By Wendy Brawer | Director
From our vantage point on NYC’s Lower East Side, the pandemic’s painful reality hits far too close to home. Our hearts go out to all who have lost family, friends and livelihoods, here and everywhere. But we are also seeing communitycommunities coming together under clear blue skies, encouraging us to think about tomorrow, and what comes next for cities everywhere.
How can we help people bring local culture back to life in a climate-smart and healthy way? So far we have created two new approaches and invite your input and support as we move forward with Recovery Icons and Open Space Gateways projects.
If you can donate this week to support these approaches, it’s matched 50 percent! We'd appreciate your help!
Recovery Icons
Green Map and friends have drafted a concise set of icons combining new and existing symbols to help communities regenerate local culture once this viral storm has passed. Use them freely on your maps, signs, murals, social media, apps, etc. and guide the way to local recovery resources and a more resilient and healthy future. Examine the set and the first NYC ‘proof of concept’ examples (including images in this message) - add your comments please at GreenMap.org/recoveryicons
Open Space Gateway - Active Tourism Campaign
Green Maps have always been about celebrating local environments. Now, with everyone re-localizing, we are developing a campaign to encourage people to get outdoors and explore nearby parks and open spaces with the help of an informational Gateway (online and in popup kiosks) that ihighlights the best of the city’s landscapes, biodiversity, programming and special places outdoors that are (1) free and open to the public in this time of re-localization (2) when to go (3) fitness, eco-cultural and age-appropriate features and (4) safe ways to get there.
Open Space means both open to the public and open space, ideal for physical distancing and connection with nature. Cemeteries, campuses, reused infrastructure projects, forested grounds and other open green spaces as well as major parks can gain new audiences safely. This spring, summer and beyond, this eco-active service will be especially valuable to families and really, to everyone as travel is limited, even small parks are closed and residents are urged to stay close to home. It’s especially important now as nature is so healing and so many of us haven’t recently explored the wonderful diversity that our own communities have to offer. Read more here: bit.ly/gateway-2020
Climate Actions
We’ve undertaken several actions during this acute crisis - see them here: bit.ly/GMpivot. Each of these actions has a climate impact and we’ll be sending you more about them this week during GlobalGiving’s Climate matching campaign – your help means so much to us!
Thank you for your donation - 50% match through Friday (up to $500) - a great opportunity for us.
Be well, everyone.
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