Happy Mothers Day
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Photos from this week’s “OUR TOWN: Fast Forward”
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Photo credits for all photographs: Bob Howard. You can find program details online HERE. See yourself in a picture, want to tag or untag yourself? (Leave a comment under the photo and we’ll go back through them and make corrections!)
Florence Snyder: On Bubbe and Brisket
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“Bubbe couldn’t stand an injustice, “ or so it was always said of Fanny Richardson, the great-grandmother after whom I’m named.
She was born in the Old Country and spoke only Yiddish. She had four daughters, one son, and no formal education. Bubbe was what was called a “poor relation” in pre-Social Security America. After her husband died, she shuttled among her five children, cooking briskets and playing canasta with her grandchildren.
Bubbe would fix after school snacks and listen intently for hours as the little girl who grew up to be the endlessly patient grandmother of my children gave minute-by-minute accounts of her day.
Bubbe did not live to see that little girl become a speech teacher, a television personality, and the first woman everything in Florida’s state university system. But Mom never forgot her debt to Bubbe.
“I used to think I was doing Bubbe a huge favor to ‘entertain’ her,” Mom would say. “She must have been bored to death. But she was teaching me that my voice mattered.”
I never thought to ask how, exactly, Bubbe acquired that tag-line that keeps her memory alive all these decades after she lived and died. But I suspect a connection between her ability to listen patiently, even to a small child speaking a different language, and her intolerance of injustice.
The ability to listen is fundamental to a just society. In Bubbe’s day, and now, it’s a skill that’s in very short supply.
As the Scarecrow in Oz observed, “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking.” We interrupt each other mid-sentence to disagree with what we think someone is about to say. Even at the Village Square it is necessary to issue frequent reminders against “team clapping”.
Communities that do justice, love mercy, and teach the little ones that their voice matters have a lot of Bubbes around. Mother’s Day is a good time to cook them a brisket and say “thanks for listening.”
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Florence Snyder is a corporate and First Amendment lawyer. Contact her at lawyerflo@gmail.com
Photo credit: Sea Dream Studio, under Creative Commons License (2.0 generic)
Tallahassee Democrat: “Our Town forum reviews city’s growth, future”
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From the Tallahassee Democrat on May 8, 2012: “With numerous projects nearing completion and others in the works with the city of Tallahassee and Leon County, taking an opportunity to recap isn’t a bad idea.
“The Village Square created an outlet for that during its first Our Town forum highlighting growth and change in Tallahassee on Tuesday at St. John’s Episcopal Church downtown. The standing-room crowd of more than 250 heard brief summaries on priority projects, such as Gaines Street revitalization. Residents were eager to pose questions ranging from whether Cascades Park will have a dog park and when more parking and sidewalks would come to Midtown…” Read it all here.
Braddock, Pennsylvania
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A town hit hard by the economic downturn, Braddock Pennsylvania is fighting back with an ad campaign partnering with Levis Strauss.
OUR TOWN: Burying the Franklin Blvd. ditch – wise or wasteful?
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Like it or not, the deep ditch dividing Franklin Blvd. is currently being buried to alleviate flooding risks and to make this roadway more friendly to pedestrians and bicyclists, too. The ditch has a much more pleasant history as a stream, the St. Augustine Branch, but its more recent past has come to define it as more of a hazard, eyesore and great inconvenience. The construction currently underway on Franklin is part of the “Capital Cascade Trail” project led by the city-county collaborative Blueprint 2000. This is phase 1, and phase 2 is Cascades Park. The renovation of Franklin will reduce it down to 2 lanes and add both sidewalks and bike lanes. It certainly sounds more pedestrian/bike-friendly, but perhaps less appealing to drivers during rush hour. Some area residents say this is a good thing because they’re tired of it being a dangerous speedway. Others say the old stream could have been spared and revitalized with a different approach. The ultimate decision appears to be that the safest options just didn’t include the ditch/stream and drivers coexisting. So, as early as this August, we will drive over top the ditch instead of navigating around it. We still have Cascades Park to look forward to, which is where the former stream flowed to in its heyday.
Check out The Village Square‘s discussion on the topic in our “Get Local” Tallahassee section of our We the Wiki website. Feel free to add to it, too — additional sources, 
fact checks, even write an op-ed. Remember, the content of our Wiki is made greater by factual, civil, diverse contributions from people like you. So, go ahead — check it out. And if you’re a first-time user, be sure to check out the Tools & Tips page, too. If you have trouble with the site using Internet Explorer, try switching over to Google Chrome, Firefox or Safari.
Jay Revell in today’s Tallahassee Democrat: From Vision to Reality, Midtown Comes of Age
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Jay Revell will be one of our panelists for Our Town: Fast Forward next Monday night. Be sure to register now, we’ll run out of space (and dessert). Jay writes in today’s Tallahassee Democrat:
Construction is a welcome sight in this day and age. Construction is a sign of revival, a sign of progress and a signal of an ending economic slumber.
You may have noticed that, for the past month, there have been signs of construction throughout Midtown. This is one of those signs we have been waiting for.
In June, our city will complete construction on the Fifth Avenue Midtown Plaza. This project is not only a sign of emerging prosperity but a testament to community engagement. It happened because the shared interests of businesses, residents and those who love all things Midtown came together under a common goal: Make Midtown great.
Through shared visions, that goal is becoming a reality more and more each day.
Read Jay’s article – and learn what’s up in Midtown – in today’s Tallahassee Democrat.
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Photo is a City of Tallahassee artist rendition of the 5th Avenue Plaza.
The Village Square continues ‘Our Town’ series: ‘Fast Forward’ forum focuses on new development, projects, ideas
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 2012
THE VILLAGE SQUARE CONTINUES ‘OUR TOWN’ SERIES
‘Fast Forward’ Forum Focuses on New Development, Projects and Ideas
(TALLAHASSEE, FL) – May 1, 2012 – Hometowns with a “sense of place” are vibrant, engaged, growing and economically successful. They are places people want to live and raise families. There are new reasons every day why this describes Tallahassee.
On Monday, May 7, The Village Square hosts “OUR TOWN: Fast Forward,” a spirited look at what’s new and what’s coming in Tallahassee.
Co-sponsored by Knight Creative Communities Institute (KCCI), Leadership Tallahassee, the Tallahassee Democrat and Access Tallahassee, “Fast Forward” will be fast-paced. Five presentations follow a PechaKucha format (Japanese for “chit chat”) with a maximum of 20 slides that advance automatically after 20 seconds. There will be a question-and-answer segment for each topic, moderated by City Commissioner Gil Ziffer, and a lightening round for the audience to share information about new projects, ideas, events and even restaurants around town.
The evening will feature a discussion on Cascades Park and the citizen-led KCCI project “Cultivate Cascades.” This initiative seeks to ensure that visitors are drawn into the park through a variety of diverse activities held throughout the first year.
City Manager Anita Favors Thompson and County Administrator Vince Long will highlight the latest in town from the perspective of city and county governments. Also presenting are Ed Murray of TALCOR on Midtown, and Access Tallahassee on the top ten best new things in Tallahassee. The Tallahassee Democrat with share ten ideas – things that could happen in our town if we made them happen.
The program is part of The Village Square’s “Our Town” series, aimed at growing an informed and engaged community. The series is made possible by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation through the Community Foundation of North Florida.
“Our Town: Fast Forward” will be held Monday, May 7 from 5:30 to 7:00 pm at St. John’s Episcopal Church at 211 N. Monroe Street (enter at rear Calhoun Street entrance). It is free and open to the public. Participants are asked to make a reservation and to present their printed ticket at the door, as space is limited.
Participants may bring a take-out dinner to enjoy during the forum or purchase dinner at one of three food trucks parked outside St. John’s from 5 to 5:45pm. Paisley Café’s Nutella Bread Pudding and coffee will be provided for dessert.
Those who are unable to attend can watch the program livestream at www.tallahassee.com or follow an online discussion on Twitter, hashtag #vsq.
For more information, to see a full list of program participants, or to RSVP and print your ticket, go to www.tothevillagesquare.org, or call 264-8785.
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Miss last week’s Dinner at the Square? WFSU will air the program Friday at 7PM
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Did you miss Wall Street, Main Street, Easy Street, our Dinner at the Square focused on the economic crisis, particularly in Florida? WFSU airs the program this Friday night, May 4, from 7 to 8pm. Mark it on your calendar now! Tune in to 88.9FM to listen.
Paisley Cafe’s Nutella bread pudding. Food trucks. Learning about new things. One week.
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If you haven’t made a reservation yet for Our Town: Fast Forward (next Monday night – one week – from 5:30 to 7pm), you should know that time is a wastin’. You should also know (and this is the really important part) that as part of our program, we’re treating everyone to Paisley Cafe’s Nutella Bread Pudding, which apparently is quite spectacular. We’ll have three food trucks outside the event where you can grab dinner to enjoy during the program. Paisley Cafe is a new restaurant in town located in Midtown, so we chose them in keeping with our theme of everything new. CLICK HERE to get more information about the program and make your reservation.
