I picked up an anonymous flyer about theNeighbors Project recently, apparently an attempt to engage Chicago’s citizens in placemaking political action. Their mission sounds promising:

bq. Our mission is to activate and organize members of the urban generation in cities across the nation. We will strengthen and invigorate city neighborhoods one neighbor at a time throughout our lives. Our grassroots movement will make diverse cities with a healthy grassroots culture rooted in public streets and institutions the preferred place to live for Americans of every kind.

Yet it’s all quite nebulous right now, perhaps by design since it’s young. They’ve contacted my garden group and we’ll find out what they’re about soon.

Promising examples abound, like “City Repair”:http://www.cityrepair.org/wiki.php/projects in the Northwest, the “Toronto Public Space Committee”:http://www.publicspace.ca/elections/about as well as the various quasi-party public action committees (and affiliated candidate slates) that other cities have (particularly in Canada, with good examples like “COPE”:http://www.cope.bc.ca/issues-city.htm in Vancouver and “Projet Montréal”:https://westnorth.com/2005/11/28/urban-green-politics-arrives-in-montreal).