Mike Curran

Mike Curran—2016 Fellow

Year: Class of 2018
Major: Geography
Organization: The Friendly Streets Initiative

I spent my time working with Friendly Streets Initiative. They’re a St. Paul-based organization that helps communities envision positive changes to public spaces, working alongside community partners to develop community-driven plans and designs. The major deliverable after each project is a report that compiles all feedback from the community. These reports were broken down into numbers and graphs — essential information, but it felt like they were missing something. For better or worse, the built environment is quite personal. That’s why I created StoryBlocks — to create a storytelling platform for neighbors to talk about their streets, their histories, and the changes they want to make to their blocks. The goal is to bring more voices to the table of urban planning, and to consider how we can use community narratives as data.

Ten weeks is a really short amount of time to implement a project, especially when you’re an outsider to the neighborhoods you’re working in — there’s a lot of trust building that needs to take place before the record button turns on. That said, because the relationships I made were more long-term instead of transactional, I really learned a lot about each neighborhood I worked in and the people in it — the puncture wounds, the dreams, the strengths. The people in these neighborhoods are doing incredible stuff. I’m just happy that the fellowship allowed me to tap into all that great energy.