In my small town, there is a day of the week where there is a craftsfair on the side walks AND live music later in the night. This all occurs on a less than quarter mile strip of main street. Many people have lamented that cars are allowed to operate on the roads during this night, crowding everyone on the streets (There is a LOT of foot traffic, people travel for the shows).My idea is they close off this small strip with barriers, allow drinks, and wrap it all up in the morning. This isn't unheard of as we close this same strip down for saint patties day, Halloween, and other random events. I also imagine it would make an already popular night in our town even more so, getting the business owners in on it would be straight forward. How would I even begin to propose this to my town? Yes I know I can google it, and I will, but I know you guys think about this shit all the time. Is the logistics of it my burden in my proposal? Is just the idea good enough? Are they gonna help me formulate my idea or just make fun of me unless I have the help of a professional?
1. Get the email addresses for as many city officials as you can, and spam them with NJB youtube videos on a daily basis. If possible get their home addresses and send them multi-page rants about how they don't know what's in their own interests and the day of the pillow is soon. Write these in green ball point pen, the official color of activism2. Each night, vandalize parked cars by spray painting "NIMBY cagetroll boomer" on the hoods using orange krylon (official color of the Netherlands, the most enlightened country on earth). This is what Doug Gordon aka Brooklyn Spoke calls "guerilla urbanism"3. Show up at city council meetings and shriek like a spastic about how they don't know what's in their own interests. Say that you don't approve of vandalism but that it's clear the rash of guerilla urbanism direct action is a clear sign that the population is on your side. Insinuate that you might be able to get the vandal to stop if they accept your proposal. Ignore your allotted time limit and just keep shrieking like a spastic until you get tasered and dragged out by the law enforcement officer assigned to babysit the meeting. Die of an undiagnosed congenital heart defect so your parents can stop being ashamed of your existence
>>2058420came here to say this
>>2058420>>2058462I guess I'll give it a shot...
>>2058415cities that arent dogshit have entire seasons like this on certain streets
>>2058415>allow drinksDon't demand this, many cities have ordinances about open containersI'm confused whether this is a few blocks or if you want to shut down the entire downtown area.
>>2058755Non issue. Places everywhere waive it within certain grounds for festivals and events. In Philadelphia for example the ability to consume alcohol on a public street is granted along with block party permits.>>2058415I would start by identifying the levers of power in your municipality. Most often stuff like this is done through a streets department since at its heart its about closing a street to traffic. However it could also include a planning department if this is to be a regular thing. You also likely have some kind of representative already, such as a councilman or ward commissioner that you can approach to talk through ideas like this and who can help shepherd the process. Is there a community org that organizes the craft fair and the music? Are there businesses involved or who could be involved? Figure out who the stakeholders are who are going to own this process and this event. If the street does get closed, who's organizing the vendors, laying out the street, putting up signage and social media? Those are the folks who are going to be the big points of contact to get something like this done.Then honestly start with a simple petition. You really just want to track people, where they are from, and their interest in this project. When you go to your orgs or municipal folks you need a way to show that it has backing. Post it up on a flyer, have the interested businesses and orgs share it around. Have those orgs and businesses write letters of support if they can. Build documentation about how many people want it to happen.
>>2059080this poster is correct the biggest issue your gonna run into here is that you better be ready to dedicated 10hrs a week of your time to this for free and continue to run it every single week as a volunteer or its not gonna happen. You simply are not gonna just "propose" and idea that requires weekly footwork and have other people just jump up and start organizing getting volunteers to move barricades organize possible vendors etc.
>>2059080>>2059080Then here's the great thing. Basically every municipality is going to have some kind of permit process for closing a street. There are a million reasons to do it. All they really need to do is figure out what if any impact there is to EMS, arrange to have it blocked and unblocked, and a detour maybe. Once your stakeholders have an idea of what this will entail start with the basics. Aim to close a block off for tables to vend and then a spot to for music. If you can get some bar on that block to be able to sell beer in plastic cups under their liquor license, outstanding. If the weather is good, even better.Most events like this it will work pretty organically. And if you can get the people to have a good time to sign that petition to say we'd like to have a good time again there's your audience. If the business in that closed block do gangbusters fantastic, let other businesses know they can get in on the action if they get the permit to expand a couple of blocks. If it's anything like the neighborhood stuff I've seen, you already have the first thing solved which is attendance. Once you have people showing up it makes it pretty obvious how much better the event is with the addition of street space. There's two phenomenon that you can pay attention to here. The first is that lots of people have no idea how to interact with their city, so any opposition is likely to be a couple of vocal idiots drowned out if you can get a dozen people emailing a councilman in support. The second is that any opposition to stuff like this is almost always in the theoretical. "Oh what if the traffic does this? Oh where will the people park?" Once it actually happens that stuff melts away.Short version; find some one to team up with on the city side and the event side. Figure out who approves things in the city, use the existing approvals process. Don't be surprised if it takes a long time. Document public support.
>>2058746Ya I know bro, exactly why I want to propose it.>>2058755Valid, not a hill to die on. >>2059080>>2059083>>2059100>Short version; find some one to team up with on the city side and the event side. Figure out who approves things in the city, use the existing approvals process. Don't be surprised if it takes a long time. Document public support.THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is very helpful advice.
>>2059108My main point isn't that its gonna take a long time its gonna be to a consistent 10 hours a week of your effort for the rest of your life if you want to run this. I just have a lot of experience being close to people who have run local events and festivals and seeing how hard people burn out after 5 or 10 years.
