A crowd gathered at Sixth and Tryon for the arrival of the new Buddy Bear statue in front of the main Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library. Photo: Brad Thomas

Now that two of Charlotte’s major festivals in the Uptown area have come and gone, many may think the entertainment’s over. But, that’s not the case for the next few months on the north end of Tryon Street.

Center City Partners, Discovery Place, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library and Foundation for the Carolinas (creators of a lovely little pocket park in the area) are cooking up a variety of activities for the next several months to animate the public spaces at Sixth and Tryon.

Knight Foundation is interested in how cities can create public spaces that allow people of all kinds to mix and mingle and share ideas. That’s why we joined the North Tryon Master Planning team. A yearlong design process will help the city imagine how the half-mile stretch of North Tryon might develop in the future.

In the meantime, though, there is the public space at Sixth and Tryon just begging for activities, and activity there will be, thanks to financial support from Knight.

Here’s a sample of what to expect:

• Monday morning yoga. For you early birds, get out and get moving with yoga in the park at 7 a.m.
• More interested in food? Take a walk for lunch Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, and sample fine fare from food trucks. Center City Partners has organized food trucks to move up the street and is lining up live performances (theater, jazz, etc.) for you to enjoy while you relax and eat.
• On Wednesdays, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the library moves into Arequipa Park for family-friendly events.
• At almost any time, you can meet Necessity (the mother of invention, you know), who will guide you through the new interactive displays in front of Discovery Place.

These events are right outside my front door on North Tryon, but I invite you to join me at Charlotte’s new hot spot – if you work on the south end of Tryon or even if you need to make a special trip into town.

We want to introduce you to this area and encourage you to help us imagine what else it could be in the future.

Recently, Pecha Kucha Charlotte Vol. 12 was held at the Mint Museum and Charlotte’s first Code for Charlotte Hackathon was held at Packard Place. Knight supports both.

PechaKucha is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and participants talk along – or sometimes perform — to the images. Started in Tokyo, they’re now happening in more than 700 cities around the world. They’re informal, fun and usually involve liquid refreshments. In Charlotte, the quarterly events always bring out our creative community – both as presenters and audience members.

Manoj Kasevan, one of Charlotte’s creative gems, devotes a lot of personal time and energy to continuing these programs in Charlotte. Vol. 12 was filled with visual art, dance and theater. All good stuff enjoyed by a packed house.

The hackathon was part of the National Day of Civic Hacking movement, which Knight supports, that uses technology and publicly released data to solve problems faced by communities and government.

Local Code for Charlotte volunteers and Code for America fellows, who work with governments to harness technology to solve community problems, met from 8 to 8. About 40 technologists of all ages were in the room, including two 15-year-old students at Providence High School.

At the end of the day, this idea got traction: to update the city’s Adopt-a-Street program website to add more functionality. Brigade volunteers are already at work on the project.

Susan Patterson is the Charlotte program director for Knight Foundation.