Neighborhood Stories - Arts District

Learn more about POP Dallas and Neighborhood Stories.

On October 27-28, 2012, bcWORKSHOP was a part of a monumental project for Dallas: the grand opening of Klyde Warren Park. The celebration commemorated an innovative park that decks over a portion of Woodall Rodgers Freeway, providing valuable new civic space and connecting Uptown and the Dallas Arts District.

bcWORKSHOP had a substantial presence at the park opening, engaging visitors on Harwood Street around our POP [People Organizing Place] Dallas initiative as they passed between the new park and the Arts District. The centerpiece was a Dallas Neighborhood Stories exhibit inside our 45’ retrofitted shipping container that examined the evolution of today’s Arts District from its origins as the juncture of the Freedman’s Town/North Dallas, Little Mexico, and Ross Avenue neighborhoods, and how major interventions - the construction of Central Expressway, the construction of Woodall Rodgers Freeway, and the master plan for the Arts District - affected physical and social change.

The POP City Map also made an appearance; more than 200 people marked their Dallas neighborhoods, with dozens more showing their pride in places from Irving and Lancaster to Brazil and France. Finally, hundreds of revelers shared pictures and stories about where they live on the container itself and on camera in the Story House.

The weekend affirmed how strongly people identify and connect with their neighborhoods as well as the importance of understanding the decisions and actions that have shaped our city over time. We had a great time at the opening and look forward to bringing our exhibit back to the Arts District soon!

BigBang! 2012

Learn more about POP Dallas and Neighborhood Stories.

bcWORKSHOP provided a variety of activities concerning Dallas neighborhoods at the 2012 bigBANG!, organized by Dallas Social Venture Partners. Located in Union Station, this day-long forum convened the thinkers and doers of the city for an opportunity to catalyze positive impact. Many components of the POP Dallas initiative were engaged by event participants, including the POP City Map which allowed attendees to identify and mark their neighborhoods. The Story House also made its debut, and new interviews were collected inside of it in collaboration with educational nonprofit Commit!, an organization dedicated to realizing children's full potential. Fifteen different neighborhoods were represented with 30 new recorded interviews. Next door, bcFELLOWs led two high-energy work sessions utilizing the POP Toolkit, empowering participants to think about the changes they can affect in their own communities.

Neighborhood Planning for RGV Colonias

Learn more about our work in the RGV.

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The Colonia Neighborhood Plan Implementation Strategies are part of a larger effort to establish a community-based planning framework in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Plans for initial focus colonias, six in Hidalgo County and two in Cameron County, were developed between September 2011 and April 2012 through a participatory process involving colonia residents, community organizers, community-based organizations, planners, and designers. In a departure from previous planning work in the region, this process was organized around a series of meetings in each colonia, inviting community members to contribute and self-appoint neighborhood leaders. These plans identify and offer recommendations to ameliorate issues stemming from geographic isolation, poor physical infrastructure, and limited access to services and resources. Ultimately, this process advances the role of  participatory planning and design in improving the quality of life in the LRGV.  The plans are currently being used at various scales; at the community level, the plans serve as a checklist of goals that the communities have set for themselves while at the state and regional level it is a means of communication with policy makers, funders, non-profits, and regional authorities.

By working as an information gatherer and a technical resource, bcWORKSHOP has contributed to a coalition-wide effort making voices be heard, and playing a participatory role in development and policy making decisions.

This initiative was recognized by the SEED Network with an Honorable Mention for their 2013 Awards.

Check out the plans below:

Homeowners Bootcamp

Learn more about POP Dallas.

As a continued effort to strengthen the social, economic, and physical health of Dallas’s neighborhoods, bcWORKSHOP brought the POP [People Organizing Place] Dallas initiative to the 14th annual Dallas Homeowners' League (DHL) Neighborhood Bootcamp at City Hall on Saturday, August 25. Bringing together community leaders in an exchange of ideas for the betterment of Dallas's neighborhoods, DHL invited bcW to share three elements of POP: a workshop that introduced and applied the POP Toolkit;  the confirmation, adjustment and addition of neighborhood names and boundaries to the POP City Map; and the collection of Neighborhood Stories.

During the interactive work session, 21 neighborhood leaders learned about the Toolkit as a grassroots approach to addressing neighborhood issues through a four-step process. Following an introductory presentation, budding and battle-tested activists alike used the Toolkit to identify an issue, choose a scale, determine a method, and select tools to address an example concern from a volunteer. The session ended with robust discussion in breakout groups in which participants discussed local issues, swapped success stories, and shared strategies for unifying and activating their neighborhoods.

While the Toolkit presented strategies for how neighborhood leaders could direct their energy and efforts, bcWORKSHOP asked that they share their expertise in other ways. Throughout the event, residents of 27 different neighborhoods from across the city confirmed, adjusted, or added their neighborhood names and boundaries by drawing on enlarged sections of the City Map. Amidst the day’s activities, 7 new contributors to Neighborhood Stories took the time to share what they love about where they live and challenges they had overcome through collective action.

Culinary Arts Program

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Early in 2012, bcWORKSHOP led a community engagement process to inform the design of Lincoln High School Entrepreneurial Culinary Arts Program, a new pilot project created by local nonprofit Get Healthy Dallas and the Dallas Independent School District to address health and economic development in South Dallas.

The program stems from research undertaken by Stacy Cherones and the SMU Ethics Design Team. After connecting with Robert Foster, a South Dallas community advocate, and the Turner Twelve, a student mentoring program made up of twelve high school students at Lincoln High School, the research team developed a detailed understanding of the dynamics of food access, preparation, and sharing in the focus community. The team recommended piloting a four-year culinary arts program with an emphasis on nutrition, business and entrepreneurship. Dallas Independent School District agreed to pilot this concept at Lincoln High School, and the program will accept its first students starting in the fall semester of 2012.

bcWORKSHOP partnered with Peter Brown Architects, a local firm with extensive experience in school design, to plan and run six design workshops with project stakeholders including students, faculty, staff, school district officials and community members. In the first set of workshops, participants created a set of statements that define the project’s crucial elements and create accountability in the design process. Following a tour of high school culinary programs in Frisco, Allen and North Dallas, participants worked in groups to develop boards that represent the identity of the program and identify important relationships to consider within both the school and the surrounding neighborhood. Ultimately, the stakeholders created 15 different visions for the core program facilities.

This work provided direction for a design that can be completed in several different phases as funding allows. The core program facilities include a demonstration kitchen, professional kitchen, and restaurant, and are the minimum required for a successful program. They can be expanded to provide support spaces for the program, while adjacent classrooms can be allocated to create a learning community within the larger school. The renovation will transform the existing, outdated facilities into spaces that resemble real working conditions in the culinary industry, facilitate collaborative learning in a 21st Century environment, and build on Lincoln’s rich history within the community.

Cedars West Arts Festival

Learn more about POP Dallas and Neighborhood Stories.

In a fine example of People Organizing Place, the businesses along Rock Island Street in the Cedars neighborhood of Dallas recently put on the Cedars West Arts Festival to showcase the improvements they’ve made to their area. bcWORKSHOP showed up with our 40-foot Gatu (shipping container) gallery to exhibit photos and stories of the area’s past and engage visitors about their neighborhoods.

Named for the Rock Island Railroad that was extended to serve the area, Rock Island Street was developed from the river bottom reclaimed after the construction of the levees channelizing the Trinity River. Framed by the old meanders and conceived as an industrial area, the street remains populated by recyclers and architectural salvage companies. Working to share how existing buildings and businesses can be a part of change, property owners initiated a public art campaign and organized a street festival to spread neighborly good will.

In addition to displaying photos and stories about Rock Island, bcWORKSHOP collected neighborhood stories from dozens of attendees who told us what they love about where they live. Despite the June heat, the street was bustling with people buying found objects, enjoying the art and music while stopping in to provide valuable input informing our POP City Map.

Check out the video of the stories collected at the Cedars Arts Festival below, and watch for the latest version of the new City Map!