My Athens

Obscura Day Event for Athens, Ga.

March 20, 2010 is Obscura Day.

The idea is that on Obscura Day people everywhere in the world will visit and explore the strange places, the back rooms, the obscure alleys, the hidden treasures of their hometowns.

Obscura Day is the invention of the people who run Atlas Obscura, a web site that bills itself as "compendium of the world's wonders, curiosities and esoterica." (Yes, The Tree that Owns Itself is included in the site's catalog.)

It's not too late for Athens to have it's own Obscura Day events, and I think the folks over at Flagpole Magazine would be naturals for organizing this.

What, in addition to that self-owning tree, should be included in an Athens, Ga. Obscura Day?

Urban Sketchers

Urban Sketchers is a blog and Flickr file-sharing group devoted to promoting the practice of drawing what you see in cities and then sharing those drawings.

Contributors are asked to follow a few fairly elastic rules including:

• Draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what you see from direct observation
• Be truthful to the scenes you witness
• Share your drawings online

The blog features lots of great sketches, and links to hundreds of urban-related online drawing groups from all over the world. Don't neglect to check out the Urban Sketchers Flickr group. It's a lot of fun to browse through. Doesn't look like Athens has its own group--yet.

Fantasy World's Marquee Offered a Clue

On June 30, 2009, I posted this shot of Fantasy World's marquee. About a week earlier, Philip Markoff, the so-called "Craiglist Killer," had pleaded not guilty to murdering a women in Massachusetts he had arranged to meet after responding to her ad in Craigslist's erotic services category.  The Markoff story and the related controversy about whether Craigslist, the free online classified ad web site, should allow people to advertise prostitution was very much in the news. 

Seems like Fantasy World was not so subtly signaling what was for sale inside.  That brazenness, especially given it's proximity to the police substation--about a block and a half away--struck me at the time.

Sidewalk Felicities, and a Suggestion for the ABH

Not sure that this blog can take credit, but two instances of what I highlighted as "sidewalk infelicities" have been improved.

The Northwest and Southwest corners at Prince Ave. and Barber St.--a location with lots of foot traffic--are now much more pedestrian friendly.  Take a look at these before and after shots:

Exhibit 1: Northwest corner of Prince Ave. and Barber St.

Before:

After:

Exhibit 2: Southwest corner of Prince Ave. and Barber St.

Before:

After:

Nice work. But, as I said, I'm not sure that any spotlighting by this blog did anything to spur the work. Athens-Clarke Co. does have a Sidewalk Improvement Program in place, and these corners may have been slated for work under that program or another one long before I took note of them here.

For citizens like me the before-and-after shots have proven to be a very satisfying way to report a problem and then to see that something actually got done. (In this case, I can at least pretend that I had an impact--even though it might have been a coincidence.) I  imagine that public servants might feel a similar satisfaction in being able to be so visibly responsive and effective.

In an earlier post, I suggested that Athens-Clarke Co. government set up its own version of SeeClickFix to allow citizens to publicly report city infrastructure problems like crumbling sidewalks or uncollected trash and to have the county's response to those reports publicly tracked.

Suggestion for the Athens Banner-Herald

Now, I think it might be a good idea if the Athens Banner-Herald hosted and bird-dogged such a site as part of its on-line package.  According to this New York Times article, there's a local daily in Connecticut that's using SeeClickFix to boost its internet traffic and interactivity with readers. (The article includes a link to the newspaper's online site and the SeeClickFix page it maintains there. And, FYI, there's already a nascent SeeClickFix page for Athens--it  just needs some high-profile care and attention.)

It seems like a similar effort here in Athens could produce lots of benefits: citizens might feel a little more empowered; public servants might feel a little more useful and loved; the Athens Banner-Herald might get a positive jolt from the new social media, and the city's infrastructure might improve.

Noticings

Noticings describes itself as "the game of noticing the world around you."

You play Noticings by uploading to Flickr geo-tagged photos of interesting things (not including people or other very transient things) you've noticed when you're out and about.

You get points for spotting the first instance of something in a neighborhood or by a sustained noticing of some particular spot or thing over time.

You can find rules of the game, how-to instructions and lots of photos of odd things here.

As of this writing, no one in Athens, Georgia was playing Noticings.

Via Digital Urban.

Image credit: Screen shot of Noticings banner.