I Wish This Was began in New Orleans in November 2010. It was inspired by vacant storefronts. There are a lot of them where Candy lives in New Orleans. There are also a lot of people who need things, including a full-service grocery store. What if we could easily voice what we want, where we want it? How can we influence the businesses and services in our neighborhoods?

Combining street art and urban planning, Candy created fill-in-the-blank stickers that say “I wish this was ____.” With support from the Ethnographic Terminalia exhibit, she placed boxes of free stickers in businesses around the city and posted grids of blank stickers and a permanent marker on vacant storefronts to invite passersby to write their thoughts. The stickers are vinyl and they can be easily removed without damaging property. Responses ranged from the functional to the poetic: I wish this was… a butcher shop, a community garden, a bike rack, an affordable farmer’s market, an Ethiopian restaurant, a place to sit and talk, Brad Pitt’s house, real soul food, a dancing school, full of nymphomaniacs with PhDs, a source of tasty healthy food I could afford, my art gallery, a bike shop, a taco stand, Heaven. It’s a fun, low-barrier tool to provide civic input onsite, and the responses reflect the hopes, dreams, and colorful imaginations of different neighborhoods.

The project continues on today and has expanded to cities around the world. Stickers are still posted across New Orleans and are available for purchase online. The vinyl material ensures that future business owners can easily remove them, and slitted backs make it easy to peel and apply. To accommodate requests for stickers in other languages, we can also fulfill custom-orders of stickers in any language through our online shop (bulk orders only). A book is in the works – please send us your photos! Thanks to the Urban Innovation Fellowship from Tulane University and the Rockefeller Foundation, Candy and her colleagues are also developing an online tool called Neighborland that takes this idea a few steps further to help people come together and shape the development of their neighborhoods.

Buy I Wish This Was stickers on our online shop!

P.S. A note to those concerned about the subjunctive mood (I wish this was / I wish this were)

2010, Vinyl stickers, 4.5″ x 3″. New Orleans, LA. Exhibited in Ethnographic Terminalia at DuMois Gallery.

The word on the street: GOOD, NOLA Defender, Tulane University New Wave, PSFK, Gambit, Times Picayune, Utah Repro, Agent Genius, Memphis Flyer, Regina Urban Ecology, Minimum Wage Art, Global Montreal, Broken City Lab, We Like That, Guerilla Innovation, 20nine, LaBarge & Partners, The Pop-up City, Juxtapoz Magazine, Tulane University New Wave

Living in hot New Orleans has made Candy appreciate the simple kindness of tree shade like never before. The city lost over 100,000 trees after Hurricane Katrina, and many neighborhoods roast in the sun. To promote tree planting in her neighborhood, she collaborated with local nonprofit Marigny Green to create the Sexy Trees of the Marigny 2011 Calendar. Marveling at the sexiness of a Live Oak tree (now featured for the month July), she photographed local trees and paired them with maps and helpful tree facts to promote Marigny Green’s great work.

Marigny Green is a neighborhood volunteer committee of the Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association. They promote sustainable living through local initiatives on tree planting, biking, energy-efficient lighting, and recycling. They’ve planted over 150 trees that are now helping cool temperatures, temper heavy rains, renew our air supply, and make the neighborhood beautiful. By purchasing this calendar for $15 you’ll help Marigny Green provide a healthier urban canopy of trees in New Orleans and make us crumple a little less upon walking outside in July.

2010, White wire-o binding, 100# white gloss stock, 11″ x 17″ (open).

“Candy Chang makes environmentalism organizationally erotic.” – NOLA Defender