I have been thinking about pop-up stores and their possibilities to invigorate a community, and especially activate the creative life in an area. My first thought was to find an old abandoned warehouse building (I know there’s one covered in graffiti near PS1 in Queens), have Bloomberg give tax breaks so that artists and craftspeople can set up shops for 1-3 months tax free, and let the community-building begin!
The inspiration for this idea came from here:
http://spacemakers.org.uk/brixton/
Since Oct 2009 a rolling festival of pop-up stores, performances, exhibitions and events revitalized an abandoned 1930’s indoor market called Brixton village in south London. Space Makers agency organized a competition for business-owners that were interested in setting up a store short-term, and they did a lot of community outreach to learn about what events people wanted to be involved with. It has become a really popular destination for weekend outings if not just to see what it was all about, and draws a lot of talented people. They also have an ongoing project to map London’s “forgotten spaces”. We are working in small groups for a community building project and we are starting to narrow down our focus to a specific neighborhood. Newark is a definite possibility but we are meeting tomorrow to decide.