Today, I want to write about a very special project that I think every Montrealer should be interested in: 100 in 1 Day Montreal 2013.
The idea is simple. On October 5th, 2013, Montrealers will perform 100 interventions in 1 day to improve our city and foster our communities. The civic actions are meant let us glean that “together, we can transform Montreal into the city of our dreams”.
A Desire for New Ideas
I think that after all the commotion caused by political scandals at the municipal level in Montreal in the past few years, this is a perfect time for engaged citizens to express their ideas for the future and take action to show their love for our city.
The Megaphone project (unrelated to 100 in 1 Day) currently happening in Place des Arts is another great illustration of our desire for change in the city. The project, created by the NFB and Moment Factory, invites people to “speak out on issues that concern them directly”. The Megaphone amplifies your voice and your ideas by making them into images that are projected on the wall of UQAM’s Président-Kennedy building (1).
A recent post by F&Co also pointed to the ID-JCCM project as another forum that is working to generate new ideas for the city. Other organizations who have helped to foster discussions about the future of our city/state also include Génération d’Idées and Sortie 13.
A Hundred Interventions for Our City
I met Juan Carlos Londono, initiator of the 100 in 1 Day project, a few weeks ago after an excellent talk on urbanism by Louise Guay (founder of Living Lab Montreal) at the Creative Mornings Montreal event. Louise rightly pointed out the project as a great example of a grassroots organization helping to transform the city.
It was my good friend Christine Renaud, the excellent founder of E-180, who told me I “needed” to meet Juan. Indeed, as always, she was right. Of course, I needed to talk to Juan.
After a few minutes chatting with Juan, I was immediately excited about his project and wanted to help out. Juan’s desire to contribute clearly comes for a good place.
I will be attending an event next week with a few of my team members at Busbud. Together, we will try to determine an action we’d like to see for our “dream” Montreal and try to build it together.
Want to participate in a workshop? Follow the group on Facebook or get in touch with Juan directly.
Montreal, this is what change looks like. Now let’s all help out!
5 questions with Juan Carlos Londono
Juan is a social entrepreneur and researcher. He is the co-founder of Lupuna, a socially-oriented enterprise that uses collaborative practices to enhance people’s capacity to work together for the common good. Born in Bogota, he is a self-described “explorer of human potential”.
1. How did you first get interested in starting the 100 in 1 day Montreal project?
Last March, I went to Colombia to attend an Art of Hosting training and to connect with the members of La Arenera, a network of more than 1500 social innovators and entrepreneurs. During the training, someone mentioned 100en1dia and the week after, I went to meet the organizers at one of their workshops, and loved the experience. I had already done interventions in public spaces, and knew many people in Montreal that were doing similar work. My conclusion was that the city was ripe for such an event, and all I knew was we had to take it to Montreal.
2. Can you describe your project and its mission? How can Montrealers participate?
We often describe it as a “festival of doing”, for those of us who love Montreal and want to take care of it. The idea is quite simple: on a given date (in Montreal it’s the 5th of october 2013), hundreds of citizens will undertake 100+ urban interventions to make their city better. Interventions can take all sorts of forms, as long they contribute positively to our urban environment, and respect the basic guidelines of common sense.
It’s a citizen-driven movement, so Montrealers are the ones making it happen. All are invited to come to our workshops and design their interventions every Wednesday from 6pm to 9pm at the Montreal Centre for Urban Ecology (3516 Av Du Parc). There will be a team of facilitators that will help participants make their interventions simple and effective. To learn more about the workshops, watch the video below!
3. Why do you think it is important that citizens participate in the life of their city?
By doing 100+ interventions, and by getting people involved in the process, we are experimenting with active citizenship, the essence of 100in1day’s message. Active citizenship is about going beyond the vote and beyond the complaint, and taking direct action to have a positive impact in our communities. Active citizenship asks the question: what does it mean to be a citizen, now that many of us have the knowledge, the resources and the will to take care of our city and to make it better?
There are lots of examples, big and small, of active citizenship pioneers. There are wonderful people working with open data and improving our access to information so others can use it for developing and improving, apps, processes, and ultimately have a large-scale impact. As I said, there are smaller, and just as meaningful actions, like taking care of the social fabric in our neighbourhoods and streets. I get so happy when I see people clean the sidewalks after a bottle has been broken, or come together to help another who’s stuck on ice. Not only because of the action itself, but for what it means: those people still care, and are willing to go the extra mile for the rest of us.
This got a little bit too long, so let’s recap: it’s important because it makes living together more vibrant and more real, because participating means we are opening up to others and sharing with them what’s important to us. By the way, this is the essence of leadership, and by doing so we are creating connections and strengthening our communities. It’s also important, because nowadays we are facing massive challenges, and we are realizing that in order to move forward, we all need to think and act together. Nobody has all the answers, and our institutions have gotten a little bit too distant from the reality of their citizens. We need to help them out, we need to participate in what matters to us in order to give them feedback, ideas, and from time to time, a little push forward!
4. Your event is based on a similar event in Colombia. Can you detail some of the projects realized there?
Yes, since it was launched in Bogota, 100in1day became a global movement, and Montreal is the first city in North America and the francophone world to be doing it. There is two types of interventions: some are symbolic and some involve changing the physical space (and so they need permits to be legal). I’ll give examples for both.
In Bogota, it’s quite common to see public works get started and then never finished. A group of citizens decided to tackle this issue by “inaugurating” an unfinished construction. They put some balloons and other decorations, and a man dressed as the mayor, proceeded with the ceremony. They attracted attention on the issue in a refreshing and creative way, thus breaking the cycle of apathy and helplessness around it.
Another group wanted to promote the use of bus stops in Bogota. Over there, it is very common that people wave at a bus the same way they wave at a taxi. That contributes to an enormous amount of traffic. They created a “moving bus stop”, made out of a tent with a “bus stop” sign, and they went up to people that were waiting for the bus to let them know where was the closest real bus stop.
In terms of changing the physical space, many interventions dealt with the issue of not having enough bike paths, or safe crosswalks. So they painted them! At first, the city was a little bit worried about the results and not so keen on letting citizens do this. Then, when they saw the amount of people that got together, the wonderful work they did, and the fact that they could be “helped” by the crowd, they asked some of this groups to keep on doing it, and now give them some support. We have seen this type of evolution in other cities as well, for example Portland, Oregon (see City Repair for more info).
5. What are you working on now? What’s next?
We’ll be facilitating workshops until the 25th of September. Then, we have to get everything ready for the big day on the 5th of October, which includes finding sponsors or donations for the t-shirts we’ll be giving to each intervention leader.
On the actual day, we’ll need to document all interventions very well, so we can show the impact we all had, and the press will also be invited. Some of us are already talking about next year, so I guess after a little break and a huge celebration, we’ll be back to work. And you’re all welcome to join us!
Above: Some of the members of the large 100 in 1 Day team, from left to right: Cédric Jamet, Andréa Cohen, Ariel Harlap, Katharina Kapsamer, Lilou Dallas, Lisa Gravel, Alfredo Rey et Juan Carlos Londono A. Photo credit: Alex Tran
Below: A few more pictures of the creation workshops:
Photos: 100 in a Day Montreal