0 00:01:24.282 --> 00:01:28.507 A Place to be Human 1 00:02:03.007 --> 00:02:08.369 "We often get busy making a living and forget about the things that we see every day." 2 00:02:09.322 --> 00:02:11.805 "During the space that is designed for machines." 3 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:17.407 "We have to find our way now if our cities, our smaller towns..." 4 00:02:20.512 --> 00:02:23.514 "Problem-ridden major metropolis" 5 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:27.134 "Some of our old central districts never planned" 6 00:02:28.818 --> 00:02:32.054 "Tree gives a person a sense of scale." 7 00:02:34.857 --> 00:02:38.359 "Relate the area to the man himself" 8 00:02:41.428 --> 00:02:43.430 "We're losing our open space" 9 00:02:43.780 --> 00:02:48.780 "We need lots of open space, a lot of parkland and it should be inviting" 10 00:02:49.357 --> 00:02:52.000 "We had no quality of urban design" 11 00:02:52.468 --> 00:02:58.468 "We really should ask ourselves what does this mean for the city?" 12 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:10.958 "We need a place to stop and sit down and contact with people enough to know that a pleasant environment relieves them of tension, emotion, and frustration" 13 00:03:28.699 --> 00:03:33.668 "This is where we lost our way and this is where we have to find our way now" 14 00:03:40.121 --> 00:03:44.879 "It's a jungle out here, this is what we call the beginning of urban blight" 15 00:03:53.879 --> 00:04:01.000 "We have to keep reinvesting in our community or it will deteriorate just like an abandoned home" 16 00:04:03.293 --> 00:04:04.661 A place to be human. 17 00:04:05.462 --> 00:04:10.732 A growing number of people believe that many of our cities and towns just don't fit that description. 18 00:04:10.732 --> 00:04:12.734 They're overcrowded and polluted. 19 00:04:12.901 --> 00:04:14.602 They're not very pretty to look at. 20 00:04:14.902 --> 00:04:16.904 And they're inconvenient to travel in. 21 00:04:17.972 --> 00:04:26.612 In general, people are finding that neither our cities nor towns fill our needs for comfortable areas in which to live, work, and play. 22 00:04:26.812 --> 00:04:28.213 But it didn't be that way. 23 00:04:28.513 --> 00:04:33.317 Cities can be designed in a way that lets people move about conveniently. 24 00:04:33.317 --> 00:04:36.000 That allows them to have attractive surroundings. 25 00:04:36.453 --> 00:04:40.956 And gives them areas for play, to relax, and to enjoy themselves 26 00:04:41.624 --> 00:04:43.792 And people are coming to realize this. 27 00:04:45.660 --> 00:04:52.332 We looked around and saw many areas in towns which we didn't think looked as they should, 28 00:04:52.532 --> 00:04:55.201 they were not conducive to a good environment. 29 00:04:55.501 --> 00:05:02.440 We got a group of civic leaders together, pointed these things out to them. 30 00:05:02.974 --> 00:05:05.342 And from this we started action. 31 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:09.646 We have lost our way somewhat. 32 00:05:10.180 --> 00:05:14.583 We have forgotten that our communities are for us as people. 33 00:05:14.750 --> 00:05:19.854 And we give priority to cars and trucks and motorcycles, 34 00:05:20.221 --> 00:05:30.000 and we lose the civilizing aspect that made our towns exciting and interesting places to live. 35 00:05:30.629 --> 00:05:36.701 I think at this time we need to stop and re-examine the quality of our lives. 36 00:05:37.334 --> 00:05:44.307 What we're looking at now is roughly what you see being developed all across the country. 37 00:05:44.874 --> 00:05:54.682 And we consider this a shame because no thought had been given to the humanocracy of this land. 38 00:05:55.182 --> 00:05:59.452 You'll notice the asphalt and the building and that's it. 39 00:05:59.452 --> 00:06:03.555 They step back and throw an open door and say, come and shop here 40 00:06:03.555 --> 00:06:12.029 But unfortunately, today's shopper is looking for more aesthetic quality. 41 00:06:12.829 --> 00:06:19.234 Some of the most important things about a community to me as an individual and as a designer 42 00:06:20.836 --> 00:06:29.609 are the characteristics of that community that tend to make the individual feel as though he's a part of it. 43 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:43.000 And this is a feeling that I think can be very consciously generated by good design. 44 00:06:43.275 --> 00:06:52.478 And I think one of the most important things when one begins to consider improving the visual character of an urban area 45 00:06:52.835 --> 00:06:56.890 is to carefully take a look at what exists 46 00:06:57.302 --> 00:07:06.684 And again, one of the most common problems in my view of an individual shop is that if they're in an old building, 47 00:07:07.508 --> 00:07:16.129 immediately they think that any improvement visually starts with buying an aluminum storefront 48 00:07:16.404 --> 00:07:21.126 and covering up everything that was built more than 20 years ago. 49 00:07:21.456 --> 00:07:24.289 And quite frequently it has very tragic results. 50 00:07:24.646 --> 00:07:30.685 There are many, many buildings in many of our communities that have a great deal of architectural character. 51 00:07:31.289 --> 00:07:35.504 And all we have to do is recognize this character. 52 00:07:35.751 --> 00:07:42.262 It's important that the community be a rich and viable area for the individual to live in. 53 00:07:42.592 --> 00:07:49.033 Because if it is not, if it's nothing more than a prototype of the one down the road five miles, 54 00:07:49.418 --> 00:07:55.431 then we're really missing the boat and there's no real reason to identify with that community. 55 00:07:56.392 --> 00:07:59.199 A viable area for the individual to live in. 56 00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:00.477 But what's that? 57 00:08:01.054 --> 00:08:06.317 To understand, we need a concept of space and what space means to our lives. 58 00:08:08.075 --> 00:08:12.822 Perhaps we first need to understand that although man lives on the earth, 59 00:08:13.179 --> 00:08:15.514 he exists in space. 60 00:08:16.558 --> 00:08:22.225 Basically because we're two-legged creatures, our feet are supported by the earth or this horizontal plane, 61 00:08:22.225 --> 00:08:24.450 but our bodies are perpendicular to it. 62 00:08:24.807 --> 00:08:31.542 So that everything that we experience in life, in our homes, as we shop, as we play, where we work, 63 00:08:31.542 --> 00:08:37.300 is the result of three-dimensional volume of space that is developed over this horizontal plane. 64 00:08:37.904 --> 00:08:43.108 Now this space that I refer to is created by the placement of objects on the land, 65 00:08:43.108 --> 00:08:47.564 they may be buildings, roads, signs, benches, plant materials. 66 00:08:47.866 --> 00:08:58.209 And the spaces defined by all of these objects are essentially specific forms to which a human being reacts in a very definite way, 67 00:08:58.209 --> 00:09:01.212 in fact, we classify these in three different categories. 68 00:09:01.514 --> 00:09:08.506 Maybe I could best demonstrate by using this little cutout of a man and place this in the palm of my hand. 69 00:09:09.165 --> 00:09:13.373 And there you can see that we have a man out in open space. 70 00:09:13.373 --> 00:09:14.963 And let's just say this is a nomad. 71 00:09:15.293 --> 00:09:20.781 He's in a situation where every other man is his enemy and every animal is his enemy. 72 00:09:20.781 --> 00:09:26.808 And in an open, unprotected space, he would tend to crouch down because he couldn't protect himself on all flanks. 73 00:09:27.632 --> 00:09:34.137 Well, we're not so far removed from this ancestor of ours that we don't react to a great extent in the same way. 74 00:09:34.494 --> 00:09:40.082 We no longer crouch down, but we feel overwhelmed and unprotected by broad open spaces. 75 00:09:40.522 --> 00:09:47.671 But give me the opportunity to detail this space with paving patterns, benches, plant materials, and other vertical structures 76 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:55.670 I then make this space more approachable, I make it more human, and hopefully we will achieve a sense of place. 77 00:09:56.329 --> 00:10:00.247 By changing my hand, we still have man oriented to the horizontal, 78 00:10:00.247 --> 00:10:05.000 but I have introduced a vertical element to which man can definitely relate. 79 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:11.192 He can focus on this and it gives a reference of scale to man and to his own body. 80 00:10:11.851 --> 00:10:18.659 This is space that results in very comfortable space for human beings because we feel sheltered and protected, 81 00:10:18.659 --> 00:10:22.000 and we should strive for more of these types of spaces in our community. 82 00:10:22.385 --> 00:10:26.376 Finally, we have spaces that are small, perhaps narrow, 83 00:10:26.925 --> 00:10:29.020 typical of many that we find in our community. 84 00:10:29.020 --> 00:10:32.154 They may be comfortable if we exist in them by ourselves, 85 00:10:32.649 --> 00:10:36.615 but if we are forced to share these with great numbers of people, 86 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:41.352 then they tend to generate tension, stress, and displeasure. 87 00:10:41.819 --> 00:10:47.737 So that essentially, when we think about community development, community design, and community beautification, 88 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:55.912 we're talking not about specific areas, but rather volumes of spaces that must be developed for human use. 89 00:10:57.258 --> 00:11:00.285 How then can a community best use the space it has? 90 00:11:00.752 --> 00:11:04.955 Well, many things are involved, things you find in almost any town or city, 91 00:11:05.257 --> 00:11:08.947 but things you rarely find used as well as they could be. 92 00:11:09.469 --> 00:11:11.790 One of them is the entryway to the city. 93 00:11:12.284 --> 00:11:21.104 One of the important aspects of an entry to a community is that you change very rapidly and very harshly 94 00:11:21.489 --> 00:11:30.300 from rural, placid countryside to a very complex change of land usage, 95 00:11:30.300 --> 00:11:37.412 where suddenly you're confronted by industrial usage or residential usage or strict shopping centers. 96 00:11:38.016 --> 00:11:45.912 I think one of the most important things that a well-thought-out entryway can do is offer a transition 97 00:11:46.104 --> 00:11:56.106 from this purely rural, natural type of landscape to the densely man-made situation. 98 00:11:56.766 --> 00:11:59.478 There are many ways to get from the country to the city, 99 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:03.106 and it doesn't have to be an unattractive route. 100 00:12:04.013 --> 00:12:08.190 As you enter the community, you've left the pastoral scene, if you will, 101 00:12:08.547 --> 00:12:20.931 and the scene begins to become one where plant materials, giving you a tie in the rural area, begin to be used in a design context. 102 00:12:21.233 --> 00:12:27.321 And this gives you an introduction to the fact that, yes, man is approaching here, 103 00:12:27.321 --> 00:12:32.984 that you are coming into an urbanized area, and man has an effect upon it. 104 00:12:33.863 --> 00:12:40.000 But even a well-designed entryway will lose its effect unless planners look outside the city limits. 105 00:12:40.275 --> 00:12:52.000 One of the most important things that the visitor identifies with that the local person may not really be aware of because he sees it so frequently, 106 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:56.698 are the focal points or the landmarks that the community might have. 107 00:12:56.698 --> 00:12:58.489 One of the most tragic things, though, 108 00:12:58.901 --> 00:13:09.110 is placing incongruous or distracting elements between the visitor entering the community and the focal point. 109 00:13:11.550 --> 00:13:15.863 Industry can be an eyesore, or it can be a landmark. 110 00:13:16.494 --> 00:13:22.937 In our town, most industrialists realize the responsibility that they have to the community, their employees, 111 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:28.204 and that they will attract better employees in a better environment. 112 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:33.467 They realize that they have this moral obligation to the community. 113 00:13:33.467 --> 00:13:37.467 They also realize that they have a terrific investment in this community. 114 00:13:39.797 --> 00:13:47.835 Commercial strips, where there are distracting roadside signs and there are clashing building styles, are often the ugliest parts of the city. 115 00:13:49.154 --> 00:14:04.000 There is also the litter of utility wires and poles, the litter of unnecessary signs that don't communicate information but merely clutter up our scene. 116 00:14:04.797 --> 00:14:14.000 There is the litter of unplanned growth, of proliferations, of gas stations, and marginal businesses along highways, 117 00:14:14.385 --> 00:14:19.138 which, if they had been planned, could have been grouped together in a pleasing way. 118 00:14:19.138 --> 00:14:23.753 Because individual businesses are looking out for themselves 119 00:14:24.494 --> 00:14:28.082 they put up a big sign to call attention to themselves. 120 00:14:28.082 --> 00:14:32.275 And it's rather popular now to take pot shots at all signs. 121 00:14:32.275 --> 00:14:40.083 And I think probably that's not generally the best approach to take toward signing. 122 00:14:40.220 --> 00:14:45.137 We have to return to what is pleasing in simplicity of design 123 00:14:45.137 --> 00:14:50.588 and a sense of order that the mind can follow. 124 00:14:51.385 --> 00:14:57.000 Business buildings along commercial strips can be designed so that they harmonize with the rest of the community. 125 00:14:57.467 --> 00:14:59.481 Gas stations, for example. 126 00:14:59.673 --> 00:15:01.837 Obviously are a needed commodity. 127 00:15:01.837 --> 00:15:07.461 The basic function of a service station is to provide services to an automobile. 128 00:15:08.038 --> 00:15:15.354 But at the same time, I don't think it's fair to say that that is their only context to the community 129 00:15:15.684 --> 00:15:20.010 because they, like anything else, are simply a part of a larger whole. 130 00:15:20.504 --> 00:15:29.617 And it is not necessary for them to be a bare, scalped corner with tenants hanging from every corner of the site. 131 00:15:29.617 --> 00:15:34.843 The gas station should be given design consideration just like anything else. 132 00:15:35.503 --> 00:15:39.716 Motels, theaters should be similarly concerned. 133 00:15:40.403 --> 00:15:46.478 In many of these commercial areas, there are some especially discordant areas or structures. 134 00:15:46.478 --> 00:15:52.458 For example, the large, expansive, and barren parking areas associated with shopping centers. 135 00:15:53.145 --> 00:15:56.055 Frequently, they are not only an eyesore to the community, 136 00:15:56.357 --> 00:15:59.372 but a drain on the central business district. 137 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:05.110 Our shopping areas are, in most cases, miserably deficient from this aspect. 138 00:16:05.879 --> 00:16:08.617 We have not considered the driver. 139 00:16:09.134 --> 00:16:10.499 We've considered only the car. 140 00:16:11.735 --> 00:16:15.803 Once you're there, you are not dependent upon the automobile at all. 141 00:16:16.435 --> 00:16:22.424 So we have this terrible contrast that once you get out of your car and begin shopping, 142 00:16:22.836 --> 00:16:25.124 you're in really an alien territory. 143 00:16:25.468 --> 00:16:33.696 You're in a space that is designed for machines, and yet you're a human being, and you have nothing to relate to. 144 00:16:35.097 --> 00:16:38.643 Some shopping centers have provided an alternative. 145 00:16:38.643 --> 00:16:49.000 This is one reason that many downtown areas have probably suffered in sales and many stores are closing. 146 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:55.000 Downtown merchants are in a battle with area shopping centers, 147 00:16:55.000 --> 00:17:02.000 and this is one way they can compete effectively by attracting the customer to attractive areas. 148 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:08.000 There are a lot of ways that a community can achieve a sense of human scale in a downtown shopping area. 149 00:17:08.467 --> 00:17:14.467 And obviously the one that probably would achieve it the quickest and the most completely 150 00:17:14.467 --> 00:17:21.000 is to block off a street and return that whole street space to a pedestrian zone. 151 00:17:21.879 --> 00:17:27.577 Another example would be if the primary shopping street could not be closed. 152 00:17:27.879 --> 00:17:33.549 Forfeit four or five parking spaces per city block of shopping precinct, 153 00:17:33.906 --> 00:17:41.357 and in these parking spaces, you could provide a generous area in which a major shade tree can be planted. 154 00:17:41.522 --> 00:17:47.165 Now, normally the reaction would be, good heavens, we can't give up any parking. 155 00:17:47.522 --> 00:17:54.357 But what you have to weigh is the fact that if it is not a pleasant area to walk in, to shop in, 156 00:17:54.357 --> 00:17:58.000 once you get out of that car, it's not going to make any difference how much parking you have. 157 00:17:58.494 --> 00:18:03.834 I don't think you can overemphasize the value of a street tree program in any municipality. 158 00:18:03.945 --> 00:18:13.451 After all, our streets are our show places, and I think trees can do more to enhance a town than we really realize. 159 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:21.522 It's amazing when we go in and plant street trees in a neighborhood how the property owners will start to take notice, 160 00:18:21.522 --> 00:18:27.753 how they will protect those trees, how they'll take better care of their lawn, their own landscaping, and even their boats. 161 00:18:28.275 --> 00:18:30.956 As we widened the streets in our communities, 162 00:18:31.972 --> 00:18:36.218 and it became necessary to modify the walk, we did so under the same contract, 163 00:18:36.218 --> 00:18:41.438 and as a net result, the sidewalk is identical paving to the street itself. 164 00:18:41.823 --> 00:18:50.552 People walking relate favorably to a variety of texture and a variety of color 165 00:18:50.854 --> 00:18:54.176 and this can be achieved in paving materials. 166 00:18:54.588 --> 00:18:59.679 Sometimes communities decide that the central business district needs a whole new look, 167 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:03.533 and a mall is frequently the device that provides that look. 168 00:19:04.311 --> 00:19:07.784 A mall can provide the central focus for the business district, 169 00:19:08.004 --> 00:19:13.440 and it can provide an area for shoppers, passersby, and businessmen to enjoy themselves. 170 00:19:13.906 --> 00:19:16.906 But whether you're building a mall or redesigning a street, 171 00:19:17.373 --> 00:19:23.357 you need to consider a number of items that usually aren't given much serious thought in central business districts. 172 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:25.195 Street furniture, 173 00:19:25.744 --> 00:19:36.145 and by that we could include such things as lighting, benches, mundane things as waste containers, display cases. 174 00:19:36.887 --> 00:19:40.735 These elements, though they are simply details, 175 00:19:41.312 --> 00:19:49.028 can be utilized to give a great deal of continuity to a shopping area. 176 00:19:49.028 --> 00:19:52.747 The sign kiosk, for example, 177 00:19:52.884 --> 00:19:59.074 they can be a very exciting element in the downtown area because it's a constantly changing element. 178 00:20:00.282 --> 00:20:04.310 Benches obviously provide a place to rest, 179 00:20:04.310 --> 00:20:09.165 but they can also be used to define small subspaces. 180 00:20:09.522 --> 00:20:14.385 They can be used to separate and help control traffic flow. 181 00:20:14.522 --> 00:20:23.534 You might want to use the benches to define a quiet area where people might sit and read a newspaper. 182 00:20:24.247 --> 00:20:31.341 Display cases can be freestanding sculptural elements within our pedestrian zones. 183 00:20:32.522 --> 00:20:36.000 Lighting fixtures do not have to be on 30-foot poles. 184 00:20:36.440 --> 00:20:38.762 They can be glass globes, 185 00:20:39.064 --> 00:20:46.433 they can be clusters of lights that become sculptural focals in themselves. 186 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:51.486 Many times, communities don't need drastic changes. 187 00:20:51.788 --> 00:20:57.049 Sometimes all that's needed is emphasizing the hidden beauty of the community itself. 188 00:20:57.791 --> 00:21:01.963 One of the big assets of many Midwestern towns is the courthouse square. 189 00:21:02.540 --> 00:21:07.151 The square, in many of our communities, is an open resource that really is just lying fallow, 190 00:21:07.151 --> 00:21:16.574 simply waiting for some attention to be given to it in order to turn this into significant pedestrian space and a focal point in our town. 191 00:21:17.178 --> 00:21:20.460 Normally, the square is dominated by a courthouse. 192 00:21:20.460 --> 00:21:26.198 With some maintenance that can become very strong visual focal points within the community. 193 00:21:26.638 --> 00:21:35.887 Not only do we have courthouse squares, but there are other open space nodes that might be as large as a square, maybe a city block, a half block. 194 00:21:35.887 --> 00:21:47.560 There might, in fact, even be smaller open spaces that were created to provide a setting for perhaps a piece of sculpture, a war memorial, or any number of things. 195 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:55.000 An existing resource that occurs in many communities that has not received proper attention is the existing waterways. 196 00:21:55.770 --> 00:22:00.000 It could be the most dominant pedestrian-related resource in any given community, 197 00:22:00.604 --> 00:22:09.121 and it would be a shame if it was not recognized as such and steps weren't taken to return this as a true natural feature. 198 00:22:10.604 --> 00:22:13.133 So far, we've been talking about big things 199 00:22:13.133 --> 00:22:21.000 building nice entryways, controlling signs, coordinating building styles, and redesigning the downtown area. 200 00:22:21.714 --> 00:22:25.917 All jobs that usually have to be tackled on a community-wide basis. 201 00:22:26.302 --> 00:22:32.834 But there are also things that the individual citizen or groups of citizens can do to make their community more pleasant. 202 00:22:33.797 --> 00:22:37.462 An important part of any community is its residential areas, 203 00:22:37.462 --> 00:22:39.290 the places where people live. 204 00:22:39.537 --> 00:22:47.753 And the design of residential districts affects the people who live there, and it also affects the community as a whole in terms of the way it looks. 205 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:53.616 Individuals can do a lot to help their community just by keeping their houses in good condition. 206 00:22:53.863 --> 00:22:57.046 And if they're considering building or remodeling, 207 00:22:57.046 --> 00:23:00.396 then they should consider the areas around them. 208 00:23:00.698 --> 00:23:05.698 They can work so that their homes will blend with that which is around them, 209 00:23:05.698 --> 00:23:15.423 but not necessarily be so uniform that it's like going down one of our new subdivisions where every house is just an exact duplicate of the preceding one. 210 00:23:15.588 --> 00:23:21.000 Residential areas should be designed so that the houses not only harmonize with the environment, 211 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:24.725 but at the same time they provide individuality. 212 00:23:24.835 --> 00:23:28.148 Areas such as apartment houses have the same problem. 213 00:23:28.423 --> 00:23:36.423 A great number of buildings all built along the same design end up looking alike and having a very sterile, cold appearance. 214 00:23:36.808 --> 00:23:39.182 Every community has churches and schools, 215 00:23:39.182 --> 00:23:45.396 and good design in these areas will be beneficial to the passerby as well as to those who use them. 216 00:23:46.055 --> 00:23:54.434 Schools are an important use within a community to give particular attention to good design. 217 00:23:55.973 --> 00:24:07.753 One of the tragedies is to drive past any number of schools and see the school structure surrounded by an asphalt concrete. 218 00:24:08.220 --> 00:24:16.753 The asphalt concrete is assigned as play space and the inside of the school is assigned as the education space. 219 00:24:17.055 --> 00:24:23.835 It's a marvelous experience to be able to go outside and to actually hold classes on the site. 220 00:24:24.330 --> 00:24:28.000 But to do so you have to give some design consideration to it. 221 00:24:28.192 --> 00:24:34.560 And of course, people must play, so parks and playgrounds are important parts of any community. 222 00:24:34.807 --> 00:24:38.164 Parks, I can't say too much about parks. 223 00:24:38.164 --> 00:24:39.808 We're losing our open space. 224 00:24:40.385 --> 00:24:42.688 I think we need lots of open space, 225 00:24:42.688 --> 00:24:43.958 a lot of parkland, 226 00:24:44.452 --> 00:24:46.117 and it should be inviting 227 00:24:46.117 --> 00:24:48.736 because we're getting to shorter and shorter work weeks, 228 00:24:48.736 --> 00:24:52.620 and man needs some place where he can sit and think and play. 229 00:24:53.444 --> 00:25:00.586 Today, there is a greater emphasis upon what we call a creative playground. 230 00:25:01.108 --> 00:25:15.417 A creative playground really is a playground designed to provide a variety of experiences, play experiences and learning experiences for the kids. 231 00:25:16.378 --> 00:25:20.803 The motor skills development, I think, is a very important aspect. 232 00:25:21.067 --> 00:25:25.443 The various pieces of play equipment are linked together. 233 00:25:25.745 --> 00:25:32.314 They're not isolated pieces of equipment sitting side by side in a field. 234 00:25:32.314 --> 00:25:35.073 Now we know what it takes to make a place to be human. 235 00:25:35.513 --> 00:25:36.721 But how do we get it? 236 00:25:36.968 --> 00:25:41.166 Well, the people we talked with used a variety of approaches in their communities, 237 00:25:41.633 --> 00:25:49.559 but a central feature in all approaches is that you get a broad spectrum of people from the community to take the leadership and start moving others. 238 00:25:50.053 --> 00:25:56.623 Several years ago, a group of people here in Alton just didn't like the way our town looked. 239 00:25:57.530 --> 00:25:59.281 Our town is old. 240 00:26:00.682 --> 00:26:05.040 We thought that it needed improving in appearance. 241 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:11.725 Too often we get busy making a living and forget about the things that we see every day. 242 00:26:12.412 --> 00:26:20.953 And we got about eight couples together, men and women, one Sunday night and had supper together and we showed some slides of what our town looked like. 243 00:26:20.953 --> 00:26:23.667 In about six months we gave birth to pride, 244 00:26:24.409 --> 00:26:32.220 and these people just kept spreading the word, and from that we involved representatives from every segment of our community. 245 00:26:32.220 --> 00:26:37.385 The League of Women Voters of Champaign County initiated a one-day conference. 246 00:26:37.385 --> 00:26:42.494 Out of this came the feeling that we needed a new organization. 247 00:26:42.494 --> 00:26:45.272 We have some successful projects, 248 00:26:45.272 --> 00:26:54.440 and we hope that they can point the way for general trends that both public and private agencies will pick up and follow through with. 249 00:26:54.797 --> 00:26:59.000 Other groups have taken other approaches, but regardless of the approach used, 250 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:03.000 there is general agreement that some sort of effort has to be made. 251 00:27:03.577 --> 00:27:10.517 And someone has to start it so all can benefit from a place to be human.