Deep placemaking starts by changing the stories that limit the potential of your town or neighbourhood. If you don't address these stories you are fiddling at the edges.
When I took on the task of placemaker in Struggletown, I knew that my job was primarily psychological. Cities, like people, are controlled by their stories. Five kilometres from Struggletown, just across the river, is a more urban city. From its very inception, the residents of Struggletown compared themselves unfavourably to their older sibling and developed a ‘chip on the shoulder’. This story became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
To a large extent, a town like this is a struggle town because that is what it sees when it looks in the mirror. As a professional placemaker, my first challenge was to unpack this story and then begin to change the image in the mirror. In fact, I could pave the streets in gold, but it wouldn’t make an ounce of difference, because, the self-limiting story would have remained the same.
What is interesting is that town stories get built into the very fabric of a built environment. In the heart of Struggletown was a supermarket with a liquor store (see photo below). Outside was a concrete bulwark designed to protect the booze inside from ram-raiders. The very design of this space told every resident, every day, that they lived in a town of untrustworthy people. Only in a struggle town would you need to protect the booze with a concrete barrier. First comes the story, then the physical form that reinforces the story.
As a placemaker, my first job was to change that story. So, I had the wall turned into an outdoor art gallery.
Design elements can be incredibly important in shifting negative town stories. But they must be employed with purpose - in this instance to change what people saw when they looked in the mirror.
For more on why placemaking is first and foremost a psychological task, see my book: 'Revitalise Your Town Centre in 7 Weeks or Less'.
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