Placemaking for Impact | Rik Adamski of Ash & Lime | September 6, 2024

Rik Adamski is the President of Ash & Lime, specializing in revitalizing downtowns and neighborhoods through innovative planning. With extensive experience consulting for major planning organizations, Rik is known for his participatory approach to community development. He has spoken at numerous conferences and universities, focusing on transformative action and building community consensus.

For those who are interested, here's a portfolio of projects that they've worked on at Ash & Lime

https://www.ashlime.com/portfolio

"A Better Brainerd on Steroids" 

Rik's work was inspired by the strategy posted on the Strong Towns site for "A Better Brainerd

https://actionlab.strongtowns.org/hc/en-us/articles/11943326017684-Neighborhoods-First-A-Low-Risk-High-Return-Strategy-for-a-Better-Brainerd 

The Storefront Renaissance League
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rikadamski_welcome-to-the-storefront-renaissance-league-activity-7222298282029375488-Oopv/

Rik's partner with the Storefront Renaissance League is Jaime "The Storefront Guy" https://www.linkedin.com/in/izurietavarea/

Project For Public Spaces  - The Power of 10 - people need ten interesting things to do in a space

This is a great LC event idea to do a photo audit

Non-descript buildings can be great incubators for businesses

Gracen Johnson's article on this point of non-descript spaces is really good: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/9/23/background-buildings
Here's an article about the DeSoto market/accelerator: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2018/07/02/why-developer-monte-anderson-is-betting-big-on-this-urbanist-market-in-desoto/

Local Conversation Leader Anecdote

A small way we are pursing cleaning things up and making our place nicer while getting at least a little bit of visibility is adopting a local street. We apply with the county, get training and safety equipment, then a sign on the road with our name on it.

Public Engagement

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2018/7/30/most-public-engagement-is-worthless

Gentrification and Displacement

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2016/8/1/how-gentrification-affects-small-businesses

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/tag/small+business

Maintaining what We Have

Chuck's article on the necessity of maintenance and the value of basic cleanup is classic ST: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/6/17/if-were-not-going-to-maintain-what-we-have-then-why-bother-building-anything-new

Questions: 

Given most voters don’t care about maintenance, how do local conversation leader create systemic change in larger communities where the political leaders are responsive to voters desire for big projects and not for maintenance and fiscal responsibility?