Paradise Garage

Inspiration

Picture your garage. You probably park your car there, maybe store a bike or two, some lawn games and winter gear. You might have a couch and a beer fridge… people might swing by and you hang out with the garage door open to the alley. The proximity of your garage, just a minute from your home, makes the things inside usable and something you might reach for often. Your garage helps you do the things you need and want to do. But it only serves a household.

We want to expand what garage can be; moving from garage > Garage and from serving a single person or family to supporting a neighborhood. The idea is getting a few hundred households participating to share more and live better. Want to bike to Humboldt Park for an early morning ride but don’t have a bike? Bet your neighbor has one to loan. Do you work remote and crave a midday walk but your coworkers live all over the city? Someone two blocks away probably also wants to do that and would love to join! This can grow too: maybe someone loves carpentry and can help you with that basement shelving idea you’ve had for ages. These are all things we, as neighbors, can provide for each other to allow easier, more active living without so much hassle and cost in our everyday lives. Being in the same neighborhood, we share transportation and active living challenges so let’s get together to share the solutions.

Where is it?

Paradise Garage takes its name from the pocket park on Drake called Paradise Garden, which will serve as an initial meeting spot and hub for our Garage. In the future we may use physical garages or shared indoor spaces, especially as we meet in the winter. Got a space? Let us know! Haven’t we all dreamed of a clubhouse?

Paradise Garage space borders are: Fullerton (N), Central Park (W), Armitage (S), and Kedzie (E). This area roughly follows census tract bounds and covers ~5000 folks. We hope the Garage will have 150+ people from this area.

Everyone who lives or works in this area is welcome and encouraged to join!

How does it work?

Think of this like a club…a mind and resource meld to MOVE more often and more easily. Here’s what we’re thinking we’ll get up to, to start, but the Garage is yours to plan events, ask for help, and evolve as you see fit!

• Events & celebrations
  • Walk, run and bike outings
  • Birding, garden and local history walks
  • Transit hikes, day and overnight trips
• Service projects
  • Litter pick-up walks (a local expansion of the Trash People effort)
  • Snow removal
  • Helping folks get and use bikes and shopping carts (custom grocery rigs?)
• Shared equipment (with sharing across Garages as they expand in Chicago)
  • Lending library of shared bikes and other equipment: extra bikes, trailers, tools, shopping carts, strollers, utility carts and other stuff we don’t all need to own individually
  • Car-sharing
  • Co-op purchases of gear and equipment
• Knowledge and skill sharing
  • Workshops and know-how sharing opportunities
  • Repair cafe for bikes and other household items
  • Winter walking and cycling; overcoming cold weather barriers
• Behavior Change Challenges
  • Garage Game to advance walking and biking over daily driving

Organizers

Hi! We’re Grant George and Hannah Wilson. We live on Medill Ave with our one-year old, Oscar, and our dog, Shirley. Things we love: party pace bike rides, lake dips and pool jumps, alley treasures in FREE boxes, exploring parks and finding good views, live music outside, ‘just popping in’, car and bike camping, and expanding the crew.

Randy Neufeld, the founder of goodforus.org, started the first Garage in his Winnemac neighborhood of Ravenswood. He is leading the broader launch effort and would love our ideas and help as we build out this local Paradise Garage.