Boston looks to arts and crafts to address transit challenges

In the interest of giving more than just a little space to reader opinions this week, and to help stoke a dialogue about commons and the proliferation of cycle culture, we’re surrendering our soap box to the people. This past weekend, a whole lot of Bostonians dropped by the pop-up 2030 Visioning Lab in Chinatown to give input about how they would like to see the city transformed over the next 15 years, and to scribble answers in response to questions ranging from How do we fund upgrades without burdening fare payers? to How do we better engage youth in our transportation planning? (One brilliant answer to the latter: “Ask their opinion and use their ideas!”)

The whole thing was ridiculous in a sense; the city appears to be anxious to collaborate with outside companies to fix many of these problems, and as our services become increasingly privatized, there should be little doubt that corporations—not citizens with magic markers, or even municipal leaders—will make decisions that affect the ebb and flow of our future. Nevertheless, you spoke and wrote down your opinions, and we recorded a whole bunch of them. Here are some of the best (and worst, to be frank) ideas we saw tagged on the walls of the Visioning Lab.