Building Community

For the past month, I have been helping out with the Peter Brown for Mayor campaign and it saddens me to say that the race has ended for Mr. Brown. This was the first political race I have participated in and I'm glad to say that I have learned so much. We all volunteer for our own reasons, but the energy and enthusiasm just gives you goosebumps. I have to say that all the people I came in contact with during the campaign have been some of the most amazing and dedicated people I have met. Mr. Brown, whom I had met a couple of times in the office really truly believes in the power of communities and neighborhoods, but I guess all those who choose to go into public service believe it. I guess one can't get too attached to politics or politicians.

Full list of mayoral results can be found here.

I have observed through this process that all the energy and enthusiasm during elections are lost the rest of the year. The thousands of volunteers who spent their time tirelessly to get out the vote for their candidate seem to go back to their own lives when there isn't an election. What about all that hard work, energy, and enthusiasm to make our lives better? Even after seeing city government work from the inside, I still firmly believe that if you want to do things right, you have to do it yourself. Don't wait around for your elected officials to get the job done for you. Have faith that they care and are doing their best to serve you but take responsibility for your streets, neighborhoods, and community. This type of pride in one's environment will help curb the ailments that are plaguing our cities.

Want better schools? How about hiring teachers who live in that district so that they are more invested? Same goes with our uniformed officers. There is an awesome program in Boston called Safe Street Teams which puts officers on the streets, patrolling the neighborhoods on foot and bike. I went on patrol with a Sergeant, who opened my eyes to the multiple roles a police officer plays in the community. Her commitment sprung from having grown up in the neighborhood and being invested in its health and growth.

If we cared about the collective rather than the individual, we would have more pride in ourselves and our community. This isn't just some theory but rather common sense that has been working for ages.

I decided to get involved with the Peter Brown campaign to get more involved in my community. I just hope the people I got to talk to will look at civic engagement more differently and not wait around for an election year to get involved! Honestly, you can't wait around for someone else to come fix things or else you'll be waiting for a while. Instead of spending that extra hour in the office why not spend it at the school board meeting? Or getting to know the officers in your district? That will go further than making the extra money to "provide" for your family. That IS what we are working so tirelessly for, to provide for our families. With the bad state of the economy, we have lost sight of what really makes the difference in their lives.

Innovation in Transportation

Today marks the first working day of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). They've already begun their efforts to communicate with the public with a twitter feed and a new website. I first learned about this through a WBUR segment and soon investigated this new push to reform the ailing state of transportation. What struck me was this line:

"The state law governing the formation of MassDOT calls for board members with actual transportation, planning, and engineering experience."

That makes sense though I find it reasonable that the new board would have members from the Turnpike and MBTA boards. How else can we ensure a smooth transition and collaboration between the two entities.

Now in honor of this occasion, I decided to put together all the new and innovative efforts put forth by MassDOT.

Let's start with this visualization and application challenge. The MBTA has provided fare gate data (taps at the T stations) and fare Box data (taps on Bus, Green line trolleys) to help developers create applications and visualizations of this information that is of use to T riders. More specifically a "day in the life of" theme. Although the data is for one day, it gives insight into the potential of creatively displaying data. I'm excited to see the winner as well as the various entries. This might provide some good ideas.

Next we have the iPhone application, OpenMBTA. Now this simply downloads the bus and subway schedule onto your phone (so in theory any web accessible phone can get this info). Of course, a more useful application would use real-time arrival data which is more useful to the rider.

Finally, MassDOT has put together a developers conference on Nov 14th to bring together folks to exchange ideas on new innovative developments for transportation. This is the kind of collaboration and brainstorming we need to create a more efficient and effective transportation plan. Also it would be more useful to make all the data available to the public rather than keeping it in house where staff don't have the time to do anything useful with it.

Of course, time will tell how well MassDOT is in bringing real reform to how we move MA forward.

Silly Season

What is so silly about an election year? It's democracy in action, no? A chance for us to exercise our civic duty to cast a ballot for our leaders. Too often the folks who remind us about our right fail to explain why it is important so when we aren't being bombarded by campaigners or ads, we forget that we elect our officials.

This piece from The Economist outlines the poor job "rich countries" have done in recruiting top talent into government. I can't agree more but it isn't just the US federal government. Our City Halls are filled with old ideas and too many people satisfied with the status quo.

Here is a list of all the mayoral races this year and if your city is on the list, go out and cast that ballot and more importantly get involved! It's your money, demand that it work for you!

I decided to put together a list of endorsements from newspapers on mayoral races in large cities:

New York Times -Bloomberg*
New York Post - Bloomberg*
Houston Chronicle - Locke & Parker (open seat)
Detroit Free Press- Bing*
Boston Globe - Menino*
Boston Herald - Menino*
The Seattle Times - Mallahan
The Charlotte Observer - Foxx (open seat)
The Plain Dealer - Jackson*
Atlanta-Journal Constitution - No longer endorses candidates

*Incumbents

R-E-W-I-N-D

In one of my favorite kid shows, Ghostwriter, at the beginning of an episode in the middle of a new case the narrator would start by saying "let's rewind," and look at the facts.

I started the blog to add my commentary on social innovations going on but as you can tell, I didn't get that far. So let's rewind and start over. I could easily delete the previous posts but I figure I might as well keep them.

I'll spare you the details of my past but rather start at this point right now about why I am writing. I'm not a fan of personal blogs. There has only been one that I have found to be well written and not just rants about the days happenings.

So there has to be a purpose. Purpose....kind of like a Princeton in Avenue Q type purpose but not.

I'm not searching for MY purpose, that's kind of futile. The purpose of this blog is to document all the things that are trending both in everywhere outside of here and my one little piece of the Earth. There will be many common topics such as maps, cities, and the latest in programs and initiatives to make our cities great places to live. There will also be an aggregation of all things transportation especially locomotives. These are things that are near and dear to my heart and hopefully in putting them together in one place will help others share in the joys of REAL mechanics in our society.

As always comments, suggestions, advice welcome!