A screenshot from Streetcraft’s video, which is linked to in the article below.
Third-party video on CCR site gains international attention
COVINGTON, Ky. – Covington’s CCR project has gone global.
A media group’s 12-minute YouTube video outlining the City’s vision for the transformation of the 23-acre downtown site has gained 216,000 views from around the world. It also has elicited over 500 comments.
The video was produced by @Streetcraft, a social media channel that focuses on traffic engineering, urban planning, and city design.
“Sometimes we get so deep into the details that we need someone taking a fresh look at our work to remind us how special the opportunity we have truly is,” Economic Development Director Tom West said. “Streetcraft did just that and now the world knows about a special place called Covington, Kentucky. Whodathunkit?”
The video was not commissioned, paid for, or solicited by the City. A reporter from the channel reached out and asked to feature the project, interviewed West, and mined the City’s media releases for information and images.
The result is a visual description – complete with animated graphics, maps, timelines, pictures, and time-lapse video -- of the City’s philosophy and goals as it transforms the former campus of a IRS tax-return processing facility into a brand-new, mixed-use neighborhood. Given Streetcraft’s audience, the depiction focuses in particular on transportation issues.
The video can be seen at “This City Gets to Start From Scratch.”
Among more than 500 comments:
- “You just got me excited for a development over 5000 miles from my house lol.”
- “I live in South Africa and it excites me.”“It’s so great seeing our cities very slowly healing.”
- “Massive respect for Covington city hall. Their incremental approach will absolutely set them up for success for decades to come!”
- “It is so healing to see a well-designed, mixed-use, multi-modal neighborhood replace a single-story mega office building surrounded by a sea of parking.”
- “I’m currently studying architecture and these kind of new mixed-use development areas get me so excited for the future of cities …”
- “Breaking up the lot into smaller plots is kind of brilliant. It gives the local developers who are already active in the City a chance to contribute to this new development in a way that would not be possible if the whole thing went to some venture capitol firm.”
City officials said that since the video posted, they’ve received all sorts of positive response, including some unexpected ones. One email through the City’s Economic Development website, according to Covington Business Attraction Manager Susan Smith, came from a 23-year-old living near metro Atlanta who is looking for a place to move.
His email said that he was “specifically looking to communities around the USA that do things differently” as a place to find employment and put down roots. “I don't want to live in a place that is broken or stagnant,” his email said.
The email was reassuring, Smith said, because “cities are competing for talent, and Covington is becoming a place where people want to live.”
West said Streetcraft’s video does such a great job explaining the vision that the City plans to include it on all future development RFPs for the central riverfront.
“We knew from the beginning our approach to this redevelopment was different than most, we have always maintained that it will be more sustainable long-term for the city, but to have our work validated by urbanists from around the world is pretty special,” West said.
The coverage in Streetcraft is among the more innovative of dozens and dozens of media and industry pieces about the CCR site. Another long piece, titled “Covington’s Field of Dreams,” was published in Realm: The Journal for Queen City CEOs. Realm is a quarterly print publication mailed to almost 5,000 executives in Greater Cincinnati and jointly published by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber and Cincinnati Magazine.
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