MIX attendees at the April 19 MIXed Greens had the first go at contributing ideas toward the pre-vitalization of the St. Michael’s corridor. Now, a new online project is seeking your contributions of stories about St. Mike’s past, present and future.
The Remikeable website will be a resource in the coming months for anyone interested in learning more about the RE:MIKE project. MIX is teaming up with Story of Place Institute and the City of Santa Fe, as well as several other individuals and private and nonprofit partners, to produce the multi-faceted event that will serve to generate ideas and inspiration about the future of St. Michael’s Drive.
Features of the event will include:
• demonstration projects around water and food sheds, energy, transportation and potential for entrepreneurial development
• pop-up businesses from local entrepreneurs
• food and music
* lectures and presentations
Leading up the event, principles on the project are seeking both ideas for the future of St. Mike’s, as well as stories about its past.
Zane Fischer, a MIX coordinator and principle of Anagr.am design studio, says those stories are another tool toward identifying St. Michael’s existing assets, as well as its potential for the future.
“The goal is to celebrate the assets that a place does have and identify what are the important things here in order to have a non-judgmental dialogue about what could happen in the future—not what will happen, or what should happen,” Fischer says.
Organizers hope to hear from all sectors of Santa Fe on this project, including those who have witnessed the development of the corridor over recent decades. That development includes major institutions, such as Santa Fe University of Art and Design and the Santa Fe Art Institute, as well as numerous public schools and important small businesses in the area.
“St. Michael’s as a developed neighborhood is relatively young,” Fischer says. “So there are people who still remember when it was just the quivira beyond the city and you would take the sheep out to the llano and graze. There are people who remember the Brunn hospital and St. Michael’s being built as a bypass. As downtown Santa Fe became more precious and expensive, hardware stores and a lot of the basic services went toward St. Mike’s before expanding even further south.”
Stories and ideas about St. Mike’s can be contributed through the website.