 It started in one neighborhood, just one guy noticing that some kids didn't have bikes and I believe we're up to eight bike gangs now and the outreach for that continues to grow as well. A bike gang is a group that rides bikes and has fun and encourages neighboring. You get to know your neighbors and get people out, get some exercise, get some fresh air. Having a bike ride is a great way to see your neighborhood. You'll see things that you don't notice when you're in the car. So we just started fixing bikes at our house. Even the bikes that aren't in very good shape can be taken apart in some parts salvaged to smash one good bike out of two bad ones, you know. Once the word got out, oh man, it was every day kids would come by, hey I heard you're giving bikes for free, is that true, yeah. So we'd get them outfitted with bikes and during heavier lockdown times kids needed something to do so again once they found out that we were doing bikes then it would just ride around the neighborhood every evening and the parents would come by and go hey, any bikes for me? And so yes, we got the whole neighborhood on the bike. We would just go neighborhood streets but as we're riding along we teach them the rules and how to ride safely in the streets and we'll just have fun and then sometimes we'll come back here and have some snacks here or but they really like going to somewhere you know and McDonald's or whatever it doesn't have to be anything fancy but they just like riding and being in a group and they talk and laugh and so it's a lot of fun. But where do all those bikes come from? Most of them were just gathering dust in neighborhood garages. Others came from the city of Fort Worth drop off stations after the city resolved a few legal issues. Through a lot of negotiation there was a resolution passed that allowed organizations like the bike gangs of Fort Worth to go get those bikes. They had to meet certain requirements, had to be a nonprofit organization and they had to agree that they would repair the bikes and give them for free that they couldn't sell anything. We also have some groups that donate so that we can buy parts. If there's no used parts available we can go buy new parts and so the bike shops we try to work with them you know we're not trying to cut down on any of their business so we buy parts from them as often as possible and in fact they even donate some bikes sometimes that they get trade-ins that they just can't or don't want to refurbish so they'll give those to us. With so many bikes and parts on hand the Pine Nuts bike gang eventually outgrew John Striveway. We had this building that through a series of events ended up being owned by the HOA and there was really nothing happening here and so as the bike gangs grew and we needed more space I asked if we could use part of the building and so the board and the owner the homeowner said yeah sure it's okay and because by that time they knew that it was a really good thing you know that it was helping the neighborhood. As the building opened up people had never been in here before they come in and look around like wow that's great what else can we do so we had some food donated and so we're starting a food pantry for a long time. People had wanted a playground for the kids. There wasn't really anything here so we got volunteers and decided we would build a playground and a little recreation area so we did that we built a little place set and basketball goal and rocks to climb on. We also started a community garden the Terrant Area Food Bank helped us a lot. Yeah come on you can come to our garden and see how it's done and we'll help you build yours and so we brought in a lot of dirt and fill dirt and grade and mulch and everything. I knew there was a lot of things that people wanted to do in the neighborhood but it just didn't start so sometimes just getting things started then it just opens the floodgate so I think that's kind of what happened here that that once we opened the building for the bikes then that opened the neighborhood and people had they were they weren't afraid to present their other ideas. Fort Worth Public Arts Collection is comprised of over 118 pieces steel sculptures aluminum new media artworks sound and they're located all over the city of Fort Worth obviously in centers like downtown Fort Worth in the cultural district and then also spread out through each of the individual neighborhoods throughout the city of Fort Worth. It belongs to the public we're not a commissioning body that stands in obscurity we are commissioning body that is made up of citizens of Fort Worth the people who are paying for the artwork to be installed to be fabricated to be made our citizens of Fort Worth and to that end it we want to make sure that citizens in the community is involved in every step of the process. A project core team is a group of individuals that represent community interests for a specific public art project. Typically they consist of five to eight community members that are recommended by the community engagement office that are found by the public art office and recommended by other community leaders. I think the most powerful influence that a resident has on a project is in that first project core team orientation in that meeting the project manager and I we sit down with the core team and we ask them what do you want to see and that list of responses to that question guides us through the entire process. The project core team then weighs in on which artists we want to bring into interview for that project and then they select the artist alongside a panel of voting members which includes the council member arts professionals and other stakeholders in the project. In some specific projects such as the fire stations we also include a residency component. Obviously with a fire station you have a group of people who live at that location and so it felt very important for us to have the artist go and stay with that really small community to gather a lot of input to get an idea of what their daily life is like. The importance of community engagement early on in a project can't be oversold. If you are getting community input at every stage you are hearing that feedback and you're able to adjust and you're able to move public art. Mark Thistleweights said recently public art is all about compromise and if you know what the community wants at every stage then you're able to make those small compromises and ultimately deliver a project that everyone can feel great about rather than delivering a project that people feel disconnected from and then want to push back against. And so community engagement especially early on just really makes sure that we get a beautiful product. We get a beautiful project and we have a beautiful process. Joining a project core team is an opportunity to shape your city. It's an opportunity to tell your neighborhood what you want to see. It's an opportunity to represent yourself and your family and your community in the larger scheme of Fort Worth. Ultimately our parks and community centers or trails are for the public. We need the people to use them, the kids, the adults. So we need to find out what they want, what their preferences are, what their priorities are so we can build the park that's going to be used. At the public meeting a lot of people like to participate and there's a lot of good exchange of ideas when person will stand up and have an idea and that'll trigger something else. We need to explain the project budget, project schedule, what the goals are of the project. But basically we're there to hear. That's why park and recreation public meetings include multiple stations around the room where residents can look at maps, photos, and idea boards. Like for Como Community Center we had one station was a building facade or style. What do you want the exterior of the building to look like? What would look good in Como? The expert there was able to talk about them, talk about those different types of styles, answer some questions and then the people had an opportunity to put a little dot on the picture, the image that they thought would work well here in Como. Another area was programming. We had an opportunity for people to add their ideas to a flip chart. What types of sport activities or educational programming would you like at Como Community Center? It's also important to show the public that we hear them and we're recording their input. I like to write things down as I hear it. Sometimes people don't like to speak up in a public group. So they may be more inclined to fill out a survey after the public meeting. Park and Rec chooses the type of survey based on neighborhood association advice. Electronic via email or paper surveys in areas where neighbors lack internet access. In some areas of the city we'll need to bring an interpreter. If English is not the predominant language, of course all our announcements for the public meeting would be in dual language. We work with the communications department in order to get this the date, time of the public meeting out through social media. We also send out notification to neighborhoods association or homeowner association leadership so they can share that as well. We're in the parks department so we get to stick a sign in the park and if we're near a community center or library, school, we'll put the flyers out there as well. In the end it gives us an idea as to what really the public has got the highest priority. That way we can prioritize our project budget and build what people are wanting to see. Once upon a time associations held evening meetings and neighbors came in droves. A chance to chat with your council member, then hear the latest city news. Good evening, how are y'all? But this well attended evening meeting fairytale had a sad ending. Long before masks and social distancing, neighbors stopped coming to night meetings. Too late, too dark, too busy getting the kids fed, they said. Time to write a new chapter. Enter Java with Jungus. A chance to grab coffee in the light of day. Not too early, not too late. It's just right, they said. Lots of neighbors and all the latest news. But alas, the plot thickens when 2020 brings COVID-19. Pandemic, no problem. Hello, how are you? Java's moved to Facebook Live with recordings repeated on CityCableTV. Some great information served up with social distance, more accessible and convenient than ever before. Now that's a happy ending.