Wishes

Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 12:56PM

I Wish This Was

Many cities are full of vacant storefronts and people who need things. My New Orleans neighborhood is still without a full-service grocery store. So I made these fill-in-the-blank stickers to provide an easy tool to voice what we want, where we want it. Just fill them out and put them on abandoned buildings and beyond. The stickers are custom vinyl and they can be easily removed without damaging property. It’s a fun, low-barrier tool for citizens to provide civic input on-site, and the responses reflect the hopes, dreams, and colorful imaginations of different neighborhoods.

This project launched in New Orleans with support from the Ethnographic Terminalia exhibit Nov-Dec 2010. Thousands of free stickers were available in corner stores, cafes, bookstores, bars, hair salons, and other places around the city. Grids of blank stickers were (and still are) posted on vacant buildings. See select photos below and many more on the official project site. Spread the sticker love to your city by buying the stickers here! These thick, high-quality vinyl stickers will ensure that future business owners can easily remove them (vs. DIY paper stickers). All proceeds support more neighborhood projects in public space. Share your photos on Flickr (tag your photos “iwishthiswas”) or by email. Responses will be published in a book. We’re also developing a digital version called Neighborland that will help residents and community leaders self-organize around shared goals, whether that be the desire for a local grocery store, bike lanes, more trees, less blight, a cafe with WiFi, a taco stand, a recreation center, and beyond. Here’s to better tools for residents to shape the physical and commercial development of their neighborhoods!

Buy stickers here!

P.S. A note to those concerned about the subjunctive mood (I wish this was / I wish this were)