If I were to move, Minneapolis might be the place...

Minneapolis-St.Paul...what a hidden gem! Perhaps it was the company I found myself in, but the two cities seemed extremely bikeable...? (HOORRRAAAYYYY) There is a greenway that runs through a large section of Minneapolis which people use to commute on their bicycles to work! Took a bike ride while there, on one of the last warm days of summer/fall before the cold sets in and it was a beautiful ride. On a tandem no less!

While I was in the Twin Cities I checked out Paint the Pavement, Grand Aspirations, Experimental College of the Twin Cities, and talked to some pretty awesome and inspiring people. The people I stayed with--Andrew, Rija, Hanah, Claire, Terence, Ryan (did I forget anyone??)--were incredible. Super welcoming, but more than that, they had/have enormous creative and positive energy which no doubt translates into creative and positive change in all that they do!

I mentioned Paint the Pavement in an earlier post, skeptical of the motivations for adopting intersection painting as a solution for building the St. Paul community. I'm not sure if I've resolved this issue, but it leaves a better taste in my mouth now understanding the whole story: the story is that a community member turned leader took this idea from CityRepair and ran with it, so for all intents and purposes it was a decision made internally, by the community/for the community, thus making it a more legitimate project to be adopted into this St. Paul neighborhood. I actually found that Paint the Pavement itself was not the important/interesting part of the organization; the program (LISN) that resulted in the creation of the project has drawn my attention far more as a creative solution to the lack of internal innovation of a community.

LISN, or Leadership in Support of Neighborhood, is a program that is no longer in existence, but no longer in existence because it was so successful! My basic understanding was that the program accepted interested individuals within the Hamline neighborhood, and working with Hamline University and the neighborhood group, they were trained in how to become community leaders and how to pursue ideas and create projects/businesses from them. It was a business incubator in a way, only it produced innovation on many different levels (non-profits, grassroots initiatives, businesses, etc), which resulted in an increasingly engaged and active community! Eventually the program shut down because there were too many successful projects, and there were no longer enough community members feeling as though they could not become involved in leadership/community decision making. I LOVE the idea of this...empowering community members, training them in personal & business skills, giving a stipend to complete a project...and seeing magic happen! No doubt with many ups and downs...but I definitely think there is something in this idea. Will have to speak further with the woman who ran the trainings...

Don't have time to post on the other 2 organizations I visited right now, but will post more later...