TOMORROW, NOVEMBER 4
Downtown Deep Clean Block Party
Meet at Parc Sans Souci, downtown Lafayette9am-12pm
Bring your brooms, dustpans, garden gloves and shovels and help us get our downtown in tip-top shape!
Projects include, litter pickup, sticker removal, planter bed mulching and park beautification.
The event is hosted by Project Front Yard and Scenic Lafayette.
Downtown Lafayette is one of the most popular areas of town for public events, but it's also one of the most highly littered. During Earth Month this year, before the Earth Day Preamble kicked off, we had a downtown litter cleanup that found a LOT of beer and liquor bottles. I can about guess there will be as many, if not more, at tomorrow's cleanup.
Better Block Johnston Street
Johnston Street near downtown Lafayette11am-3pm
Several community groups will come together for Better Block Johnston, a community effort to reimagine and refresh three blocks of Johnston Street Downtown to promote a safer environment for pedestrians. The space will feature temporary street trees, public furniture and market in the middle of the street. Vacant properties will be filled with food trucks, a cafe with outdoor seating, kids activities, temporary crosswalks, pop-up market and more.
Temporary infrastructure and multi-modal improvements will include a new crosswalk and gateway elements at Convent Street. Other transportation improvements include a temporary road diet and wide, flex-space median that could be on-street parking, a public plaza or pedestrian area.
The event is a collaborative effort from ReCover Acadiana, School of Architecture and Design at the University of Louisiana – Lafayette, Lafayette Consolidated Government, Freetown-Port Rico Neighborhood, Artmosphere, Blue Moon Saloon, Bordens Ice Cream Shop and First United Methodist Church.
Better Block events are fun activities for families, and this is the latest in a popular series of Better Blocks in Lafayette. The first one was held on Bertrand Street more than three years ago and was a big success. The temporary bike lanes actually paved the way for permanent ones to be striped!
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18
Fix It Café
Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Johnston Street9am-12pm
The Fix It Café is a pop-up meeting place where community members can gather, bringing items in need of repair to be assessed and worked on by experienced volunteer fixers - for free!
There will be three repair stations:
- Small Furniture/ Wooden Household Items
- Bicycles
- Small Appliances/Vacuums/Small Engines
The goals of the Fix It Café are simple: reducing waste, maintaining and passing on knowledge about repairing, and strengthening community.
Work beside volunteer fixers and representatives from Project Front Yard, Lafayette Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and No Waste Lafayette with the goal of taking home something that works again!
I believe this is the first Fix It Café held in Lafayette, and I'm excited to see the variety of items brought in for repair. I'm planning to do an article for Times of Acadiana on why it's important to repair your items instead of automatically replacing them. Taking advantage of a repair event like this is a great way to get something working again!
So mark your calendars and come on out to one or all of these great local events this month!
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