Communities are meant to create connections, opportunities, and a sense of belonging. Although there are many different ways to build, enhance, and maintain communities, the North Limestone CDC’s primary plan to rebuild a sense of community is through community beautification and sustainability projects. Community beautification is a fantastic way to enhance the community experience, as it encourages the community to become further connected, more appealing to opportunities, and significantly enhances every member’s sense of belonging. The North Limestone CDC is among a small handful organizations in the state of Kentucky to go beyond funding and to actually enact their community beautification plans, and the reward when they are through will be fantastic revitalization of the North Limestone community.
What is community beautification?
City beautification projects are defined by the city of baltimore to be “...Volunteers from the community work with volunteers from other groups ... restoring empty lots, painting, creating community gardens, landscaping, and “sprucing up” local non-profit centers.” (“ National Rebuilding Day”, 2014, Paragraph 1). Although the North Limestone area is nowhere near quite as large as the city of baltimore, the scope of beautification projects are nearly identical. Beautification projects all have a common goal, to enhance the community; community beautification projects, therefore, often have common processes. Projects can range from massive projects, such as the LuigART neighborhood program (Figure 1), which plans to renovate homes and sell them to artists and makers, to minor projects such as cleaning up alleys (Nancy Thompson, 2014, Paragraph 47).
How can it be accomplished
While some communities argue that beautification is a complex and expensive process, simple programs, such as cleaning litter up in the area, can have a huge impact on the neighborhood and community (Nancy Thompson, 2014, Paragraph 28). The North Limestone CDC understands the value of maintaining a clean community, and in the time I have worked with them they almost always offer the job of cleaning up litter. A minor project to clear a neighborhood of litter can provide spectacular enhancement to a community, and significantly beautifies a neighborhood. A beautified community also provides great opportunities for businesses.
How does it help a community?
The North Limestone CDC actually has a method of measuring the success of their endeavors. In the brief time they have been active they have developed a “vibrancy map” which is “a measuring tool of a neighborhood’s livability, as proposed by ArtPlace America. Vibrancy indicators can include restaurants, bars, retail businesses, public art, educational institutions, etc. – basically anywhere that people gather. The more you have, the more vibrant your neighborhood is.” (2014, Paragraph 1) The vibrancy map (Figure 2) currently shows only a handful of results from the North Limestone CDC’s work, but in the coming years the CDC’s beautification projects will enhance the map further. The beautification of the area will encourage businesses, and the LuigART project will encourage local artists to move into the area, building great potential for public art projects, as well as independently owned art galleries and shops, which will help contribute to a stronger economy in the area. Community beautification is important to help attract businesses to the area, but it has importance beyond economical value to an area.
Community beautification encourages residency. Throughout the North Limestone CDC’s website, as well as simply walking into their office space, they demonstrate a thorough understanding of this. On the North Limestone CDC’s website there is a photograph of a current home in the North Limestone area, then after several seconds it morphs into a beautifully landscaped lot with a completely renovated home placed in this beautiful environment (Figure 3).
A beautified community makes a property appeal much more to a prospective home buyer, and the North Limestone CDC hopes to make the area have spectacular appeal. If the North Limestone CDC is successful, many of the distressed properties in the North Limestone area will become valuable properties in Lexington, as they will be owned homes, opposed to rented homes. The renovation and beautification of these properties, as well as the plan to sell, instead of rent these homes, will help stabilize the North Limestone area’s residency.
The North Limestone CDC understands the value of community beautification, as well as how to make large differences with small projects. Although they are just beginning to make a difference in the area, great results can be expected from the North Limestone CDC’s endeavors.
References
Community Beautification Projects. (n.d.). rtbaltimoreorg. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://rtbaltimore.org/our-programs/national-rebuilding-day/community-beautification-projects
LuigART Makers Spaces. (n.d.). NoLi CDC RSS. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://nolicdc.com/portfolio/luigartmakersspaces
/N Limestone Vibrancy Map. (n.d.). NoLi CDC RSS. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://nolicdc.com/portfolio/vibrancymap/
NoLi CDC. (n.d.). NoLi CDC RSS. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://nolicdc.com/
North Limestone LuigART Project [Electronic Photograph]. (2014). Retrieved October 22, 2014,
from http://nolicdc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/recon4.jpg
North Limestone Transformation Plan [Electronic Photograph]. (2014). Retrieved October 22,
2014, from http://nolicdc.com/
North Limestone Vibrancy Map [Electronic Map]. (2014). Retrieved October 22, 2014, from
http://nolicdc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/map.jpg
Sustainability. (n.d.). NoLi CDC RSS. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://nolicdc.com/portfolio/sustainability/
The City of Bowling Green, KY. (n.d.). Neighborhood Grants & Beautification. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://www2.bgky.org/neighborhoods/nhgrants.php
Thompson, N. (n.d.). Beautification of Your Community Matters. Beautification of Your Community Matters. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://www.useful-community-development.org/beautification.html
What is community beautification?
City beautification projects are defined by the city of baltimore to be “...Volunteers from the community work with volunteers from other groups ... restoring empty lots, painting, creating community gardens, landscaping, and “sprucing up” local non-profit centers.” (“ National Rebuilding Day”, 2014, Paragraph 1). Although the North Limestone area is nowhere near quite as large as the city of baltimore, the scope of beautification projects are nearly identical. Beautification projects all have a common goal, to enhance the community; community beautification projects, therefore, often have common processes. Projects can range from massive projects, such as the LuigART neighborhood program (Figure 1), which plans to renovate homes and sell them to artists and makers, to minor projects such as cleaning up alleys (Nancy Thompson, 2014, Paragraph 47).
How can it be accomplished
While some communities argue that beautification is a complex and expensive process, simple programs, such as cleaning litter up in the area, can have a huge impact on the neighborhood and community (Nancy Thompson, 2014, Paragraph 28). The North Limestone CDC understands the value of maintaining a clean community, and in the time I have worked with them they almost always offer the job of cleaning up litter. A minor project to clear a neighborhood of litter can provide spectacular enhancement to a community, and significantly beautifies a neighborhood. A beautified community also provides great opportunities for businesses.
How does it help a community?
The North Limestone CDC actually has a method of measuring the success of their endeavors. In the brief time they have been active they have developed a “vibrancy map” which is “a measuring tool of a neighborhood’s livability, as proposed by ArtPlace America. Vibrancy indicators can include restaurants, bars, retail businesses, public art, educational institutions, etc. – basically anywhere that people gather. The more you have, the more vibrant your neighborhood is.” (2014, Paragraph 1) The vibrancy map (Figure 2) currently shows only a handful of results from the North Limestone CDC’s work, but in the coming years the CDC’s beautification projects will enhance the map further. The beautification of the area will encourage businesses, and the LuigART project will encourage local artists to move into the area, building great potential for public art projects, as well as independently owned art galleries and shops, which will help contribute to a stronger economy in the area. Community beautification is important to help attract businesses to the area, but it has importance beyond economical value to an area.
Community beautification encourages residency. Throughout the North Limestone CDC’s website, as well as simply walking into their office space, they demonstrate a thorough understanding of this. On the North Limestone CDC’s website there is a photograph of a current home in the North Limestone area, then after several seconds it morphs into a beautifully landscaped lot with a completely renovated home placed in this beautiful environment (Figure 3).
A beautified community makes a property appeal much more to a prospective home buyer, and the North Limestone CDC hopes to make the area have spectacular appeal. If the North Limestone CDC is successful, many of the distressed properties in the North Limestone area will become valuable properties in Lexington, as they will be owned homes, opposed to rented homes. The renovation and beautification of these properties, as well as the plan to sell, instead of rent these homes, will help stabilize the North Limestone area’s residency.
The North Limestone CDC understands the value of community beautification, as well as how to make large differences with small projects. Although they are just beginning to make a difference in the area, great results can be expected from the North Limestone CDC’s endeavors.
References
Community Beautification Projects. (n.d.). rtbaltimoreorg. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://rtbaltimore.org/our-programs/national-rebuilding-day/community-beautification-projects
LuigART Makers Spaces. (n.d.). NoLi CDC RSS. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://nolicdc.com/portfolio/luigartmakersspaces
/N Limestone Vibrancy Map. (n.d.). NoLi CDC RSS. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://nolicdc.com/portfolio/vibrancymap/
NoLi CDC. (n.d.). NoLi CDC RSS. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://nolicdc.com/
North Limestone LuigART Project [Electronic Photograph]. (2014). Retrieved October 22, 2014,
from http://nolicdc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/recon4.jpg
North Limestone Transformation Plan [Electronic Photograph]. (2014). Retrieved October 22,
2014, from http://nolicdc.com/
North Limestone Vibrancy Map [Electronic Map]. (2014). Retrieved October 22, 2014, from
http://nolicdc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/map.jpg
Sustainability. (n.d.). NoLi CDC RSS. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://nolicdc.com/portfolio/sustainability/
The City of Bowling Green, KY. (n.d.). Neighborhood Grants & Beautification. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://www2.bgky.org/neighborhoods/nhgrants.php
Thompson, N. (n.d.). Beautification of Your Community Matters. Beautification of Your Community Matters. Retrieved October 22, 2014, from http://www.useful-community-development.org/beautification.html