I just found this little blue-print I drew up for a vacant lot by one of my houses in Pittsburgh. I never had the chance to put this into place, but it would be wonderful to have more non-consumerist places to spend time between home and work.
Break it Down!
There’s tons of space in Pittsburgh and tons of bricks from demolitions so it would be pretty great to build a rainy or very sunny day pavilion as you see in the top left corner.
The top right corner would hold the Constance Street community bread / pizza oven and would also benefit from spare bricks.
Going down the top center are several long picnic tables.
Trees are much needed on this highway-side of Pittsburgh’s Northside so some nice fruit and shade trees in the middle of a block will sooth the residents and be beautiful and delicious. Sporadic dots both labeled and unlabeled represent trees.
The bottom center of the lot includes plans for some weird seating to be designed by one or several of Pittsburgh’s many amazing artists.
And at the very bottom, a lovely long row of soil-cleansing, sun-worshiping, smile-making sunflowers!
Let’s Make Green Jobs Fixing Our Communities
We have so much public land that’s being wasted as over-grown and trash-filled lots. At the same time, we have so many under and unemployed people. Let’s find a way to create and fund jobs that would enhance our communities, like rehabilitating abandoned lots, while putting under-worked Americans back in the workforce.
I’m underemployed myself and I’d jump at the chance to have a part-time job cleaning up and beautifying my neighborhood.
Give Me Work and Give Me Beauty
We want bread but we want roses too!
Reimagine an Urban Paradise 