It’s delivering sloppy work like this breeds skepticism.

Watch this vid. If you care, do something.

Do people better understand the world around them thru stories or facts?
Is passion fueled thru organized groups with checklists and red markers for the cons and green markers for the pros, or thru stories?

Gerry, hopefully the average person on that street includes creative and cultural workers.

At the end of the day, when public sector staff punch out, and the GAM/AI team head back to Amman, the conversation among the Salt community should continue and evolve throughout the planning process. Similar to how planners, designers and developers imagine their projects, people in the Salt community should imagine themselves in their evolving city. They should be able to work towards little dreams in their city. People should see themselves forward. And one of the most powerful ways to help achieve that is thru stories that touch their everyday lives.

Um Mohammad is a widow, mother of one 9yr old son. Owns a small piece of land. Took out a loan. Fixed up her house. Built an extension. Rented it out to a single working woman. This woman also tutors Mohammad in English. Um Mohammad and Mohammad should be able to imagine their future in Salt. If they do, they can help the neighbors imagine theirs too. And so on.

While walking around town with Um Mohammad, she talks about the garbage situation in Salt. Everyone knows and says out loud that garbage is one of the priorities to address. At the forum it was on every groups list. The municipality will work on that.

But who’s going to chat with Um Mohammad and Mohammad and talk to them about separating their trash so that the dumpster divers don’t rummage but still get their share? Who’s going to show Mohammad the videos and cartoons of what recycling is all about and why he should be concerned with it in his neighborhood? Who’s going to walk about the city and explain to Mohammad and his friends how the street is going to change, or where the new park is coming up or where they can play soccer in couple summers?

If Mohammad can imagine, we know how contagious that can be the next day at school. If Um Mohammad understands and can imagine, we can guess what she’s going to be talking about in the morning neighborhood coffee gathering the next day. And once this conversation gets going and more and more people can imagine, the buzz in the forum session becomes real among the community.

People who are good at weaving this fabric of change are storytellers. They don’t punch out. They walk the streets. They write about the alleys. They draw the hills. They paint the fields. They frame a memory. They perform a dream. They sing about the decaying country side. And people are entertained, engaged. Contribution comes from the soul if people get it. And if they do, then they will ‘own’ the Salt plan. And when they own it, then there is a community to nurture it, live it and love it.

If we plug in the missing conversation, everybody wins.

As part of the excercise we surveyed the ‘profile’ of the Forum participants, and as a result we are undertaking more focussed consultation with the groups that were under-represented, such as ‘housewives, mothers and students’ and those from the outerlying areas, because we also profiled the geography of the participants.

We will seek out those who have been active in the community, such as the artists, designers and writers you mentioned…but frankly, on a personal note, i am more interested in what the average person on the street has to say.

The Salt Forum was a good start, and the important question is what’s next on the conversation with the Salt community?

What are the plans for wider outreach to involve more people and broaden the profile engaged in the conversation?

What about involving some of the artists, architects, designers and writers who have done work in the city in the past in this conversation with the community?

This is a good place to share the plan so that more people can understand how they can be a contribution.