In this TEDx Talk, Jason Roberts – known as the “The Bike Guy” in his Oak Cliff community outside of Dallas, Texas – gives his audience a how-to guide in improving a community one block at a time as part of a project called “The Better Block“. The project did not start off as an organization with vast goals and strong following; instead it started off with Roberts’ interest and desire to develop his community into one that had a legacy apart from the highways and overpasses that dominate the landscape. Inspired by the rich history and existing street life of European cities with their historic buildings and monuments, plazas, and vistas; Roberts started small and eventually built a foundation and organization that is now nationally recognized and used as a tool to develop cities across the country.
Read on for more after the break.
The tools of Jason Roberts own experience and those developed for Better Block demonstrate how manageable and possible it is to improve one’s city one block at a time. He began by attending board meetings, becoming acquainted with planners and policy-makers and he quickly realized that these people who make the changes he sought after possible, were looking for leaders to strike up urban projects.
