Images | Video | APA Story 

We picked up on this story over at the American Planning Association website.

Dozens of college students, including three vanloads from Kansas State University ... used imagination coupled with elbow grease and donated materials to demonstrate how Grand could look and feel if it was a more urbane street. 

Rolling out stretches of coiled burlap to establish temporary curbs, they narrowed the width of what's now a boring runway for traffic from six lanes to three. The areas recaptured from cars were then decorated with donated potted trees, shrubs and flowers so people could actually feel the experience of wider sidewalks. 

A two-way protected bicycle path envisioned in the Make Grand Grand plan for the east side of the boulevard was laid out, and at each corner students laid down strips of white tape to create well-marked crosswalks areas for pedestrians. That's something the city should be doing anyway. 

Other touches included an impromptu sidewalk cafe, a "dynamic seating installation" of wood pallets arranged by students at the Kansas City Design Center, food trucks parked in designated slots, and even a temporary bus shelter that was so convincing that buses began stopping there to pick up passengers. (emphasis added)

SCUP Tech Tip: Any time you want to find images of something in the news!

Because of intellectual property licensing, it can be frustrating to read about such a colorful event but not see images of it. Such was, for us, the case in this instance. We implemented two easy to learn tricks and solved that challenge:

• We searched on Google for "BetterBlock12," and then selected "Images" from the selection of tabs at the top of the page. Voila, dozens if not hundreds of pictures, many connected to personal accounts.
• Then, along that same line of tabs, we selected "YouTube," and found this 2-minute video about the event.