Vibrant LEGO Community.

As promised, a little post featuring the LEGO photos I took when we had our little community set up for the video shoot. It was Raffaella's idea to make a little LEGO "Don Iveson: Smart Growth For Ward 10" lawn sign, so Don made it happen with his LEGO maniac skills. He used two megaphones and a little printer magic... et voila!

And here is LEGO Don Iveson, taking his bike to work.

No vibrant community is complete without some local eateries, wide sidewalks, mixed-use housing, and fellow cyclists passing each other in the neighbourhood.

Love that people can visit the little shops below the classy medium-density housing. With proper planning and vision from both council and developers, families don't have to default to living in single detached homes further and further from the city's core. Density and diversity! That also means more community policing (funny how you can feel safer late at night when there are actually people out on the streets), and proximity to things like libraries, schools, parks, fire stations, and other amenities that are already up and running.

Not to mention, proximity to public transit like busses and trains! It's not all about single occupancy vehicles for every trip, all the time, you know.

I thought this was like a little elm café. Just a small place, but one that delivers specialty sandwiches featuring fresh, local ingredients. Plus, a nice stop for a smooth coffee. Oh, and notice the recycling bin on the side.

Here is little LEGO Don Iveson transferring over to the LRT.

LEGO Don Iveson visits redbike to chat with his neighbourhood bike guys about mountain bike pedals and jazz music.

Notice the dude putting his bike on the bus!

This is the street sweeper that my neighbour Owen built all by himself. He is 6 years old and is always ogling Don's LEGO sets. I told him to come over when we were doing the set-up so he could play with everything. Who knew he would be of such assistance?

Sometimes the missing transportation link is car share. Instead of having a two car household or feeling like you have to have a car even though you don't use the 2nd car that often or you're just an occasional driver? Car share might be the perfect solution in these cases.

Another happy cyclist. It looks like she has a Velorbis Dannebrog, a bike I am currently coveting.

Finally, LEGO Don enjoys a refreshment after a long day of door knocking/council meetings/what-have-you. Notice the LEGO Dougal sniffing out the lawn sign?

And that's a wrap on our vibrant little LEGO community! We're hoping to shoot a stop-motion film during Christmas break when there is more time, but the campaign's timelines just didn't allow for it. Regardless, these little renderings are a way of using something fun and relatable for kids of all ages, to illustrate some elements of a sustainable community.

Toys are often for kids to play make-believe. Maybe we're just big kids over here, but some of us have to keep dreaming, right?