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City Creates Neighborhood Improvement Competition

City officials are asking residents for imaginative ideas on how to improve Jamestown neighborhoods.

In October, the city Strategic Planning and Partnerships Commission announced the Imagine Jamestown Ideas Competition. Crystal Surdyk, city principal planner, told The Post-Journal city officials will seek ideas on designing sustainable, livable and remarkable neighborhoods in Jamestown.

She said the city Strategic Planning & Partnerships Commission is spearheading the competition, which is meant to be an inclusive and fun way to engage the public, educate the community and empower citizens to champion initiatives and join together for positive change.

“The real purpose is to get the community and stakeholders engaged in a discourse, to start a conversation. We tend to focus on the negative and it’s easy to complain and not do anything,” she said.

“We want to get people involved in a way that is more fun and exciting to generate ideas that may not come from the typical people who contribute. We want it to be inclusive. We want to engage the schools, with kids from elementary to middle to high school to college, and even professionals who might work in the design field. There is a design element to (the competition). We want to challenge entrants to come up with ideas to create stronger neighborhoods.”

Surdyk said improving the housing stock in the city is a focus and this competition will be about creating ideas on how to possibly repurposing abandoned properties, reuse vacant properties where a house has been torn down or clearing out existing blight and substandard housing stock.

“It doesn’t have to be a built design. Participants can look at policies too. It’s a broad competition with a focus on how to strengthen neighborhoods,” she said.

The official announcement of the competition will be in November and the competition will kickoff in December. City officials will be looking for volunteers to be mentors and to be judges for the competition. Surdyk said mentor workshops will be held in January and February.

“We are looking to have people serve as mentors. People with diverse backgrounds,” she said. “An entry might be an architectural drawing. We want people that have a background (in architectural drawing) to give advice to participants on that professional level. We are looking for people with all kinds of backgrounds, like planning or education.”

Surdyk said idea submissions will be due sometime in April, which will be followed by a period of judging. Each submission will be given a number so that way the judges don’t know the name associated with each entree.

Surdyk said city officials will be seeking sponsorships for the competition that could lead to a cash price for the winner.

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