green drinks Report: Melanie Mullen, Green Party, Canada

• Canada
• community actions
• greendrinks
• lifestyle
• transportation
• urban development

By greenz.jpNov 19th, 2009

Melanie Mullen at green drinks Tokyo November

At the last green drinks Tokyo we were happy to host Melanie Mullen for a discussion on Art & Redeveloping Downtown. Melanie is founder and President of Green Building Company (re)cover inc., was the Canadian national representative of the Sierra Club of Canada and the Green Party of Canada at COP13 in Bali and co-organized the release of the Global Greens statement on the Bali negotiations.

Here at greenz.jp, we have introduced a number of different local community action groups such as Akizuno Juku (pictured below) run by Akizuno Garten Co, where members of the local community in Tanabe, Wakayama converted a disused school into the ‘Akizuno Garten,’ where people can try their hand at farming.

Akizuno Garten. Photo by Akizuno Juku

Previously, we also introduced “50 Ways to Renew a Closed-Down School” a collection of examples of old school buildings that have been transformed by local communities released by MEXT in 2003, and Tottori city’s project to collect and reuse old cooking oils such as tempura oil using a robot named Yukai-kun. So it was nice to hear from someone who is getting active on the other side of the ocean.

Melanie’s overriding message is “Think Globally Act Locally,” but she doesn’t just mean this in an abstract way. Her involvement in environmental initiatives began at age 13, and she succeeded in raising $3.1 million when she was in university to retrofit  buildings for energy and environmental efficiency.

She became a candidate for the Green Party of Canada at age 24, and went on to become deputy leader. Of course, attaining that post at such a young age garnered her lots of media attention, and she made sure that didn’t go to waste. She used the media to redirect people’s focus toward local action in her area and live out her promise to “Act Locally.”

Her hometown of Niagara Falls, had been devastated when large stores like Big Box, WalMart, and other huge stores came in, killing the local economy and putting small companies out of business. Melanie showed us pictures of the town just a few years ago, an abandoned, broken down shell that was the downtown historical area of Niagara Falls. All the local business was dead, and buildings were boarded up. Melanie said this was the direct result of “30 years saturated with Development prepositions and plans to no success.”

Living up to her philosophy, Melanie stepped up to the community and stated: “We deserve a lively downtown, with a strong arts and culture scene, and jobs for young people.” She called a meeting downtown, in a cold, empty building, and only 10 people showed up. But that didn’t disappoint her at all. The group discussed how to bring business back, and stop young people leaving and going to large cities like Toronto. They made a promise to meet every Monday night, and bring another 10 people each.

This band of merry artists got into media, and they capitalized on their local fame to go to landlords and ask for a space as the buildings were lying empty anyway. One allowed them to borrow a building to meet in, which they repainted, and opened the doors to the public. Everyone voted online to name the place and they settled on “4 triple 5,” the street number of the building.

In the period after that, Melanie aggressively demanded community creativity input. The group issued the “your 2 cents Downtown Challenge,” to get people to create their own radio ad/jingle to support downtown revitalization, with CA$20,000 to the winner.

People in the town wanted theater, places for art, and to be active in the community. The program gained attention and momentum and they collected input from the wider community, which led to the creation of a strategic plan. The plan focused on (1) Large events, and (2) Support for local artists.

Melanie established an input circle for Downtown revitalization consisting of:
- Mayor (approached first)
- Council
- BIA (Biz Improvement Assoc)
- City Staff
- Historic Niagara (property owners)
- Community
- Stakeholders
- Celebrate Old Downtown Niagara NFP

Next, they developed the “Hand of Success” with community input:
- Condo, residences
- Entertainment, theater
- Arts & crafts, markets
- Restaurants, bistros, cafes
- Music, culture

They initiated the “Community Ownership Clean Up Day,” cleaned up outside buildings, planted flowers, and other projects and created a feeling of pride and ownership in the community. They established temporary artists studios, introducing artists to building owners in exchange for 4 months free rent. The artists cleaned inside buildings, created beautiful window displays and fostered lively traffic in the area. Some of the buildings had been empty for years or decades so it wasn’t a bad deal.

Next, the town hosted 4 major cultural events and brought the masses downtown. These events were free, but artists had to become member of the community art group, CAn (Community Artists Niagara). After that participation increased in various events, the group ensured artists got 4 months free rent and provided a forum for submitting funding applications.

One festival was “Queen Art Saturdays: Where Life Becomes Art.” People wore art to the festival and they held afterparties at 4 triple 5. 3,000 people turned up and buildings were filled with artists and customers. People started to see the potential of a vitalic downtown community. Feature Films, from Toronto, found the Saturated Creative Zone attractive and started to shoot films there. Artists were then able to hold lessons, etc. thanks to support from “hand of success,” ongoing events, etc.

This success story meant local small business owners rented buildings, they ensured maximum reuse of existing buildings and infrastructure, promoted public transit, increased cultural appeal and hosted cultural events, supported the artist community and creative class, and were reflective of the regional environment.

We held a Q&A session with Melanie after the presentation. Below are some of the questions

(Q) How long was the process?

From beginning to end one year though it was initially estimated it would be a three year process. Prior to that the city had never hosted a major festival. Partnerships were incredibly important. BIA would do all marketing for artists, city would ensure roads were blocked off, etc.

(Q) How did you ensure continued artist support?

I did lots of research, but in some areas artists have been kicked out. So we made sure to set up the system so the artists continue to be supported, even now. People often find fulfillment in material things with a disposable lifestyle. People buy things and then throw them away next year. Art is not disposable, you get fulfillment but without the resource use. Obtaining caps on rent to ensure that increasing rents don’t drive out artists is one idea we would like to try.

We were successful in establishing a live theater after input from the community saying they wanted alternatives to movies.

(Q) Advice for Japan?

Create a community. Getting the artists together is the hardest part but once you have person to person relationships in place it will become permanent. That network is strong so whether the rent goes up and that community moves to another area you still have that strong network.

Of course there was plenty of delicious food and drinks as always!

Find out more about the revitalization project and Niagara Falls at: http://www.queenstreetniagarafalls.com

Don’t forget to check out the full slideshow of green drinks Tokyo November.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.