Hopscotch on the Bridge. Photo by Delicious Noise

The Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan is well under way, and we have little over a month to send the city our ideas on how Austinites envision Austin.  We encourage you to host your own meeting/party/dinner to discuss these issues with your friends and family.  The City has a meeting-in-a-box to guide you through it.

For me, I’d want Austin to encourage using public transportation, cycling and walking. In his visit to Austin last fall, David Byrne displayed photos of parking garage after parking garage that he took while riding downtown.  Aliens would think that machines lived here. Let’s not let Austin be a city of cars and traffic.

To help open up your mind and get ready to brainstorm, a friend of mine once said, “Imagine what Austin would look like if kids designed the city.”  So…  what if we had more benches and bike racks than parking spaces? What if we had a bicycle highway that looped the city? What if crosswalks were painted yellow so pedestrians and the disabled could cross the street with confidence?  What if we had playgrounds for children, adults and the elderly?  What if we had tipis designed after our native Comanches dispersed on our streets to offer shelter for the homeless?  (The original native Texans knew how to deal with our heat the best.)

Using our public spaces creatively is one of the most important ways we can send a message of community and unity.  It’s also a way to demonstrate to our fellow Texans and our children, that Austin puts people first, and yeah, we’re weird, but proud of it.  Feel free to host your meeting-in-a-box using any of these ideas. Also, check out our previous post on 5 Ways to Reclaim Austin’s Comprehensive Plan.

10 Ways to Turn Austin Into A Giant Playground

Red Swing and Waller Creek is For Lovers Swing on the Creek

1. Play board games in a downtown parking space. Why should cars be the only ones to get VIP spots?  Take some blankets and your favorite board games, and don’t forget your meeting-in-a-box!  I’d camp out in front of a yummy restaurant and take “out” food.
2. Have a block party. My neighborhood has a lot of children playing in the streets on the weekends.  Don’t most neighborhoods?  What if we joined them?  What if we organized a street shut down so our kids could play safely, and we could eat and dance in the street?
3. Play a gig on a Capital Metro Bus.  Is one of your friends an aspiring musician?  Who isn’t in Austin?  Get your friends to ride the Metro one day and jam out.  Those bus rides can be so boring and unpleasant.  Go spruce it up a bit!  Don’t play an instrument?  Try jingling your keys to a beat.
4. Play Hopscotch on the Lamar pedestrian bridge. We recently did this one.  FUUUUUN!  Try to see how many joggers you can get to hopscotch through.
5. Have a picnic by the train tracks or an intersection. It may not be the quietest of places, but you can do something you’ve never done before.  Have you ever seen a train go by up close?  It’s remarkable.
6. Rooftop Sledding.  February usually offers Austin some light snow/sleet.  The perfect opportunity for some rooftop sledding.  Grab your bikes, some rope and flat piece of wood or plastic.  Hold on tight.
7. Dinner by candle light… in the park. Doesn’t have to be romantic.  Organize a pot-luck with your friends and head out to a park for dinner.
8. Hide-and-Go-Seek in the city. When was the last time you played?  I played in the woods on a camping trip a couple years back.  I forgot how much fun it was!  Partner up, and designate a “home” and the boundary areas.  It will give you a chance to really explore Austin.
9. Play Frisbee in a vacant parking lot. Heck, play anything in a vacant parking lot.  Simon says, basketball, volleyball, red rover… whatever you feel like playing.
10. Dress up like maids to clean up town lake. Alright, so that may not be so much fun as it is funny.  But hey, someone’s gotta do it.

SHARE: How do you imagine Austin in 25 years? What are some things you want the city to remember when drafting the Comprehensive Plan? How do YOU reclaim public space? Let us know in the comments!

Like what you see? Add our RSS feed! [what’s that?]. Or start your morning with Republic of Austin in your InBox! Or read us 24-7 on Twitter!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.