Personally I feel like if I want to try to make even a small impact on the world around me I'd have to make a profound impact on my own life. And I've never been prepared to do this. I could be wrong though.
Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?
21–30 of 346 posts
Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?
#22If a single party has been running that "top 10 most dangerous cities in the us" city for 30 to 50 years, perhaps try another party? Just a suggestion.
Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?
#23Put on a sexy spandex suit and go kick some ass at night XD
Love this one :)
Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?
#24Get involved in the cities government by volunteering, or serving on a city commission. Just start showing up to city council meetings and start learning what is going on and who the players are. You’ll figure out a way to help there.
Seconding the 'go to city council meetings.' Hearing first hand what goes on there will be helpful, and depending on the format, you can directly speak on issues you care about.
Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?
#25Be present in public areas. Plant flowers.
Or put them in your hair. Or is that dated?
Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?
#26Pay your taxes. Vote for the interests of the working poor. Volunteer with organizations that improve the material conditions of unhoused people in your area.
Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?
#27Strong Towns talks a lot about this: https://www.strongtowns.org/
They have a philosophy that centers on "small bets" (trying things that aren't disasters if they don't work) and economic rejuvenation.
Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?
#28I've recently gotten interested in repairing technology. I bought the recommended tools from iFixit and I've been using them to fix up my wife's MBP Mid-2012 Unibody (one of the best laptops to fiddle with in my opinion).
Due to all of this I realized that I have just enough knowledge to help others with their computers - or at least I have the right tools. Once I'm more confident, I'm planning on starting a Repair Cafe[1] in my city.
Repair is daunting for a lot of people - but it doesn't have to be. I hope to use the Repair Cafe as a way to improve the longevity of people's technology (saving them money) as well as teaching people the skills and knowledge they need to fix things on their own.
With even more reliance on technology these days - especially due to COVID - repair is a great way to help struggling families save money.
Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?
#29Get involved in local politics. Observe council meetings and school board meetings and committee meetings. Whatever is public. This stuff can be boring; you'll observe pointless personality clashes and interminable dumb arguments, but at the same time, this is where important decisions that affect your community get made. Once you understand the issues, you can work to influence policy in the direction that you think…
My friend got involved in local politics and suddenly found herself moving out of the district because her landlord got a call informing him he hadn’t acquired the proper license to rent to her. There’s a lot of “soft” corruption, suddenly enforcing laws that never get enforced, and it’s really shitty, and any little thing in your past will come under scrutiny.
She was running against the incumbent and they pulled up whatever dirt they could to get her to move out of the district.
Re: Ask HN: As a person, what can I do to improve a city?
#30Get involved in the cities government by volunteering, or serving on a city commission. Just start showing up to city council meetings and start learning what is going on and who the players are. You’ll figure out a way to help there.
Agreed.
Just showing up has an impact. I guarantee that simply being present will change everyone's behavior. Most meetings most of the time have no audience. If you keep showing up, you'll eventually figure out what's what.
My next piece of advice is to get on your representative's calendar. Pick an issue, any issue. No matter how small. Like fixing potholes or improving a road crossing. State the problem, propose a solution, make an ask, be cordial. 5 minutes. Then do it again. You likely won't "win" at first. Tenacious wins in the long run. At some point, politicians will do what you ask, just to make you go away.
I guarantee that there's a local issue, the more local the better, that you care about, that needs your attention. Anything and everything you can imagine is on the agenda at some point during the year.