Finish This Sentence — and Change Your Town Forever

If you could change one thing about your neighborhood, what would it be? A farmer’s market in that abandoned lot on the corner? Speed bumps? A park bench?
Such wishes are becoming less and less idle, thanks to a growing New Orleans startup called Neighborland. The company built a web platform that functions as a community bulletin board, one that begins with a simple Mad Lib: I want _____ In ______. I want a bike lane, for example, on 6th Street in San Francisco.
Then, the magic happens. One by one, other community members, either people who actually live in that neighborhood or those who use and care about it, signify that they want that thing too, by clicking “me too.” It could stop there, with the same kind of “clicktivism” for which millennials are so often mocked. But then Neighborland steps in and catalyzes the idea, either with funding help, institutional know-how or by creating partnerships with the appropriate local organizations that can corral those latent desires and get things done. Continue reading “Finish This Sentence — and Change Your Town Forever”