Creating a Better Community Through Text Messages
“As cities make their data more transparent and accountable, this project in New York found one way to use technology to engage the residents in the planning process—by prompting locals to text in ideas. . . .
“In a collaboration with the online platform coUrbanize, the department put up signs all over the neighborhood—in vacant lots and subway stations, in front of storefronts and restaurants—that asked residents to text thoughts about what they would like to see more of, or what needed improvement. The prompts were open-ended: ‘This space could use some love. What would you put here?’ or ‘It’s kinda dark down here… How can we make Livonia a safer, friendlier street?'”