City Repair website.

I didn't know about this project before this post, and it sounds interesting. If someone is interested in trying to get this going here, I'd be intrested in helping out.

City Repair FAQ

The City Repair Project is group of citizen activists creating public gathering places and helping others to creatively transform the places where they live.

City Repair was formed in Portland, Oregon in 1996 by citizen activists who wanted a more community-oriented and ecologically sustainable society. Born out of a successful grassroots neighborhood initiative that converted a residential street intersection into a neighborhood public square, City Repair began its work with the idea that localization (of culture, of economy, of decision-making) is a necessary foundation of sustainability. By reclaiming urban spaces to create community-oriented places, we plant the seeds for greater neighborhood communication, empower our communities and nurture our local culture.

I'm totally down for helping to create edible landscapes! With gas prices escalating and the increasing lack of affordable land for growing food (yielding high prices for local organically grown food) securing public access to free and healthy food is critical for our human and non-human communities. I'm currently learning about growing an edible garden (working on my first right now!), building a chicken coup, and learning how to raise chickens. I'm new to Olympia but I'm meeting more and more people which can definately help build up support. My boyfriend works as a landscaper and is very knowledgeable about permaculture, plant morphology, and some native plants in the area (we are both working on getting to know the wild edible plants of W. Washington). There are alot of open lots, fields in front of govt. buildings, parks, etc that can be turned into edible forest (or non-forest) gardens in a permaculture manner so that a couple years after we make the gardens, if the group wanes in numbers, the gardens will be self-maintaining. What is your experience and your vision?

Hiya All, WORD! I so agree, but what is going on now in Oly? I have not had any luck tracking down the City Repair posse in Olympia-- does anyone have any tips?

I've never heard of any Oly City Repair group. I think we should start one. I'm certainly down to attend meetings, mostly because I want to learn more about it.

I volunteer to make flyers for meetings, but let's have a small meet up of interested parties first to begin a gameplan, then do outreach from there. I also volunteer my house for a meeting spot.

Cathy Butler from the City emailed me this info:

 Neighborhood Crossroads is a new program to create neighborhood gathering places; enhance community identity; and calm traffic through intersection installations. These may be placed at low-traffic intersections, selected by Recognized Neighborhood Associations, and approved by the City.

Projects may include a mandala (a concentric configuration which features an assortment of painted images within an intersection), a bench, or a variety of other creative installations.  The Olympia Village Improvement Project assists neighborhoods in creatively transforming intersections into places for community gathering and expression.  Examples can be found at 9th and Adams, which features a mandala, a bench, and lovely sitting area nicknamed, "Fertile Island".   Another project was undertaken at Plymouth and Garfield, where a wood pole-type park bench was installed on the northwest corner and a landscape concrete park bench was placed on the south block face in the planter strip. Celebrations were held at both sites to acknowledge the work and community spirit that went into their creation. In spring 2007, the Northeast Neighborhood will complete a time garden  near Roosevelt Elementary School. 

We have been meeting under the name oly city repair, as well as EcoCity olympia. Terra commons is a long standing group that we have recently come across and are hoping to use it as an umbrella for city repair type projects. We have a couple things planned already, one of which is bringing Jan Spencer to olympia on July 28th at traditions 7pm. we will have a permaculture bike tour the following day. There are two intersection repairs planned - dates yet to be set as we are still in the planning stages. Our next meeting will be this coming thursday at 7pm, please email terracommons@riseup.net if you would like to attend. Its great to see that there is so much interested out there and we would love to help in any way possible to 'green up' our town. ~Michael K. Terra commons

I'm excited to see that a goodly number of folks are not only interested in all of this but are already active.  I would love to see everyone show up for the terra commons meet-up mentioned earlier.