Real Estate Cafe Idea Bar

November 2008:

BAILOUT MOBILE:  A proposed mobile, collaborative community art project

Originally proposed as a collaborative community art project for Halloween, we'd like to turn this ice cream truck into a "Bailout Mobile" in time for Christmas or Valentine's Day 2009.

The Bailout Mobile could tour distressed neighborhoods between now and Christmas, and make a cameo appearances at the housing bubble / foreclosure exhibit at the MIT Museum, the Institute of Contemporay Art (see "Street Level" exhibit on large scale collages), and Christmas tree lightings.  If we can't get our own bailout, think anyone would donate or co-sponsor the Bailout Mobile?  Ice cream lovers donated $30,000 less than a year ago to rescue Toscanni's.  If we get positive feedback, maybe we can create a fundraising campaign on ChipIn.com.

Imagine creating a housing bubble version of ArtShip Enterprise below.  We've got the vehicle and if others have the creativity and time, we can do something that would attract national / international attention and generate some warmth and laughs during the upcoming holiday season.

There's a lot of negative emotion around the collapse of Wall Street and meltdown of the housing market so maybe this collaborative art project could attract educators from Lesley College's Art Therapy programs.  If we meet in Arlington, we can create on going support groups for distressed home owners and others suffering financial losses to ease their pain and anxiety by being "TogetherIn(e)Motion."

If there is interest, I'd be glad to host a TweetUp this week at TogetherInMotion. (One Broadway in Arlington) to brainstorm.  We can tow the ice cream truck inside and begin picking stories and images from boxes of real estate headlines that collage makers could use in the wrap around timeline.

A related audio post talks about how the ice cream truck could be used for collaborative art projects at Open Studios.

CONTENT / COLLAGE LINKS FOR BAILOUT MOBILE (a.k.a. Bailouts 'R Us)

Bailout Sleuth

The End of Bailout Transparency

Real Estate Cafe Idea Bar

October 2007: Posted last year

Brainstorming about user generated content / video contest:

Haunted by the Housing Market

The Real Estate Cafe has maintained an excel spreadsheet comparing housing market conditions from 2000 to 2007.  The original version was prepared for Halloween 2002, and resulted in a slideshow called, "Haunted by the Housing Market." 

As Halloween approaches this year, and NPR reported yesterday that Wall Street was "spooked by a sharp drop in housing prices," we are thinking about sharing the spreadsheet and inviting others to update the "Haunted by the Housing Market" slideshow. 

Better yet, what would it take to create a contest with different categories for user-generated content, like "Funniest Housing Bubble Video," "Best slideshow attached to an offer" (samples available), etc.?  We're open to putting our content on the web so others can "mash-up" images, statistics, quotes (both audio and text), etc.

Any good models (eg. Heinz ketchup's "TopThisTV.com) and potential sponsors out there?

Cross-post:  "Haunted by the Housing Market" originally mentioned as comment in this blog post: 

Wait 2.0: Negative cycle creating marginal or mega-savings for patient homebuyers?