Hi Everyone,
I've just joined this forum in the hope i can contribute and learn.
I'm not an urban planner but i am increasingly intersecting with urban planning issues in my work and it is an area that i hope and need to understand better. My background is in organising festivals and events and media.
Since mid last year my pet project has been trying to bring some life, some community and an economy back to my home town of Newcastle Australia. Newcastle is an industrial city about 2 hours from Sydney with a population of about 400,000 people (depending on how you measure it). The main street has been in decline for several decades. When i last counted it at the beginning of the year there were about 150 empty buildings on the main streets.
We've set up a not for profit company that borrows some of these buildings from their owners and makes them available to artists, creative enterprises and community groups.
Since February we've placed nearly 30 projects in nearly 20 empty buildings that we've managed to secure from everyone from small business owners to public listed companies. The projects pay only a token rent and use the buildings while they would otherwise be idle. It kickstarts the city and also kick starts enterprises both commercial and not for profit that we hope will go on to have a life of their own.
Our website is at http://www.renewnewcastle.org ... there's also a great short video here that gives a good overview of what we're about.
The reason that i am here is two fold. We are relatively isolated so i am particuarly keen to make contact with others working in a similar way or for whom the model that we have developed might be of interest. I assume there are other places in the world with similar problems to Newcastle and i'd be keen to compare notes. We think the model we've come up with is a good one and it clearly works but i'm sure we can learn from other experiences.
Secondly, i am increasingly hitting the limits of what we can do without more detailed urban planning, compliance, and other knowledge. I am increasingly being asked to advise others but have hit the limits of what can be achieved without engaging in planning processes and i am looking for brains to pick.
Thanks and looking forward to talking with you!
