Ideas for stuff in Halswell?

A group of us got together recently and thought about the sorts of things we might like to see around Halswell that provide fun ways for people to get together and get to know each other.  Some of these things are already happening in small pockets but could we make them happen more broadly.

• A regular  Halswell farmers and or craft Market 
• Swap-a events similar to the ones we have already run!
• Fix-it days where people bring stuff along and get help with fixing it from bikes to clothes to electrical gear
• Local barbecue events/ Christmas parties
• A Timebank
• A Community garden.
• Competitions between different subdivisions in Halswell - eg in potato growing!
• Community-built Habitat House projects
• Community Art projects 

Our biggest question is what do other people in Halswell think?   

What do you think of these ideas? 

Have you got any ideas for what you'd like to see?

More on placemaking

I've already written a wee bit about placemaking here where I talk about the "Power of 10".  However, there are other ways to think about "making places" and these might be important given the base material that we have to work with in Halswell.
I came across this piece that reflects on the question how do we create public spaces which encourage strangers to interact?

Reading this, I was reminded me of the idea of flashmobs - the one of the best ones I've seen is this one in Auckland which turns a pedestrian area into a dance floor.  Maybe we should suggest that the Halswell Drama Group sets up a flashmob outside the supermarket to advertise their productions!

What else?  Another possible way of doing something is developing a market in Halswell.  Thanks to Council processes this is quite an involved, and expensive business, but it is possible.  Some folk are currently looking into how we might get over the consent hurdles and set up something regular here (watch this space for developments!).  In the meantime, we have are our intermittent swap-a events (next one coming up on 29th Sept - check out details on this page).

A Greening the Rubble site 

I've wondered about approaching the supermarket and suggesting that they might provide a small space in their carpark for some plants and seats or some artwork and seats where people can sit with a coffee, or staff could sit for lunch.
And perhaps there are a number of other places where something could be done to draw people into our public spaces - even our privately-owned public spaces?

And what about display space for community artworks?  I"m sure there are places say at some of the churches where it would be possible to set up outdoor display space where we could run occasional events to make some kind of artwork.


What do you think?