Today I participated in a wonderful workshop put on by the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation (you may know them as AEDC).
AEDC brought Peter Kageyama to Anchorage for the second time to give a workshop about engaging people who love their cities. The first time was just as wonderful, but I didn’t get to stay for the whole event; the hour I participated in was enough to inspire me to stop day dreaming about writing a blog focused on loving Anchorage, as I had for the last four+ years, and actually do it.
A bit about Peter. He wrote “For the Love of Cities” which is fascinating, hopeful, and refreshing. If you even have a glimmer of being interested in cities, you should buy, borrow, or steal (okay, not steal) it as soon as you can.
I devoured “For the Love of Cities” during a bumpy flight home from a business trip and it was good enough to mostly distract me from the turbulence (but also made me long to be on solid ground in the city I love).
I plan to write a much longer post about the workshop today, but I wanted to share one little piece with you tonight. Peter spoke about writing love notes to your city, and shared examples of different ways this has been done in other cities. He described a love note as that final touch that really make something special – the handwritten note that accompanies a bouquet or a gift.
Peter’s example made me think of how sometimes my husband will leave sweet notes on a post-it for me to find. It always makes my day. Such a simple little thing that goes so far.
A love note can be anything that shows your love for your city: a picture of you hugging your favorite statue, a beautiful chalk drawing on the sidewalk, or interactive artwork for passersby to play with.
Thanks to Peter, I’m going to start a literal take on the “Love Note” idea – handwritten love notes to Anchorage. If you have a love note to Anchorage, email me at GretchenLovesAnchorage@gmail.com and I’ll post it for you! It doesn’t have to be on a post-it, or even on paper. But it does have to be handwritten.
I can’t wait to share your love notes to Anchorage!
Also – my love note is short. It’s late, and I’m sleepy…I promise more interesting love notes in the future! I’ve never been a particularly flowery writer though, so despite my years studying British literature, I promise not to go all Milton-ey on you 🙂