Do you remember the old bike racks you used in grade school.  Well, those are hard to find and most places seem to opt for a more decorative bike rack.  Take a look at these pictures and tell me what you like and don’t like by emailing me at rchandler@lincolncity.org.   If you have other ideas for bike racks, either photos or your own drawings, send them in.  I’d love to see them as we look to revitalize the streetscape.

 

 

 

 

I took a lot of pictures of benches and I found them all fascinating.  Some of the benches are in public spaces, next to businesses and along sidewalks.  Take a look and tell me what you like about them and what you don’t at rchandler@lincolncity.org.

I really liked this bench.  It’s a simple design however the color and legs were incorporated into the color and artistic design of the business.

 

These benches were fascinating.  They’re made from gabion baskets and incorporated in public space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next set of benches are examples of wooden benches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now we have examples of metal benches

 

And Concrete Benches.

 

Finally, benches that are part of picnic tables.

Yesterday I wrote about and showed pictures of planters.  Today, it’s garbage cans.  As a reminder, we’re looking at enhancing the streetscapes of our business districts.  I learned a long time ago that streetscapes are not about moving people from point A to point B, they’re about creating an experience for the drivers, pedestrians, bike riders, etc.  Even the garbage cans help create an experience.  So, look these over and tell me what you think at rchandler@lincolncity.org.

 

This traditional, decorative, metal can is quite common.  It’s attractive, easy to find and relatively inexpensive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These cans combine the trash and recycling cans. Again, metal and somewhat traditional.  They add a little color and make it difficult to add large amounts or household trash which has been a problem in Lincoln City.  The picture on right is also trash and recycling but they are also compactors that are powered with solar energy.

 

These cans are more decorative and are designed to blend with the landscaping.  They are also trash and recycling cans.  They also attempt to un-clutter the cans with a lot of writing by putting the “trash” and “recycling” identification on the top.

Of course, if you’re a Baltimore Orioles baseball fan like me, this is the only choice.

Some of the staff are working with me to rethink our streetscapes in our business districts so I’m using this conference to explore ideas that other cities are using.  The idea is to take everything down to the bare bones and build up.  Today I’m looking at planters as a way to bring some color, vegetation and life to our streetscapes.  So tell me at rchandler@lincolncity.org which of these types of planters you like.

 

Metal Planters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cement Decorative Planters

 

 

 

 

 

 

Round Planters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rectangle Planters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planters as part of a building architecture.

 

I’d like to introduce you to my new friend Franswayn.  Franswayn gives tours of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor to visitors pointing out places to see, eat and visit.  He even arranged for me to hear the cannon go off on the U.S.S. Constellation.  It was a great 1/2 hour I spent with him.  Because I lived in this area, he could point out all of the changes that were made since I moved.

It left me wondering if Lincoln City has people would would volunteer to be tour guides to our visitors.  Perhaps we can coordinate this through “Explore Lincoln City” (formerly known as the Lincoln City Convention Bureau).  Let me know what you think at rchandler@lincolncity.org.

 

I’m attending the International City Manager Conference in Baltimore, Maryland this week and, as always, there are a lot of vendors.  When I started my career the vendors were car manufacturers, sellers of fire trucks, street machine vendors, etc.  Now they’re almost entirely computer software vendors.  There are two vendors that caught my attention.

A couple of City Council meetings ago Councilor Riley Hoagland asked if there is a better way to communicate the City’s story especially combating misinformation.  He called it “Hey Lincoln City”.  One of the challenges with this task is the number of ways people communicate – text, tweet, facebook, mail, etc.  Not only the number of methods to communicate but how quickly people change their methods of communication.  The second challenge is just the sheer volume of communication that takes place.  How do we ever stay on top of this?  It could take several full-time employees just to stay on top of it.

Sure enough, there are vendors selling products to help.  The first vendor assembles text messages sent to the City, routes them to the right person and sends a a text when the request is complete.

The second vendor takes it a step further.  It assembles communications to the City from all sources – text, twitter, web page, etc.  The software then routes the requests to the right department and, when the request is finished, a return message is sent in the same format.

I like these ideas especially if the City can send out questions and solicit input on the issues of the day.  I’ll check these out further when I return.  Let me know what you think at rchandler@lincolncity.org.

See you soon,

Ron C.

 

Driftwood Public Library is delighted to announce the schedule of mystery writers for its 15^th annual Dark & Stormy Night series for this October. This will be the 15^th year in which the library invites genre authors to speak in Lincoln City. The series takes place at the library at 4:00 Thursday afternoons in October, beginning October 4th.

For the full story and history on the Dark and Stormy Night Author Series visit Driftwood Public Library/Dark & Stormy Night.