Place Samplings 10/9/2010

Better Burb Contest- "The time for thinking cautiously is over"
From the website: 
There has been a crisis of imagination, and your bold new ideas are urgently needed. There should be no preconceptions about what is or is not possible. What would you do on these acres of opportunity? Build a car-free community for thousands? Plant an oasis of urban agriculture? Produce renewable energy and provide well-paying green jobs? Use landscape systems to repair ruptures in regional ecologies? Introduce armatures to enhance public space and the civic realm?


Other Links of Note:

Obama Administration Rolls Out the Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative

Designing Buildings that Battle Obesity

Creative Placemaking Through the Arts

Detroit

• How To Be The Ultimate Metro Detroit Locavore
• Time wanes for Detroit project: Some question impact after a year of reporting 

Blog Spotlight: PlaceShakers

Edible Wow Spring 2010

New issue out!  This edition contains an in inspiring piece about Peaches & Greens,  an effort to sell fresh produce in the style of an ice-cream truck to the poorest neighborhoods in Detroit's food desert.

If you don't subscribe, you will have to find your issue at one of the magazine's advertiser's locations. I found mine at Mind,  Body, Spirits in Rochester, an upscale sustainable, organic eatery with a LEED-certified building featuring, among many other features,  geothermal heating/cooling, an onsite greenhouse, and a food composter.

Growing Up in a Place: No Child Left Inside

Lately, my husband and four-year old son have been obsessed with Super Mario Brothers for the Wii.    They spend hours at a time collecting coins, absorbing magic mushrooms and destroying all manner of mythical creatures. While I can remember spending hours on the original NES game myself back in the 80's (yes, I saved the princess), this development highlights a rather strong difference between my husband and I regarding our parenting philosophies: I don't think this is such great thing. He just thinks they are bonding.

Last Saturday we went for a walk in the park; it was the first nice day in a very long time. It quickly became clear how much Super Mario's landscape had invaded my son's mind.  He related inanimate objects to Mario creatures.  He equated the fire pole at the playscape to the flagpole scaled by Mario at the end of each level. As we walked, he pretended to be throwing giant turtle shells at us, and pretended to be hopping to avoid poison mushrooms.

Yes, it was all very cute,  But I do worry (I am a mom, right?). I am not a puritan about video games, but he is very young.  I think there needs to be a balance between fantasy and reality, and there needs to be space for imagination to thrive.  Exploring the outdoors, I believe, is the surest way to stimulate the imagination, and I think it is critical for children.

Raising kids in a cold climate presents some challenges.  Weather can discourage parents from getting their kids outside.We get out to local recreation ares and parks when we can, but not as much as we should.  We are blessed with a wonderful town full of trails, parks, and rivers, and we need to get out there .

The No Child Left Inside movement, which echoes the No Child Left Behind Act, was inspired by Richard Louv's book Last Child in the Woods, and is trying to bring attention to this issue by combating  so-called "Nature Deficit Disorder."

Local initiatives abound; here in Southeast Michigan we have No Child Left Inside Days (April 20-25) sponsored the the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment, an upcoming summit on the topic at UM Dearborn in June, Nature Connections out of Milford, and a locally authored book, One Child One Planet.

Because we have always been avid hikers, campers, and backpackers, I am really not too worried about my son's video game obsession. We'll get outside soon, as the weather improves. In the meantime, I try to pull him away from time to time, if only to take a breath of fresh air on the front porch.