Kirk Rea

On Saturday, August 20th, City Repair will transform O'Bryant Square in downtown Portland, at SW Park Ave and Washington Street. Known as "Paranoid Park" or 'Needle Park," this one-block zone has a bad reputation and an old-drab design. This event will re-envision what this park can look like with sustainability pronciples and what activities can be engaged in on a regular basis by doing a one-day temporary placemaking event. Partner's shaping the space include Friends of O'Bryant Square and Oregon Humanities.

Volunteers are needed to help set-up, engage activities, and take down the space. Click here to sign ip. Many hands are needed!

This transformation is a part of "Connect the Park Blocks" a one-day open street fair route along NW and SW Park Ave - from NW Hoyt to SW Market. This event will allow people to walk, stroll, jog, and visit local business between the North and South Park Blocks and be clear of parked cars and vehicle traffic. We envision a Park Avenue that is an active space open and welcome to everyone. This project will also promote the Green Loop concept. Hosted by Better Block PDX, Oregon Walks and the Green Loop Project, the goal is to increase foot traffic and build community!Facebook event page here.

City Repair, a Portland non-profit, works with artistic and ecologically-oriented placemaking through projects that honor the interconnection of human communities and the natural world. We support communities in designing and building permaculture gardens, earthen buildings, and street paintings known at "intersection repair." Many communities intertwine these projects to have a dynamic community zone. We have an open request for proposals (RFP) through January and application info and details about upcoming information sessions can be found on our website cityrepair.org.

For folks living outside of Portland, we can help consult on how to work with your city government to do similar projects, which may require changing city ordinances. Many similar projects have developed up and down the West Coast in both the USA and Canada.

Here's a video and some photos of intersection repairs:

Paula Baker-Laporte and Robert Laporte, light straw clay experts and creators of the EcoNest concept are back in Portland! And they've got a new book!

Join us in the Barrel Room of the Green Dragon Pub for some local brews, a talk about the evolution of the EcoNest Home, and a chance to buy the beautiful new book "The EcoNest Home: Designing & Building A Light Straw Clay House."

Wednesday, November 11th
Green Dragon Bistro & Brew Pub
928 SE 9th, Portland, OR
7pm to 9pm, meet for drinks at 6pm

$5 at the door, proceeds go to The City Repair Project, or towards the purchase of a book.

FB Event Page

Presentation with placemaking visionary Mark Lakeman of The City Repair Project and the Village Building Convergence.

March 24th, 6 pm to 8 pm, at the Saint Christine Soup Kitchen, 22261 Fenkell St, Detroit, Michigan 48223.

For whoever isn't already familiar with Mark, he is a preeminent leader in community-based, democratized urban planning. He is not to be missed.

*** FREE * DONATIONS delightfully ACCEPTED ***

Mark is a national leader in the development of sustainable public places. In the last decade he has directed, facilitated, or inspired designs for more than three hundred new community-generated public places in Portland, Oregon alone. Through his leadership in Communitecture, Inc., and it’s various affiliates such as the The City Repair Project, The Village Building Convergence, and the Planet Repair Institute, he has also been instrumental in the development of dozens of participatory organizations and urban permaculture design projects across the United States and Canada.

For more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/348942701970079/

Mark will also be presenting (all events unique):
*Bad Ass Democracy - Reclaiming the Public Commons at Wayne State University (March 25)
* City Repair Detroit - Participatory Design & Implementation Workshop at Jam Handy (March 26)
* Untitled Kalamazoo Event
* Untitled Cleveland Events

Thursday, February 26th at 6:30pm is City Repair’s monthly Village Pollinators Night at Migration Brewing Co.. An event that honors communities for transforming urban space into a common gathering place ultimately creating a healthy, safer and happier neighborhoods. This month, Will Lillard, the gardening coordinator for Kazuko Garden, will discuss his experiences working refugee and immigrant communities in the garden.

The Migration Brewing Co. has kindly offered to host us upstairs and will be donating a portion of food and drink sales to City Repair.

The event will feature a short presentation from Will Lillard and other 'Village Pollinators," of Kazuko Garden. They will be presenting about the history of their neighborhood, how the neighborhood created the garden and the profound cultural diversity and social impact it has made on all of their lives.

Mark Lakeman, the founder of City Repair, will be introducing the speaker with a few words of about his experience with the Kazuko Garden. After the presentation, audience members interested in hosting a community placemaking project will be invited to ask Will any questions they may have. Marc Tobin, the Executive Director of City Repair, will be on hand to play acoustic guitar for us after the presentation.

Community placemaking project applications will be on hand for folks who are interested in becoming a Village Pollinators themselves!The City Repair Project

City Repair has been building stronger communities through grassroots led public art and natural building for over 15 years from the Sunnyside Sunflower to the Syracuse intersection in St. John’s.

Please invite your friends, family and neighbors to join you. Thank you!