Great Places Saskatoon is pleased to support a free public lecture on Sunday, September 8, 2013 by Better Block founder Jason Roberts, presented by Drinkle3. Roberts will discuss the Better Block project and building sustainable communities. Following the lecture, a Dixieland jazz and bike parade will head to the Drinkle3 Building where the street will be closed off for a Better Block Party. The Better Block Party will be an opportunity to demonstrate some of Jason’s ideas, including smarter bike lanes and outdoor café dining in parking spots. There will also be a stage with live music provided as part of DrinkleFest, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Drinkle Building.
The Better Block project, which Jason co-founded, is an international movement occurring everywhere from Melbourne, Australia to Tehran, Iran, and has been featured in The New York Times, Dwell magazine, TED Talks and National Public Radio. Jason’s consulting firm, Team Better Block, was showcased in the US Pavilion at the 2012 Venice Biennale. The Better Block project was born in 2010 when Roberts and Andrew Howard decided to bring guerilla street redesign tactics to Dallas streets, by taking blighted blocks with vacant properties in Southern Dallas and converting them into temporary walkable districts with pop-up businesses, bike lanes, cafe seating, and landscaping.
Doors open at Third Avenue United Church at 2:00pm, followed by a talk at 2:30pm. A bicycle and jazz parade will follow leading to the Drinklefest Better Block Party. The FREE block party will also feature music by Don Griffith and the Crawdaddies, the Young Benjamins, live street entertainment, children’s activities, and an afterparty at Mediterranno at 7:00pm featuring DJ Charly Hustle.
The event is sponsored by Drinkle3 and is supported by Park(ing) Day, Saskatoon Cycles, Great Places, the City of Saskatoon, Bridge City Bike Co-op, Mane Productions, the TwoTwenty, Children’s Discovery Museum on the Saskatchewan, Children’s Festival of Saskatchewan, and Third Ave Centre.
For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/events/524298690958346/, www.facebook.com/events/163432100512280/ and www.facebook.com/drinkle3. For more information on Jason Roberts, please visit www.betterblock.org and view his TedX Talk here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntwqVDzdqAU.