennis course metal walls are broken..and the list goes on and on.

I analyzed and tried to find techniques to motivate a new kind of behavior because everything that I see is passive victimhood type of” well I live in Flint what do you expect,” to complete denial of running around the huge weeds on the stairs coming down the park ( which I removed this morning in my dog-morning walk), “well I am  here for the time being while things get better, or I’m moving to another college soon, or I am going to be famous writing and will be able forget that I come from Flint, bye” to the sick nostalgia “things were better then”…when in reality if you are like me and talk to the seniors…drinking and wife beaters have been in the park forever.. the difference is that churches, and pastors/fathers were doing more community visits to the homes in Mott Park…and the police did not have this detached macho cars to drive around..and there were no TV’s..only the park.

So, I have been thinking that I will do and experiment  to give permission to people to try a different attitude…I will attach signs around the park

Mott Park is In Need of a Lot of  Love

To increase the Mott Park’s Quotient of Love:

• You have to feel this park belongs to you because it is true.
• Come and pray and be thankful to have such wonderful place in the city.
• Come and meditate.
• Come and play.
• Come and laugh.
• Come and weed the gardens.
• Come and weed the play areas.
• Come and paint the walls of the tunnel.
• Come and plant flowers.
• Come and collect the litter.
• But most of all come with all your friends to visit the park often

 Because if you love the Park,

The Park will love you

Back

And like magic the Karma of the park will change

The park is waiting for you

With open arms

The Mott Park Lady

After I hang the papers, I will let you know how things turn out…in the meantime look at this jewel that is Mott Park.

Flint Michigan Needs a City 2.0 Makeover -TED Prize

For the first time in the history of the prize, it is being awarded not to an individual,

but to an idea. It is an idea upon which our planet’s future depends.

The 2012 TED Prize is awarded to….the City 2.0.

The City 2.0 is the city of the future… a future in which more than ten billion people on planet Earth must somehow live sustainably.

The City 2.0 is not a sterile utopian dream, but a real-world upgrade tapping into humanity’s collective wisdom.

The City 2.0 promotes innovation, education, culture, and economic opportunity.

The City 2.0 reduces the carbon footprint of its occupants, facilitates smaller families, and eases the environmental pressure on the world’s rural areas.

The City 2.0 is a place of beauty, wonder, excitement, inclusion, diversity, life.

The City 2.0 is the city that works

 

Announcing the 2012 TED Prize Winner – The City 2.0

http://www.tedprize.org/announcing-the-2012-ted-prize-winner/

In a few hours the group that convenes for the TED conference will have the opportunity to discuss the City 2.0.

My wish is that TED prize takes a real city (my city) Flint Michigan which is the antithesis of the city 2.0 and brainstorm solutions to brake an old rusty system to ignite problem solving, change and innovation.

We assume that the city 2.0 with its participatory essence will bring the best thinker and innovators to address the challenges of cities around the world, but before we start moving in that direction, we have to understand the system in which such cities rest.

And before any conversation, we have to understand that cities are people that come together to conduct a series of transactions. From that transactions, the space (real and virtual as internet connections) get organized.

And so what defines that city is the quality of the transaction. In a city like Flint were the organizing factor was the auto- industry, it created an unbalanced of power by a mono industry.

We tend to assume that cities are democratic entities, but cities built over one industry that control all the resources, are not. Monopolies have tremendous power in how the different institutions of the city function, and it affects every aspect of daily live. More importantly, they control the tax base that is the live hood of the city services, and any step that industry takes –like a domino effect, affects the city.

But a monopoly has a more powerful effect on people because all the transactions of daily lives are embedded in the unbalance of power. And despite that GM has few factories left in Flint, its legacy is omnipresent today, as it was in its glorious days.

This is a city were a small group of people makes all the decisions while a population of passive-aggressive obeys.

Adding that the type of industry is based on the assembly line, there is no space for free flowing. Obedience is at the center of the transactions while change, spontaneity, and people participatory innovation are rejected.

That produces a city were silent power struggle is present on daily bases. The problems the city has are a reflection of the lack of cooperation to solve together while segregation is present in issues of race, class, and institutions.

Flint is a city that is trapped in a model of transaction that is paternalistic, controlling and very, very old.

As a system, Flint shows distress in all areas. And its markers show huge challenges in:

• Number of death by violent crime per number of residents
•  Quality of education per number of students completing high school.
• Solvency of the city and debt per number of residents.
• Migration of educated youth to “cool more democratic cities,” per number of residents.
• Ratio of technology use per number of residents.
• Number of foreclosures homes per number of residents.
• Number of burn properties per number of residents.
• Number of children experiencing poverty per number of residents.
• Number of brown fields per number of residents.
• Number of preventable illnesses like diabetes 2
• Number of youth involved in gang groups per number of residents.
• Number of abandoned parks and public places per number of residents.
• Number of foreclosed commercial properties per number of residents.
• Number of seniors experiencing poverty per number of residents.
• Number of youth dropping from school per number of residents.
• Number of youth expelled from schools per number of residents.
• Number of outlets to buy fresh and nutritious food per number of residents.
• Number of outlets to buy liquor, and illicit drugs per number of residents.
• Number of children with lead in their blood per number of residents.
• Number of mental illness individuals per number of residents.
• Number of people on disability per number of residents.
• Number of adults and children involved in substance abuse like methamphetamines, prescription drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and inhaled solvents
• Number of people that are illiterate per number of residents.
• Number of people with sexually transmitted infections.

Flint is a city with a high level of contempt, shame and a tremendous disinvestment. Most people want to move out than to move into Flint. Everybody feel helpless toward the issues of poverty which brings emotions of anger, depression, frustration and extreme stress which increase the cycle of abuse that is already high.

The entire system of the city lacks transparency, reliability, honesty, and life seems a series of victimhood events, one after another (please read the front page of the newspapers and the anonymous comments on such newspapers too.)

But what makes the system of the city of Flint difficult to change is that the feedback loop for correction is indirect, distant and broken. With unions and its collective bargaining power that protects is territories at all cost (example despite schools failing poor children), and with organizations that favor strong managing types like the strong Mayoral system, it feed passivity in the population. Their input is not valued, so they stop trying.

Corruption at all levels is the fast road of quick money and the instant gratification of a population that feels it does not have much to offer to the world.

Crime is a parallel economy that is justified as a viable solution between the poor, which feeds a criminal system that is high on incarceration and very low on results of re-education and re-integration of criminals to society.

So, it is my desire that the city 2.0 with is participatory and democratic nature infuses new energy of creative power to address all the challenges of cities like Flint. I invite everybody to choose Flint as the model from which solutions can be envisioned.

And with a new interface of participation- the city 2.0 could bring the best of the human transactions to bear fruits to a world that is getting smaller and more interconnected.

We are at a point on human civilization that we need to value each person as an active participant, a rich resource of knowledge, creativity and talent. A city 2.0 with its new way of understanding human interaction in a context of living together brings hope, respect and true democracy to places.

In the end, we human are social being that build cities to accommodate such needs. I hope the city 2.0 could accommodate such needs in a more justice way.

We could dream of a city where everybody feels included and listened and encouraged.

Sincerely,

Marta