What if we rang every resident's doorbell in 1 street to have a chat about desealing their courtyard? We did so in Ledeberg and the result was impressive: 35 constructive conversations out of 50 houses. Eight inhabitants already invited us for a second interview.
The choice to set up the experiment in Sint-Daniëlstraat was no coincidence. A dozen residents of the street had previously registered for a Planting with Neighbors action, in which participants each receive a free vertical garden from the City of Ghent. We hoped that this existing dynamic could immediately stimulate private desealing as well.
The purpose of the home visits was twofold. During the conversation, we wanted to find out why people do or do not take the initiative to deseal. UGent and Eco-city will incorporate that input into their respective studies. At the same time, we explained that we want our future Rewilding Brigade to support them in greening their courtyard. During each conversation, we asked whether the residents were interested in a second visit to design a desealing plan together.
The result was beyond expectations: more than 20% of the people we met let us visit again to see if we can deseal (part of) their courtyard together. Will Sint-Daniëlstraat become the model street within Rewild the City?
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