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Based on input we received via the interactive neighborhood boundary drawing tool Draw Your Neighborhood, [bc] has been considering making some changes to the boundaries of a few neighborhoods - Parkdale, Lake Park Estates, L Streets, Merriman Park/University Manor, and Lake Cliff - already on the POP Neighborhood Map.
Read MoreDeepwood & Earth Day
Last night we were honored to screen Out of Deepwood in the Angelika Film Center as part of a partnership with Earth Day TX and TEDxSMU. We had great discussions with folks during a reception preceding the film, talking about our Know Your Neighborhood & Draw Your Neighborhood tools and collecting Neighborhood Stories interviews - keep your eyes out for those in the coming weeks!
Read MorePOPonymy - An Interpretive Typology of Dallas Neighborhood Names
Dallas neighborhood names speak volumes about the city’s complexion. Just as our words offer insight into our character, the way the city describes itself and names its parts- its toponymy- offer insight into its anatomy, its aspirations, its values, and its history. Rather than a study of the origin of individual place names, this is a typology of toponymy, revealing the city’s values through categories of place names. Neighborhoods are the building blocks of cities; what information can we elicit about the city collectively from the kind of names it gives it components?
Read MoreThe History of the POP Neighborhood Map
[bc] has always aspired to impact neighborhoods across the state by using design to build capacity and empower communities. In Dallas, [bc] reasoned that in order to support neighborhoods through our work, we first needed to know what and where the neighborhoods of Dallas were, launching what was then known as the Dallas Neighborhoods Project.
Read MoreIntroducing the POP Neighborhood Map blog!
The POP Neighborhood Map Blog is a new digital platform that will chronicle the evolution of the POP Neighborhood Map and expounds why neighborhoods matter. The launch of this blog coincides with the launch of two new interactive digital tools - Know Your Neighborhood and Draw Your Neighborhood - the most recent effort of our ongoing POP Neighborhood Map project.
Read MoreDallas Public Agenda
Learn more about POP Dallas.
As part of our POP [People Organizing Place] initiative, bcWORKSHOP announces the launch of The Public Agenda, a digital tool that maps the voting agenda of the Dallas City Council by neighborhoods.
Under a council-manager form of government, the City Council is responsible for the legislative function of the city, including establishing policy, passing local ordinances, voting appropriations, and developing an overall vision. In Dallas, the Council convenes on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month to consider action on the voting agenda.
The Public Agenda uses the POP City Map as a framework for understanding the geography of the decisions that come before the Council. By reformatting the published Council agenda, bcWORKSHOP hopes to enhance opportunities for citizen engagement. Healthy and vibrant neighborhoods are the foundation of a successful city, and every citizen should be empowered as a neighborhood and city advocate.
In announcing the launch of an Open Data Portal this fall, the City of Dallas has issued a Press Release that includes The Public Agenda as an example of products that can be created with open access to data.
Take Reading Public
Learn more about POP Dallas.
To support the Big Read Dallas, bcWORKSHOP was approached to create a graphic that maps the locations of spaces in Dallas good for reading. We took that one step further, and created an interactive web tool called Take Reading Public that shares public spaces friendly to reading in the city. By mapping the hundreds of parks, libraries, bookstores, and coffee shops in Dallas, we hope to reinforce a culture of reading by bringing it to the streets. This visual representation of local assets aims to bring positive activity to public spaces in Dallas and empower people through one of the best ways to build knowledge: reading. We also encourage users to share a message or photo about where they're reading with Twitter and Instagram, using #BigReadDallas.
The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, designed to restore reading to the center of American culture and encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment. A partnership of D Magazine and Friends of the Dallas Public Library were awarded a grant to bring the Big Read to Dallas, and during the month of April the city will be engaged in reading one book together, Ray Bradbury's classic Fahrenheit 451 about a dystopian future in which books are banned. Over 20,000 copies are being distributed to Dallas ISD high school students this week.
Join us and thousands of other Dallas citizens by getting outside and reading!
Dallas' Neighborhood Map
Learn more about POP Dallas.
Active and resilient neighborhoods are the foundation of a successful city. POP [People Organizing Place] Dallas is the bcWORKSHOP public design effort to strengthen the social, economic, and physical health of Dallas’s neighborhoods. The POP City Map is a new tool that frames how we naturally organize our communities: as neighborhoods. The City Map builds awareness of our city, celebrates the diverse places that give it character and texture, shares critical data on a local scale, and creates a platform for dialogue about its history and future. Filling a void among the city’s existing local resources, the map will serve as a valuable resource for residents, planners, developers, government and other organizations planning the future of our city. Strengthening the identities of Dallas’s neighborhoods, and lessening the reliance on directional references (e.g., North Dallas), enables Dallasites to reconnect more personally and purposefully with place.