The New Urban Mechanic, Engineering our Cities

Civic Engagement 2.0

2010-01-29T12:36:00.009-06:00

Social networks and mobile technologies appear to reduce face to face interaction when it seems more acceptable to tweet about the long line at the post office rather than engage with others in the line. It is easier to post a story you read to your facebook page and have a thread of comments rather than discussing the current event around the water cooler. While these technologies might keep us from interacting in person, it does not, however, keep us from engaging with the market place of ideas. This has been capitalized by many local governments who are engaging their citizens through these networks to make government more participatory. It empowers people to interact with government in a way that is more efficient and transparent.

Some of the examples of how governments are using new web 2.0 tools can be seen by the plethora of twitter accounts from politicians to government agencies. Many cities have come out with mobile apps to make it easier to communicate with city hall. Some examples include SeeClickFix, CitizensConnect, and DC311. These tools sure beat calling in every time I see a problem and figuring out exactly where I am. It also provides efficiency by automatically logging complaints into a database. The hope here is that by making it easier to connect with city hall, more people will be engaged in their community. Instead of walking by the graffiti laden alley everyday, you'll actually do something about it.

The use of facebook and twitter allows not only residents to interact with government officials, it provides a way for community members to come together and create institutional knowledge. It's a way to keep everyone involved and engaged. It is by no means a substitute for interaction in town hall meetings but it can help with collaboration and exchange of ideas with people right next door or thousands of miles away. It's a way to engage everyone in ideas of making our lives better. These are simple tools to make government actually work for the people.

These tools also provide transparency. One of my favorite examples is how Mayor Cory Booker posts a week in review on youtube to highlight some of the achievements in the city of Newark for the week. While this may be time consuming it documents progress and setbacks made as well as provide a forum to discuss what is going on. Web 2.0 has changed how we interact with information that is sent out by giving us tools to create content.

Now we can't always wait around for government to embrace such ideas. These tools increase civic engagement by creating low barriers of entry for publishing content. I wanted to put together a list of free tools that I have found to be useful that might help you:

blogtalkradio - This turns your mobile device into your very own radio station! Want to interview someone but forgot your recorder? No worries, just call in and start recording and the file will be waiting for you when you are done! The Cinch service makes it even simpler to create and share.

Tokbox - Need to have a meeting but can't get together? You can use this free video chat service which lets you conference with up to 20 people. The echo cancellation is not very good but you can still see everyone!

Streetswiki - One of my favorite spots on the web to go for info on transportation and public space innovation. The content is community driven and the topics discussed are ones that people in the city care about. The Streetfilms and Streetblog also provide rich content on urban issues.

NowPublic - This is citizen journalism, taking CNN's iReport to the next level. Not only is the content generated by the NowPublic community so are the ideas for the news stories.

There are certainly many many more web 2.0 tools and a good collection can be found here. Go check them out and start creating and collaborating!

Taking a Bite out of Crime

2010-01-25T15:36:00.005-06:00

When was the last time you interacted with a police officer? Was it a positive or negative experience? I guess that depends on the context of the interaction. I've definitely had both good and bad experiences with cops but above all else their job is to make us feel safe. My knowledge of an officer's duties were very limited until I met an incredible sergeant with the Boston Police Department who really opened my eyes to all the roles they play in our communities. They are definitely more than the folks who write citations. One of the programs I got to see in action was the Safe Street Teams. This initiative provides high crime Boston neighborhoods with a police presence on foot and bike. This not only makes officers more visible, it allows them to connect with the community. I was amazed when I went on one of these beats and saw the level of interaction the public had with their precinct officers. This type of community policing does wonders in reducing crime. It builds trust as well as accountability from everyone. Some cities use COMPSTAT to show numbers for crime reduction but "criminals" are not data points. Data points may drive policy and funding but not behavior modification. These types of community policing methods go beyond numbers to personal connection, or at least that is the hope.

Full disclosure, I'm a huge Cory Booker fan. If you get a chance, check out Brick City (mini-series) and/or Street Fight (documentary) both are about Newark and Cory Booker. Mayor Booker has really taken to heart the importance of community when it comes to public safety. Since late 2009, the mayor has been a part of a night patrol composed solely of volunteers in the evening hours to drive around areas of high violence in the city. What's amazing is that the Mayor goes on these patrols showing his commitment to his city not just as an elected official but also a resident.

Every city/town has a community watch program and the more you get involved the more you can take comfort in knowing that you are helping to keep your streets safe. Mark your calendars for National Night Out, an opportunity to meet your officers and neighbors to talk about crime prevention. Take action because crime prevention is a community effort. Instead of just getting the "bad guys" and locking them up, it would be far more efficient to prevent crime before it happens by taking a stand on behavior we find unacceptable.

Check out this short video of Mayor Booker talking with volunteers before one of the night patrols:

If you are wondering what the title refers to, you apparently didn't grow up watching the same PSAs as I did. It's what Scruff McGruff would tell us to do after teaching us that drugs and bullying are bad and should be reported to an adult immediately.

Building Community

2009-11-03T23:52:00.007-06:00

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

2009-11-02T08:35:00.000-06:00

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

2009-11-01T15:19:00.000-06:00

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

2009-11-01T13:20:00.000-06:00

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!

A Bright Idea

2008-06-06T23:18:00.001-05:00

This team won the competition. I applaud their effort to find a technology based solution. I hope they have teamed up with business leaders to implement their design into an effective distribution plan. I figure if they have already started, they must've. I'm usually wary of technology in developing countries. I am no one to say what people need but it seems like a lack of infrastructure that keeps people in poverty must be tackled in order to producing any sustainable change or development, but I'm sure these kids know it.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste

2008-06-06T23:09:00.000-05:00

This team entered the Social Innovation Competition Sponsored by the RGK center at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. I like the idea but there was a bad taste in my mouth as I was reading over the word "contract." Sure any legit loan service offers money in exchange for assurance that they'll get it back, but tailoring it to ones earning potential is a bit odd. Started by international students, it personifies the "American Dream" of success and opportunity. It comes at a cost and they are helping to alleviate that burden. I think they just started, will see how it turns out. For now I'll just invest my money at Kiva.org with my monthly gift certificate, who is a June baby??

2007-08-14T17:16:00.001-05:00

I like summer morning