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300,000 Streets as an Earthshot is guided by a group of Stewards. These Stewards all bring their individual knowledge, experience and diverse skills sets to form a collective where we meet together regularly to learn and share and guide the strategic direction of the earthshot. To steward requires holding a long-term view, staying accountable to a wildly ambitious goal, and making space for many different vantage points to shape the way forward. The strength is in the collective.
On this sunny day in July, we decided to take our meeting to the streets and invite some partners along to bring even more knowledge together. One of the stewards, Jorge Jorquera, a Project Officer at Borderlands, is one of the leads of the People’s Plan for Footscray and someone with a great depth of knowledge of place.
We gathered outside Footscray station for introductions and early context setting. We happened to be standing in front of an apartment complex with single ownership for rent only. We heard of the low uptake of tenants in the building due to the wrong design of housing for the demographic and the unaffordable rent - a reminder that when we act without listening to place we create new problems.
We moved through Footscray market - a local institution. Fresh food, sellers spruiking loudly and many local residents carefully selecting their produce to take home to feed their families.
Throughout the walk, we were encouraged to both notice what is, and to imagine what could be. To open our imaginations while viewing what is, to think about what could be. This thinking has been captured in Borderlands’ recent submission to council for the Footscray Structure Plan. The submission outlines concerns and potential as heard via the People’s Plan, proposes eight opportunities for Council to consider, including a Superblock — an idea influenced by last year's visit from Salvador Rueda, another street walk we experienced together as Stewards..
There were places that are alive along the way. The Byron St Plaza was full of locals sitting in the sun, eating their lunch, drinking coffee and casually gathering in a free to use public space. Then there were places with less life such as the site of the old Saigon Market, now desolate, vacant land fenced off, previously a thriving, much-loved part of the community. And there were places that are under threat of change such as Foley House which was recently announced as closing down, leaving residents without an accommodation option to go to.
The Little Africa Precinct was a special stop we made along the way. This is a cultural hub with many businesses owned and run by African migrants. Malual Deng, from South Sudan Child First Education, told stories of connection and support that exist every day in this celebrated place. He described the sense of family that has been created, where those who need support come to the precinct to find their ‘uncles’ and ‘aunties’ and the help that they need. Without this third space in the precinct, that sense of family and support could easily be lost.
As we walked through the streets we were encouraged to consider: Where are the spaces people can sit where they don’t have to pay? Where friendships can form, where we can have tough conversations and where we can be in community. While we did see evidence of this in the Byron St Plaza and Little Africa Precinct, we also saw landbanking, rough sleepers without support and public space with no character. There are many challenges this community is facing, but there is also a lot of energy and leadership. The People’s Plan is one example of the power of joined up voices and deep listening which, alongside other community efforts underway (of which there are many) start to shift how we understand a place, and in turn, make the right decisions that meet the needs of the people who live there.
As a group of Stewards, we arrived with knowledge of our own, and we each learned lessons from what we heard in Footscray. That knowledge feeds back into our own work, and into the collective knowledge bank that guides 300,000 Streets. There’s so much power in taking time out of your schedule, away from emails, to just listen to the stories the streets hold. Where can we walk next…..?
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