TEDxOU - Jason Roberts - How To Build a Better Block

Opposite to the 'top down' concept of urban design is BETTER BLOCK, founded in Dallas' Oak Cliff by Jason Roberts and Andrew Howard. The Better Block project is a demonstration tool that temporarily re-visions an area to show the potential to create a walkable, vibrant, neighborhood center. The idea and the charrettes to realize it have quickly spread to cities like Memphis, St. Louis, New York, and Boston. National media coverage includes NPR, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

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  People & Blogs

[Clif C]

"We told people, oh yeah, this is the bike part of town, and they believed it."

LOL

[atlantaunderground]

Love, love, love it. This is so up my alley

[ZG22LDN]

If you want some European "flavor" in your initiatives and towns, beginning every sentence with "I" won't get you far. It starts with YOU perhaps but surely you have a whole team around you, not to mention the community.

[John R. Smith]

How to Butterfly NZ

Opunake Butterfly Club

OBC

Opunake Bike Club.

[Carrie Burns]

Castleberry Hill in Atlanta could easily be part of the Better Block group! A few years ago we built the Railside Dog Park and if anything it's the old time rules of Atlanta that are stopping folks from moving forward, we need to take it back!

[anablepophobia]

It's all about involvement and momentum. Dallas is hardly the epicenter for progressive movements, but it's hard, even for Scrooge McDuck, to say no to new business and a community that sees what could be.

[Jude Hannah]

Love the passion. @ReNewtonNation wants to retrofit the King George corridor in south Newton ( Surrey) BC and these are fabulous ideas. Thank you for your enthusiasm. It's contagious!

[Stephen Mitchell]

Inspiring to say the least. The last few minutes say it all:

Show up, be present/available, give it a name, set a date, publish it, commit to your project.

[John Hopkins]

What an encouraging talk! Gotta save this to show all the doubters.

[Jono Kenyon]

So inspiring. Be what you want your community to be! The naming thing is also such an important point.

[Andrew E]

Enthusiasm : 10. Execution : 4

[John Z Wetmore]

Great idea breaking the rules to show how silly they are. Several years ago, I interviewed Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson on P4P 108. He described their regulations, which he was trying to change: "It was like somebody had decided they were going to make this as bland and as boring a place as possible for pedestrians."