Place-Making Initiative: A Village Green or Zocalo
Memory and the Village Square
Memory will inform this process. Where the market always pushes the new, to bestir more buying, a commons embodies continuity with the past.
This includes the past that residents bring with them from elsewhere. And the memories that arise when friends who have moved away, come back for a visit. Below, while working in the Livery Stable Native Garden, volunteers encounter old friends from the past here on a visit.
Lucio’s grandchildren attend West Marin School. In the photo above, he displays postcards with photos of the zocalo, or town square, from his native Jalos, Jalostitian. Lucio visits his children and grandchildren and shares memories and an abiding understanding of los raices - family and community roots.
At the opening of the Latino Photography Project at Gallery Route One, Imelda saw these postcards and shared how she met her husband there, in the zocalo, at an evening promenade, in her hometown of Jalos, Jalostitlan.
For all the national parkland here and splendid scenery, Point Reyes Station still lacks a real town commons – a gathering place that belongs to all of us, and that we can use when the spirit moves.
The desire for such a space has come up often at West Marin Commons and at other community meetings, and informally as well. Our town has a rich main street culture already, and a number of promising vacant sites.
The time is ripe in other words. Town is changing, and there’s a need to get ahead of the process and lay claim to common spaces before it is too late.
West Marin Commons has begun discussions with the owners of various properties, to that end. If any of these come to fruition, the new ownership would reside in a new or existing entity suited for that purpose. West Marin Commons is playing a midwife role.
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On March 25, 2010, West Marin Commons presented a talk and workshop with Milenko Matanovic of the Pomegranate Center at the Dance Palace in Point Reyes Station.
Hear Milenko’s talk in three parts:
Milenko Matanovic in Point Reyes Station, March 25, 2010, Part 1
Milenko Matanovic in Point Reyes Station, March 25, 2010 Part 2
Milenko Matanovic in Point Reyes Station, March 25, 2010 Part 3