A recent discussion with a friend of bridges, bicycles, eco-friendly housing, and cultural change in New Albany left me with this gem: Whatever we do, it'd better capture the imagination of the pioneers.
A more technical explanation from QuickMBA.com, considering the city of New Albany as product, is below.
Consumers can be grouped according to how quickly they adopt a new product. On the one extreme, some consumers adopt the product as soon as it becomes available. On the other extreme, some consumers are among the last to purchase a new product. As a whole, the new product adoption process can be modeled in the form of a bell-shaped diffusion curve similar to the following:
* Innovators - well-informed risk-takers who are willing to try an unproven product. Innovators represent the first 2.5% to adopt the product.
* Early adopters - based on the positive response of innovators, early adopters then begin to purchase the product. Early adopters tend to be educated opinion leaders and represent about 13.5% of consumers.
* Early majority - careful consumers who tend to avoid risk, the early majority adopts the product once it has been proven by the early adopters. They rely on recommendations from others who have experience with the product. The early majority represents 34% of consumers.
* Late majority - somewhat skeptical consumers who acquire a product only after it has become commonplace. The late majority represents about 34% of consumers.
* Laggards - those who avoid change and may not adopt a new product until traditional alternatives no longer are available. Laggards represent about 16% of consumers.
While locals have made much-- and rightfully so-- of code enforcement, sewers, traffic calming, and downtown decorations, these are all elements that appeal to what in most places would be called the mainstream. It's entirely possible that we could accomplish all those things and end up with a city that's perhaps a bit safer but no more alluring than the most recent exurban development. Careful, homogeneity is catching.
What then, have we done to "capture the imagination", to create the same enticement that compelled thousands of easterners to walk, ride, and float to our shoreline, carve a path, and call the resulting coordinates home? Or, for that matter, to drive across a bridge? With a few noted exceptions, not much I'd say. And until we take up intellectual arms against the idea that white, male, upper middle class bankers and administrators are somehow going to lead a cultural uprising, that answer won't change.
It's well within our collective reach to proclaim this place as different and so far, either through ignorance, fear, or apathy, we've simply decided not to.
I've no idea if anyone's coming with me, but I'm headed for the left hand side of the curve and declaring that New Albany is the mother of invention.
ummm, lots to think about...
ReplyDeleteOne wonders what the correlation is between innovators and early adopters and those who buy and read books. At least this "one" wonders.
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ReplyDeleteRandy,
ReplyDeleteThat would qualify as one of the noted exceptions. A community's support of a bookstore and similar establishments points directly to its interest in intellectual pursuits. Showing a multiplicity of those pursuits is a magnet for smart people.
G,
It's a broad and open ended topic (several, actually) and my presentation of it was off the cuff, born from the frustration of well meaning people choosing to limit themselves out of some notion that overly cautious, mainstream endeavors will somehow lead to alternative, "better" results without risk.
When you apply the general imagination capture idea as a component of the issues we're already facing, though, it's less to wrap one's mind around.
Two-way streets are one of those issues. There's widespread support in the neighborhoods for two-way street conversion and mayor-elect England is in favor of them as well.
Returning the streets to their two-way, local, and largely residential purpose rather than encouraging their use as surface level expressways to somewhere else is a good idea aesthetically, economically, and in safety terms. But there's a next step...
I and others have advocated for the inclusion of bike paths. Do I think we'll be flooded with bicyclists and homebuyers overnight? No. Usage will increase slowly, particularly aided by an eventual Greenway/K&I bridge tie in.
Bike path inclusion is the type of thing, though, that sends a strong signal to those looking for an alternative to environmentally irresponsible, interstate-driven lifestyles. New Albany would be seen as thinking ahead, influencing the future rather than trying to play catch up. Leading.
When the LEO took up the bicycling topic a couple of times, reader interest was huge and passionate, pro-bike letters to the editor ran for weeks.
What happens if New Albany includes bike paths in its reworking of streets, along with a statement from city government outlining a commitment to quality of life and sustainable development?
We'd do much to capture those imaginations, develop "creative class" credibility, and further reposition ourselves in the metro market with a buzz that we'd struggle to otherwise create. It's the type of PR you can't buy.
The cost? A couple of feet of preexisting pavement on a few streets to get started and some paint. It's nearly the exact same project but with very different results.
It's not always about the amount or frequency of expenditure. It's the attitude that compels and is expressed by the expenditure, even if it's relatively small.
Attitude is the one thing we can do for free and its lack hereabouts is an obstacle. Evident thinking attracts thinking people. Thinking people revitalize neighborhoods and drive the economy.
Why are we so reticent to show intellectual engagement? Are we afraid of someone else's ignorance or our own?
BG,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up some good points that remind me of one blatantly obvious shortcoming of our collective efforts. That being we can’t (or in some cases won’t) see the forest for the trees.
We all come to the table with differing ideas on what the needs are based on our individual socio economic, educational, and life experience backgrounds. Most of them on their, own merits are valid, as are the proposed solutions.
The reoccurring difficulty seems to be twofold. One is our seeming unwillingness to consider there may be a forest somewhere amongst those trees, while the other is our inability to share limited resources, information, and that vulgar term, turf.
All the while, when one stands still and looks at what we’re trying to accomplish, the big picture goals are the same. A vibrant, prosperous, safe, clean community in which to live, work, play, and raise our families.
The reasons for this quandary are as varied as are the individuals & groups involved and as old as humanity itself. History however can site cases where such has been overcome. Now is our time as a community to do likewise.
I challenge us all to take a chance, learn something new, consider a different course than has always been and above all risk working together to accomplish that which we all desire.
Are we all going to be ecstatic in the end? NO!
Are we going to get all we want out of our efforts? NO!
But collectively we have a better than even shot of stepping out the other side with more than we had. Separately, we’ll be extremely lucky to see any change at all in the status quo at the end of the next decade.
That would be kind of wasted opportunity and time don’t ya think??
We've been kicking around "creative class" economics on this blog and elsewhere since 2004, but you're right that it's taking a long time to infuse these ideas into the local establishment. I'd say, as a city unit, we've been late adopters/laggards in many respects, with notable exceptions.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, I agree that safety and cleanliness issues don't push innovation and create uniqueness of locality, but they certainly lower barriers of entry into our urban neighborhoods for families thinking about moving back into the city. I think neighborhood associations, for example, play an important role in that regard.
This area is not the 798 Art District in China, but it might just as well be. To try and get folks to rally behind ideas of such are just as queer.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jeff for bringing your ideas to the board in an off beat colour sort of being...
Bluegill is right that the minimal investment needed to regain two-way streets is so worth it. But isnt the larger issue one of attitude? New Albany has been used as everyones whore for so long now, we have a lot of work to do to make it a place in its own right again. along the lines of the street re-do is a plan floated by MSPA to turn Main St into a boulevard. Think about it - one of the finest collections of historic architecture in the state of Indiana is a used daily mostly as a truck highway. Imagine if Main St were a destination in and of itself? It could be, it once was. But we have to take back our city mentally, as well as physically.
ReplyDeleteGina,
ReplyDeleteThere is just one teensy weensy minor technical issue with Main Street. It somehow, someway, at some point in history as a result of someone having a brainfart became designated a State Highway.
There would have to be an endangered species discovered in, on, or under it to change that little oversight.
Ah, but...Mitch wants to surrender all responsibility for the highway within the city limits.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, that will be the biggest challenge to be faced by the England administration. And the cash payment made by the state in conjunction with that abdication will be the biggest temptation (read: Christmas tree) in the city's recent history.
Responsible negotiation for and subsequent management of those funds will be the true test of our incoming mayor.
Perfect - Daniels wants to "sell" Main St back to us? The state hwy needs to be re-routed. A tall order yes, but why not? There is no law that says semi tractor trailers need to speed up and down an underappreciated asset as Main St. Obviously I live on Main St, so Im biased. However, New Albanys Main st has the potential to be one of those grand American avenues that define a city. I better start printing up my 86-111 yard signs...
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