Atomic City Science On The Run
If I had $50,000 to put towards making Bathurst a healthier city, I'd create the Atomic City Science on the Run project. First, I'd have all the streets, avenues and boulevards in Bathurst re-named after elements on the periodic table and subatomic particles. This would make Bathurst the Atomic City. Then, at each intersection, I'd put a panel with a QR code linking to a website which would be managed by a local non-profit organization or the City of Bathurst's webmaster. Each QR code would take a person to the page on the website showing them where they are on the local map, historical, cultural and scientific points of interest, and information about the element after which the street is named, including its scientific properties but also how it is used in our artificial and natural environments and emerging uses for it and trivia about it. The cost of setting up this website and renaming the streets would come from the Smart City Project grant but the operational costs would come from a combination of advertising of ethical products and services on the website and grants raised through proposals to governments and other organizations. Every year, some of the money raised for the website would then have to go into an Atomic City Science on the Run Relay Race in which people would be encouraged to form teams of 7 to 10 people and raise money in the forms of pledges for other, community-based environmental programs, such as community gardens on municipal land, rooftop gardens on city-owned buildings, vertical marshes, and alternative energy initiatives. By renaming the city's streets and having this website, Bathurst would promote science education. It would draw people to the community just to see these odd street names. The website would serve to help people who are lost and tourists by giving them information about their surroundings. The annual Science on the Run relay would encourage a sense of community through the team-building and physical fitness by actually getting out and running. The money raised by the relay would help foster more environmental awareness and a sense of social responsibility as we would, among other things, begin to grow food on public land for the most financially disadvantaged people in our community. I can see us also using this money to expand our bike trail system and explore new ways we can live in harmony with the environment here in beautiful Bathurst, the City by the Bay in northern New Brunswick. Of course, we'd have to sell really cool Atomic City Science on the Run T-shirts and have Atomic City festivals with things like kite-surfing events on Chaleur Bay. :-) Thank you for providing me with this opportunity to describe - and maybe realize - a dream.