Talking anti-fragile with Chuck

Quick updates from this week:

1) Chuck made a video appearance in Fredericton!

He helped kick off a panel discussion I was asked to host at a local conference. Here, Chuck and I speak about the concept of anti-fragile cities, before passing the conversation over to the panel to put anti-fragile in local context. 

2) Also, I had my first experience of going door-to-door on my street. There's a ward gathering coming up and the organizers were in need of some volunteers to hand out flyers. That's as good an excuse as any to go knock on neighbours' doors and introduce myself. I didn't meet many that were interested in more than hello-thank you-goodbye, but it was an important process in gauging the vibe of the street.

I'm edging closer to a respectable neighbour tic-tac-toe and was delighted in particular to meet the seniors directly across from my apartment. I hope we'll see lots of each other when porch season finally melts in.

Small actions this week but I can already tell they'll have a big impact. And that's just how it goes, isn't it?

GRACEN JOHNSON is a communications designer living in The Maritimes. While she finished her MPhil in Planning, Growth, and Regeneration in 2013, she has never stopped studying the city. Gracen thinks of her day-to-day as participatory action research, diving into the question of how Strong Citizenship can transform a city. She wears many hats trying to crack that nut herself, including as the designer and coordinator of an accelerator for small businesses that build community. She also freelances around the vision of "Projects for Places we Love" and has a video blog called Another Place for Me.

This year, Gracen is sharing field notes on her experiences with Strong Citizenship. In this regular column, you'll get snapshots of life as a friendly neighbour in a quintessential Little City that feels like a Big Town.