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How do we get back the neighborhood?
Of course I'm referencing the 2012 TED prize The talk which inspired this question has been posted: Jen Pahlka talking about "Peace Corps for Geeks" aka- coding for government. One of the ideas in that talk which resonated for me was it's not about making the bureaucracy easier- it's about solving the problems. More often than not that means getting the bureaucracy out of the way and letting people be neighborly. "Adopt a fire hydrant"- shovel it out when there's a snow storm. That's pretty simple stuff and it promotes Community - with an upper case "C".
I've seen my own home town go from a place where I could walk to everything (the butcher the baker the candlestick maker) to one where there are 30,000 vehicle round trips a day. This is for a town of 6000 residents. The service providers drive in and out for work. The residents drive out and in to go to school, the hospital, the rec center and to find lower priced goods. Employee housing (also out of town-but closer) has resulted in a boost for the construction industry which increases the service trips in and out. Placing a transfer tax on real estate has favored flipping and cowboy development. I only mention this to emphasize that treating the symptom doesn't work and the unintended consequences can be devastating.
So, how do we get back the neighborhood? How do we get back the Community?
Ziska Childs 50+
I'll leave you with this link to a kickstarter project called "walk your city"
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cityfabric/walk-your-city?ref=spotlight
Gerald Weathers
Gerald
Richard Harris
I'm asking: Can the two--watchdog and community-building--be combined?
Ziska Childs 50+
It's a difficult question. There are people who are good at both but I think its a difficult pair of hats to wear at the same time.
Richard Harris
I stand somewhere in the middle between Ziska and Pat on the debate re. "shared experience for community building" vs. "goal-setting imperative." In the extreme, they are both simplistic. In fact, as you move toward the center of these two extremes, you arrive at a less fluffy and less rigid understanding that shared experience needs a unifying purpose, goals will come and go in the dynamics and evolution of your neighborhood-building efforts. That said--and to get back to earth--this is a very difficult position to operationalize, as we've found out at Community First. http://www.signalhillfirst.org/
What is it that animates community participation? In Community First there are a few individuals--among them an attorney and former professor of Public Administration--who, when they dig deeply into city operations become outraged by the what they see as dishonest and unethical behavior. They have been leading the fight on a number of issues you can see on our website, and which generated outrage, in turn, by the powers that be and their allies.
So we've generated some animosity, and the large majority of the population is "ho-hum" or turned-off as this is being "politics as usual;" while we see it as an important function of the organization to play this "watchdog" role. (The latest battle is around the city's efforts to expand its eminent domain powers in the wake of the state-mandated dissolution of the redevelopment agency; an esoteric but potentially significant turn of events, not fully appreciated by most of us.)
A few of us in Community First are trying to figure out how to reach out to the community in more "positive" ways, to add a "community-building" component to our "watchdog" role.
pat gilbert 100+
I think you have to look at what other community organizations have done well in this area and emulate them.
kusuma vijay
Gerald Weathers
It is a strange thing I've found. Having lived in big cities all my adult life, (NYC, LA, etc.) , it has been an eye opening experience to find the rural now area I live in to be the strongest sense of Community (Capital C) I have ever known. It has taken time, and a few crises, and talking to my neighbors and giving and getting help from them to give me the comfortable peaceful existence I think you crave. My experience tells me the answer to your question is this: Move to a rural area and start over.
Warmest regards,
Gerald
Ziska Childs 50+
Could you be more specific? What makes your rural experience "comfortable and peaceful" when it wasn't in an urban setting?
Richard Stephenson
The trick is how do we get people to get out of their comfort zones (their houses and cars) and participate in their community.
Ziska Childs 50+
We've done a lot of "disincentives" for travel by car in our area but as long as goods need to be trucked in and workers need to carry their own tools those 30,000 round trips a day into a town of 6000 are pretty much fixed. The economic engine is in a place which doesn't house it's own workforce. Housing subsidies have not closed the gap and the town is full of empty "spec" homes.
I've heard of one company which is taking homes in foreclosure and converting them to Senior Centers.
walkinthe spiritofthings
Ziska Childs 50+
Ziska Childs 50+
"I tend to look at people or groups as to whether their purpose aligns with mine or not. "
I understand the pleasure a person can get from being around "like minds". It's a great motivator.
"In other words does gregariousness work or does purpose work? is gregariousness a product of purpose or is purpose a product of gregariousness? "
They are not mutually exclusive in fact I don't think you can achieve your purpose without a certain amount of cooperative effort (hence the question on an open message board).
The intent behind this question was to explore strategies for creating neighborhoods which are vital, close knit, enjoyable places to live.
pat gilbert 100+
It doesn't having anything to do with like mindedness, it has to do with achieving one's goals.
I did not say they are mutually exclusive, I said one is the product of the other.
I contend that it has to do with purpose and goals.
That is all I have to say about this.
Peter Martins
Its a vast subject. Were to start ? The solutions are not very complicated I think. There is the internal neighborhood our motivation, the reasons we desire Neighborhood and the external neighborhood.
I have run a few events on our small community in Bath and these have helped in a small way develop neighborhood The strange thing is though that only about 10% of the population ever show events. If we see the Neighborhood as a network where everybody knows everybody then its practially none existent. But the master beighbourhood network has many smaller sub networks which link at ramdom places to other networks. Such networks include such things as old money/ land, school mums, kid, church, dog walkers, long term residents ( sort of elders) parish councilors, people who catch the bus at the same time.....
There is no magic glue that bonds the network together, it just trivial contact which grows into something else.
To develop neighborhood just needs a medium for such contact to happen. And I think food and music and alcohol provided in a way which invites all the cummunity along is a reasonable starting point. The next event will go further I hope and use things like open space and world cafe to increase the number of relationships which can develop.
I do have some concern though as the majority will not come along. While I respect their rights I also feel that perhaps they are more vulnerable and far less well resourced due to lack on local connection. So when a crisis happens they will not know how to connect into others around them who in turn link to to others who might be able to help. It quite interesting mathematically. If i know only 3 people - the chance are they will not be very gagairious so after 4 links in the network I am linked to only 27 other. But if I have know 50 people on the other hand I am linked to 125,000 people. Its a massive pool of goodwil, and out of it the nectar of coincidence will flow
Ziska Childs 50+
Daniel Bassill
a) This link points to the Boston Indicators Project where there is a pie-chart that reflects issues important to Boston. Click into any slice and you dig deeper into that issue. http://www.bostonindicators.org/Indicators2008/
b) This link points to a site that I host where a map of Chicago is used. It includes overlays showing poverty and poor schools, as well as sites of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs
c) This link points to a map of information hosted in one section of my library - http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/rid=1238727620187_1222661202_30228/Learnng%20Network%20-%20Research,%20Resources.cmap
d) In a different TED discussion a writer showed how discussions could be mapped. http://www.ted.com/conversations/331/what_if_ted_utilized_the_mind.html.
e) At http://debategraph.org/mentoring_kids_to_careers is another way to map discussions.
If communities can provide sites that include these concepts they can expand the information that people have to build understanding of the issues and possible solutions. They create a platform anyone would be able to use. They also might make it easier to follow discussions related to specific topics. Using GIS maps the result could be more people sharing the same geographic working together.
However, this is only a start. In order to get large numbers of people into these discussions all sorts of marketing and advertising techniques need to be used on an on-going basis to draw more people's to these sites. I wrote a blog article about this earlier this week. http://tutormentor.blogspot.com/2012/03/making-sense-of-info-using-it-to-solve.html In this I pointed to a concept called Massive Online Organized Curriculum (MOOC) that encourages on-going and in-depth learning by large numbers of people.
The tools to make this possible keep expanding.
Richard Harris
Ziska Childs 50+
http://www.ted.com/talks/deb_roy_the_birth_of_a_word.html
and to a slightly lesser degree:
http://www.ted.com/talks/jer_thorp_make_data_more_human.html
I'd *love* to see Deb Roy's system hooked up in the Council Room.
Richard Harris
Purpose, yes. You'll see the mission of Signal Hill Community First on our website. http://www.signalhillfirst.org/
What you'll see is an emphasis on our "watchdog" orientation. This has stimulated a lot of interest over the last year.
We are evolving, however, and 2012 will be a watershed year. What you won't see on the website--not quite yet--is much reference to our community-building role, an essential ingredient in our dual track design. Nor will you see any reference--again, not quite yet--to C.F. being a self-organizing system, informed by the literature regarding communities of practice (CoPs). http://www.ewenger.com/theory/ Other helpful resources are found in the work of Margaret J. Wheatley ("Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time") and Peter Block ("Community: The Structure of Belonging.")
pat gilbert 100+
Your mission statement is a bit ambiguous to me.
Your purpose to me is for someone who has some time on their hands ie retired people.
In today's environment I think that the government has become so onerous that making a living consumes a lot more of one's time, leaving little time to consider other activities.
For me a purpose that I find to be imperative is the reduction in the size of government as this country very well may collapse if this does not occur. You can see how this is galvanizing.
The corollary of shrinking government is the raising of the individual though small groups such as yours.
Perhaps a better statement of the goals?
Richard Harris
Getting back the excellent original question, "So, how do we get back the neighborhood?", I love telling our own story--and will continue, more fully and in more detail, if there is sufficient interest--but this TED Conversation needs to continue, and we need more of an exchange among real-world neighborhood development practitioners.
As you, Ziska, pointed out earlier, and as others have pointed out in the course of the discussion, this neighborhood focus, this bottom-up orientation, is a critical part of the City 2.0 initiative. Others have their own story to tell.
As this conversation nears its end, I'm prompted to ask: How can we continue and how can we expand the participation?
Food for thought...
Ziska Childs 50+
Let's see if we can keep momentum for the next week..... if we still have interest it's as simple as posting another question to the TED board (just because I find the direct links from the individual talks helpful for bringing in diverse people with new insight)
pat gilbert 100+
I think the irreducible minimum for a group is that they have a purpose. Perhaps if you talk more about the purpose of you group?
Richard Harris
Well, our Guidance Committee, and the organization in general, is non-partisan, comprised of a couple of labor activists, a GOP Central Committee Member, an attorney, a former professor of Public Administration, a mother of four whom she home-schooled, a real-estate agent/local business owner, a 90-something former machinist with a Simon for Governor bumper sticker still on his pick-up truck, and me, a former budget director of the County of Orange, CA. So, no "bent;" we try to keep focused on our mission.
We have gatherings, not meetings and our organization chart is three concentric circles, each becoming increasingly porous as you approach the outer ring.
Though this may sound a bit "California Woo Woo," we are actually pretty pragmatic, and like the "does it work" criterion. The model is pretty well thought-out, based on a lot of research and experience in community organizing here and abroad. And we're having fun!
Ziska Childs 50+
Richard Harris
Trying to reach out in ways that respond to your comments above.
Richard Harris
Great question. Admittedly, we have a ways to go in terms of the quantitative and systematic gathering of data to measure success--my understanding of "metric." But in our first year we deemed our efforts successful by: Surveys and polls taken--number of responses. Policy issues affected--City established new procedures abiding by the State open meetings act. Citizen participation--Council chambers packed to unprecedented levels on two occasions. Community First name recognition--number of times name is used by others in public meetings. Organizational rhythms established--Guidance Committee meetings monthly, special meetings to address specific issue intervention. Leadership dialogue (rich communications environment)--high number of email messages.
As we add more community-building activities to our now established "watchdog" activities, we will be challenged to come up with more (and realistic) metrics.
I'll be interested in your observations.
pat gilbert 100+
Regarding metrics I think that it a natural tendency to get get complex with them my advise would be to keep it simple. At the same time they are important to tell you if your surveys are working, that you are resonating with the public.
Do you guys have a bent towards the left or the right?
Ziska Childs 50+
pat gilbert 100+
This is where the metrics come in.
Joan Viaene
Ziska Childs 50+
Who keeps the "social harmony" and how?
Comment deleted
Ziska Childs 50+
Ziska Childs 50+
Here's something which was sent to me recently. I've sat through quite a few meetings and I have to say- this rings true. Resoundingly true. One of the biggest problems when dealing with city planning is how to present your ideas in a friendly, informative and (this is really important) succinct fashion. We've got 12 days left. Any ideas?
http://holykaw.alltop.com/dont-suck-at-meetings?tu2=1
Fritzie Reisner 100+
Allen Barkkume
Charrette. I think it helps us to re-examine the whole idea of 'the presentation', of public hearings, and of the roles of the key players.
There is a shifting of the role of architects/urban planners in the City 2.0. A new player, The Facilitator, has become a crucial element 'at the table'. Their main purpose is simply to organize the people involved (professionals, politicians and community-members alike) and send them towards goals that are defined by the community itself.
Richard Harris
Turning around a dysfunctional civic culture is not easy, as we have found in our small Southern California city, near the now-infamous City of Bell. We've been at it for about a year, and have developed a model mixing the "watchdog" approach with the more educational approach of the League of Women Voters. (So, we've found, there is a time for friendly dialogue, and a time for calculated conflict.)
But sensitive to concerns about simply "promoting the same but with a different flavor," we (a small group dedicated to governmental transparency and inspiring our neighbors to engage in city affairs), have laid the groundwork for our own functioning using the ideas of Communities of Practice (CoPs). It took us a while to get there (see Etienne Wenger's work on CoPs: http://www.ewenger.com/theory/ ), and we are still defining our community and seeking the proper mix of problem-solving with community-building. Take a look at our website www.signalhillfirst.org/
We are an evolving organization and very sympathetic to many of the ideas and views presented in this fascinating thread. I would love to continue this discussion among others who are in the throes of actual neighborhood action/organization.
Good Job Ziska!
Ziska Childs 50+
Is the Signal Hill page based on Etienne Wenger's "community platform" using a wordpress format?
(and thanks)
Richard Harris
Wenger's thesis--and our guide for how to go about our business--is, I'm told, a bit too theoretical for our website which, yes, is on Wordpress.... if I understand your question correctly.
As Facilitator of Community First, my focus is on organization design and internal communications--the superstructure upon which the responses to issues addressed in our website are built. Sounds a bit too high-falutin, but its at that organization level where I think a dialogue on policy-related, community building can most effectively occur.
We are talking about a change in civic culture which begins with BEING the community we desire; but also within real-world, political context. A challenge, as you can imagine.
There may be some similarities with the Occupy Movement and, perhaps, even Burning Man. (At least according to some we met at the BIL "unconference" where we presented recently.) But we, by contrast, are a bunch of old fogies.
So, if anyone is curious about what we are up to, the theoretical foundation and practical issues that arise as we move forward, i.e., expand our "core" and focus more on community-building (to supplement our "watchdog" role), perhaps we can continue to dialogue.
Ziska, you did such a great job of formulating the original question. Perhaps now you can prompts a new, more focused, practical discussion. We need your ideas and perhaps a few of ours might be helpful to you.
pat gilbert 100+
Can I ask what metric you use for your organization?
Ziska Childs 50+
Replying to this thread since it seems we've maxed out replies on the one below.
Goal:
"(Citizens are) seen as an essential resource and stakeholder in the public policy process"
The ones who show up are the ones who get to influence the policy (squeaky wheel syndrome).
We're back to a really big question- how do we get people motivated to participate?
How do we keep it civilized?
How do we keep discussions on point?
Not everyone is comfortable speaking in public or on the internet. Not everyone can state their issues without becoming emotional- or worse- using personal attacks. Not everyone can speak in simple enough language to make their point; and *everyone* gets misunderstood at one time or another.
Catching flies with honey.
thefuntheory.com
Allen Barkkume
Having said that, our built environment is ultimately created according to land use regulations/zoning laws that are themselves governed at a municipal level. This is reassuring. Municipalities are comprised of a (relatively) small group of people.
With the right user-interface, and competent facilitators to guide the overall process, it is certainly possible to physically alter the built environment in favor of ‘the neighborhood’. The trick is to try and get the neighborhood itself involved in the process.
I’m not saying there is a formula for this; surely we are still figuring it out. But to say that it is beyond our current capability, considering politics, economics, etc., is uninformed; it is already happening.
If you have any interest at all in this process or case studies resulting from it, please see the linked document below.
http://njit.academia.edu/AllenBarkkume/Papers/433286/Crowdsourcing_Reform_Community_Participation_and_Land_Use_Regulation_in_New_Jersey
Ziska Childs 50+
Thanks for posting the link- the "you fix the budget" example is interesting. I'll forward this to local government (and it will take me a little time to digest it)
Bernd Fesel 30+
I like especially situations where levels of hierachy are confused..... this opens a lot of options f.e.
- kids teaching their parents on the newest internet & apps trends
- all husbands - working long hours, never really at home - meet for a public, in the street cooking event, to which all kids are invited under one condition: they bring some one from neighbourhood to this "cook & gather" event which they do NOT know already. some one they always wanted to talk to, but failed to do ....
I hope I can explain my line of thought...?!
Ziska Childs 50+
Andrea Morisette Grazzini 30+
Your community sounds much like mine. And, of course, is like so many. In spite of how infrastructure conspires to disperse us, I nonetheless witness community creation occurring where intentional efforts are made.
My short answer, nothing you don't know is: We stay in the neighborhood. We engage our neighbors.
Less simplistic, and more important: We re-create and "re-spirit" community by intentionally and persistently practicing together how to stay in relationship as community members. In various places and venues, but with the clear and stated intention of being present (best in person, where possible) in community together.
Which means we invite others different from us to participate, judge all much less, be less self-conscious, more forthcoming and more "with other" cooperative.
And as we do, we communicate how we are doing so in as many ways as we possibly can. By telling ours and others stories of sincere efforts and particularly successes in co-creating community. This is key.
With that I'll take some of my own advice and share a few stories about ways I witness my community co-creating itself:
http://dynamicshift.org/archives/follow-the-student-leaders-for-fun-democracy
http://dynamicshift.org/archives/citizen-music-solving-public-problems-2
http://dynamicshift.org/archives/suburbanites-led-by-muslim-woman
Andrea
Ziska Childs 50+
It's a recurring theme for cooperation and fighting prejudice isn't it? - "Find common ground".
Another great talk:
http://www.ted.com/talks/john_hunter_on_the_world_peace_game.html
Lee Miller 10+
Unfortunately zoning laws in many cities do not allow for this kind of development.
Bernd Fesel 30+
I am afraid to reverse the development, you regret and describe, would need a total different tax system to give incentives to change individual real-estate and housing habits. Here in Germany you have the profit of selling a house tax-free - if you have kept it for at least 10 years.... so this loweres mobility and resales of houses.
Getting back the community in Germany is really about public space to meet .... the kindergarden for grown-ups is missing, especially in a single society.
Ziska Childs 50+
I'm curious. A kindergarten for grown ups? Soccer pitch, band stand, open market?
subramanyam P