December 9, 2008

Build a public idea infrastructure

The Dispatch reported today on some creative urban design ideas developed by OSU students. These include:

• Seasonal beach: Greg Grippa suggested setting up a sandy retreat at North Bank Park for a month every summer. Boat rentals and a pool could accompany the beach.

• Bus alerts: COTA already posts live information on the Internet about where buses are, but it also could send text messages to let riders know how soon the bus will arrive, Annie Abell said.

• Car-free N. High Street: It's bolder than the mayor's streetcar proposal, but cities such as Denver have taken major shopping districts and labeled them bus-, bicycle- and pedestrian-only. Brown said that pedestrian shoppers might enjoy it, but it might give traffic engineers nightmares.

• Recycle art: Betsy Pandora recommended adding a 1-cent tax for beverage containers. Drinkers could get the cash back when they recycle or choose to donate the money to fund public art.

Professor Kyle Ezell says he is interested in creating a Civic Innovation Lab like Cleveland has. Kind of like angel investing for public spirited pursuits.

Despite all the tools at our disposal we don't yet seem to be able to cultivate innovation in any deliberate way. The Vision 2012 process for the City bond initiative was stimulating and generated tremendous public input. But then it was taken over by officialdom, distilled into general goals that already had political currency, and the original ideas now sit statically on the web site. Where are the social networks, the working groups, the seed grants? At least a wiki for refining the ideas?

Maybe institutional deliberateness and innovation are incompatible. Innovations are supposed to bust open institutions, not let them wear the term like a fashionable shirt. Many conversations are happening in the civic sector that will lead to innovations. But it would be nice to build some public idea infrastructure that linked these informal conversations to financial resources and urban planning. There are great ideas on the margins that die before ever getting a chance to grow.

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