Posts Tagged ‘community appearance’

Does the design & appearance of a farm/ranch matter?

October 1st, 2009

Lindsey is out in Hill City, SD today leading the DesignSD team in a community design charrette, so the question about the design and appearance of farm/ranches is timely.  It’s actually not my question; rather it’s Caleb Schultz’s at the America’s Great Divide blog.

Caleb’s blog is fresh off the press (just two days old).  His goal for the blog is to bridge the gap between urban and rural people.

In his first post, he laments the negative attitudes he sees from many of his urban counterparts and asked what it will take to change their minds?  In his second post, he connects the importance of a farm’s physical appearance with the growing local foods movement, noting the following: 

“Part of connecting with consumers in the new local food market includes your business facility. Yep, your farm or ranch is now your place of business, your store front. If we want to connect to the urban society, there needs to be a touch of class and refinement. I’m not talking fake - dude ranch style, I’m talking nice respectable working facility style. A place to be proud of and a place to humbly show off when the city folk decide to see what agriculture is all about.”

Good point. Anything we can do to combat food from being a commodity is good in my book

But because Lindsey is working with the DesignSD team right now, Caleb’s comments caused me to wonder what impact the appearance of farms have on the small towns around them?  We know that people judge a community solely on its appearance.  We also know that good signage (and branding) that extend beyond the physical limits of a town’s boundaries has an impact as well.  Do people see the farms they drive by as extensions of a community as well? 

I’m really not sure of the answer here, but I suspect the answer lies in an adage that you’ve heard me say many times before - “it’s all connected.” 

 

Photo credit:  Whatleydude - Flickr  

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More evidence to support “Broken Windows” Theory

February 18th, 2009

Back in December2008, I wrote about the negative effects associated with “broken windows theory” and suggested litter, graffiti, abandoned buildings, and other signs of “disorder” might limit or decrease the willingness of community members to work together on projects.  

I’ve yet to find any hard research linking broken windows to descreased community support, but a study in Lowell, Massachusetts offers further evidence that community beautification can help reduce crime.  

Other resources on “broken window theory”

Note:  I’ve been looking for information about “broken windows” theory in rural places, but haven’t’ had much luck.  I’d appreciate any resources people can pass along.

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Does your community have good “headlines”

December 16th, 2008

Seth Godin’s recent post reminds us that headlines matter.   This is especially true with blogs and websites because people typically don’t take time to read 2 or 3 paragraphs to figure out if they are interested.  A poorly written headline and they’re gone.

Godin also notes that our appearance is another type of headline.  People judge others they meet based exclusively on how they are dressed and look.  Similarly, people judge communities solely on their appearance.

How communities look is based on a lot of factors:  What’s the website look like? Is the town clean or dirty?   What is the community’s tag line?  Does Main Street look good? What does the billboard on the edge of town look like?

All of the above questions speak to “headlines” of sorts that people use to evaluate our rural communities.  If any one of them is bad, a community may not get the chance to prove what a great place it is to live.  Like it or not, headlines matter.

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Posted in Community Development, Rural | Comments (4)