Neighbor Guy
City People. Urban Living. Other Stuff.
Take the Day Off? Never!
Ever pick up your local newspaper in hopes of reading your favorite columnist’s latest insights into the world at large only to find that he or she is “taking the day off”?
I don’t know about you, but I’ve often wondered if “taking the day off” wasn’t little more than a thinly veiled euphemism for “The Columnist You’ve Turned to for Inspired Thinking Hasn’t the Foggiest Idea What to Write About Today.”
Let me be unequivocally clear: You will never read, “Neighbor Guy is taking the day off,” in this space. Ever. Pigs will take to the skies in vast numbers first.
There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it’s hard to miss a deadline when you don’t really have one. Posting more or less when one pleases is a surefire way to combat writer’s block.
Second, Neighbor Guy has plenty of ideas. More ideas than you can shake a stick at. You would need several sticks, definitely.
Today, we wade through a sampling of random musings that were they to originate from a more reliable source, might actually be seized upon to improve the quality of life in a city near you.
• Pick a Park, Any Park: If I were a corporate big shot, I’d instruct my esteemed Community Development Director to buy up several vacant or abandoned lots in the city and convert them into pocket parks or public green spaces. I defy anybody to think of a better way to make a positive impression on a city and its denizens than by providing them with a viable green space they can enjoy.
• Public Artworks: They say great fences make great neighbors. I say great public art is better still. Art that connects to the essence of a place is best of all. If your city happens to be the home of a cultural icon such as, say, Kurt Vonnegut, and he passes away suddenly, and a lifelike sculpture to commemorate his life isn’t immediately commissioned, you are missing a major opportunity. (This is just a random example; I haven’t been stewing over this. No, really.)
• Sister Love: Raise your hand if you know the name of your town’s sister cities. Wuhan? Zagreb? Matanzas? Douala? They could be anywhere. You wouldn’t neglect your own sister like that, would you? To rectify this bothersome issue, I hereby propose an annual summer festival in which a given municipality celebrates its various sister cities? Pick a popular public space. Bring in a band or two. Sell food, crafts and knickknacks produced in these unsung far off places. It will be informative. It will be fun. Really.
• Paging Renzo Piano: Every city, it seems to me, needs at least one example of outrageous and mind boggling architecture in its midst. It could be an airport or a library or a newly minted performance hall. It could be curvy, angular, vertigo inducing. Ideally, it will be all of these things at once.
• Shameless Promotion: Let’s face it: A neighborhood is only as memorable as you make it. If your neck of the woods houses an unusually large oak tree or an underground secret society or the former hideout of a notorious madman, shouldn’t you tell the world all about it? Yes, you should.
Now, you may find any or all of these ideas harebrained at best, and it’s okay if you do. Undoubtedly, you have a few harebrained ideas of your own. I encourage you to share them with somebody. Anybody. Public discourse is the inspired domain of Everyman. It’s an easy way to blow off steam, but it can also be a catalyst for Great Works.
The possibilities are endless, but not if we all keep taking the day off.
