Tallahassee could be the site of a new community improvement project.
The Better Block Foundation out of Dallas, Texas, has been giving old neighborhoods facelifts with a hands-on approach for over a year. Tuesday, the organization’s founder, Jason Roberts, arrived in Tallahassee to scope out its potential.
“There’s not been a location selected, or anything like that," Roberts says. "This is really an exploratory trip to see, again, do we have-is there enough energy, is there enough will from the community to do that, and then what can we do? Better Block Foundation, we’re a nonprofit. We help provide the tools and the resources to do the projects.”
Roberts grew the Better Block project from Dallas, where he and his community banded together to paint bike lanes, build outdoor seating and line streets with greenery. One year later, Roberts got a grant of nearly $800,000 to do those things all over the country. And he says Tallahassee has room for improvement.
“I would say, uh, stronger connections from the neighborhood to the existing bike infrastructure and trails that you have. Now you already have kinda this-you’re doing a great job on, like, your trail system and things like that. How do we connect those better from the neighborhoods? That’s kinda some low hanging fruit.”
Roberts has met with the City’s Planning Department, but he says no agreements have been made.