A guest post from Jenna Spinelle on how participatory budgeting, citizen juries, and other programs are making local government more inclusive and creating new civic rituals.
I went to our city council meeting last week, and there was ONE other person there! ONE!! This in a town of about 13,000. And there were some important issues being discussed. Tax money being spent. Not sure how to address this; have meetings on Saturdays? Can't see that working. Sundays? Not during football season! How to fix this? Don't know, but I'm not giving up. Maybe me and Joan - the other attendee - can start a newsletter. Just seems nobody wants to be bothered. Sad.
You should totally do that! Richard Young had a similar experience in Lexington five years ago and now has a full-fledged media organization: https://www.civiclex.org/. His story featured in an upcoming episode of When the People Decide.
Thanks for this! It’s provided the inspiration to keep active at the local level, despite the last round of thrashing in Yonkers politics.
I went to our city council meeting last week, and there was ONE other person there! ONE!! This in a town of about 13,000. And there were some important issues being discussed. Tax money being spent. Not sure how to address this; have meetings on Saturdays? Can't see that working. Sundays? Not during football season! How to fix this? Don't know, but I'm not giving up. Maybe me and Joan - the other attendee - can start a newsletter. Just seems nobody wants to be bothered. Sad.
You should totally do that! Richard Young had a similar experience in Lexington five years ago and now has a full-fledged media organization: https://www.civiclex.org/. His story featured in an upcoming episode of When the People Decide.