The d.school class we are teaching this term is called Creating Infectious Action, and the final project for the students is to find ways to "Kill Gas," to invent, spread, and implement ideas that reduce gasoline consumption. One of the most successful groups, staffed by Amrita Mahale, David Hughes, James Thompson, and Svetla Alexandrov — after observing driving behavior in downtown Palo Alto, talking to merchants, customers, city officials, and a host of others — decided that gas could be saved and the quality of life could be improved in downtown Palo Alto by closing several blocks of University Avenue (the main street in downtown). You may recall that I blogged about it last week; well, it is one thing to have an idea, and another thing to spread it … and in the less than two weeks they have devoted to this idea, they have done an amazing job. It seems to have turned into a project that may be debated in the City of Palo Alto for years forward. Today, a story was published in the Palo Alto Weekly that quotes a city council person (and ex-Mayor) who comes out in support of the idea:
The idea of turning University into an auto-free
promenade isn't entirely new. In July 2007, city officials decided to
close the busiest section of University on a Friday afternoon only to
see adjoining streets fill with traffic and merchants fill with anger
and frustration.
But Councilwoman Yoriko Kishimoto, who was mayor
at the time, said the biggest flaw with the event was inadequate
planning and publicity. Kishimoto is a longtime proponent of creating a
more walkable Palo Alto. She said the idea of turning University into a
pedestrian-only zone is not without merit, provided it's implemented in
gradual phases.
"I think people are very hungry for a place to
just meet and mingle," Kismet said. "It creates an environment where
you, by serendipity, run into neighbors and meet up and have dinner
with them."
The first phase, Kishimoto said, could be to
eliminate parking spots along University Avenue to allow for wider
sidewalks and more bicycle parking spots. Later phases could include
closing the busy stretch to cars on a monthly or a bi-weekly basis. The
street, for example, could be closed to traffic late Friday afternoon
and remain closed on Saturday morning, during which time it could host
a farmers market, she said.
The students are getting this kind of attention with their Facebook group (join here), by recruiting people like me to spread the message, quickly getting to know — and to start lobbying — influential government officials and merchants, designing a cool logo (see above) and I think most impressively, by going from merchant to merchant in downtown Palo Alto and asking each to put a sticker in their window to express support for the mall.
One of the interesting lessons from this group is that people have a very strong reaction to the idea (note this comment from a city worker on my blog about the idea "Do you
have any idea what kind of debt the City of Palo Alto is in and how
many people are getting laid off? While the economy is in dire need of
reconstruction you want to make downtown a park? The people of this
city never cease to amaze me."). A key feature of ideas that spread is that people have strong reactions — both negative and positive to them — and emotions they rile-up draw attention to the ideas and motivate people to fight to push the ideas through (and to stop the ideas).
So this group, to their credit, picked an idea that provokes hot emotion, and are doing a great job of using local leaders, Facebook, the media, logos, and the plain old fashioned method of knocking on doors to sell their ideas — and at the very least, have briefly stirred-up a hornet's nest around it, and at the best, may some day be able to take some credit if Palo Alto implements the pedestrian mall.
More broadly, although "teaching" in the d.school frankly sometimes drives me crazy because it is so inefficient (we have 5 faculty and another 4 coaches for this little class), many students struggle to make their projects effective, struggle with group dynamics (and sometimes teaching teams do as well), and — as a Professor who has spent his life standing in front of a class and pretending to be in charge — the lack of control is disconcerting at times. But when students do inspired work like this, it is all worth it, and they deserve the credit, not the faculty. And even though there comes a point every year that I swear I will never teach another d.school class again, something like this happens and I am hooked all over again. It is an entirely different way to teach, and is scary at times, but it all seems worthwhile again when I see the look in the students faces when they have made something from nothing, and in this group, in just two weeks, has moved from a few Post-It Notes and squiggles on whiteboard to a real and red hot community debate.
P.S. I want to give special thanks to this team's fantastic coach, Katie Geminder.
P.P.S. Also, check out this page that has all kinds of information and — straight out of the pages of Made to Stick — concrete actions that people can take to spread the word and create pressure for the mall.
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