Syracuse's population is
falling off again, and people are wondering – how do we
draw more people to town?
I'm thinking, though, that maybe this is starting a step ahead of where we need to start. Before we start drawing new people in, we have to figure out how to
retain what we have. While new blood is great, we need people with history, background, etc., to be here as well.
For those who are already here, we know we need to start getting new blood in public office – the current crop of leaders is nearing retirement (from U.S. representatives to mayors to school boards), and who better than those of us in our 20s and 30s to kick some life into CNY? The good folks at
40 Below Civic Engagement are doing a Running For Office 101 on July 16 at OHM in
Armory Square, starting at 5:30.
It seems like now is the right time to start some revitalization. If you're like me and going out of your way to try to find gas at $4.19 a gallon or less, you're one of the people who are
out on the streets more – you're walking to the convenience store, you're biking to the bank. Plus, as Ellen notes, you're bumping into other people, and maybe you're even
talking, having conversations. Novel concept.
Centro says they've seen an increase in public transit ridership, but they still haven't increased routes and schedules to the point where I can reasonably take the bus to work (how does an hour and 10 minutes for six miles of travel, plus showing up to work 15 minutes late, sound?).
The newspaper has appointed reporter Greg Munno to the post of Civic Engagement Editor, and with it, they're launching a new blog called
CNY Speaks, which solicits opinions and blog posts from the public, as well as having Greg facilitate conversations.
One cool thing my employer is doing is
user-generated video. Unlike YouTube, which is giant and requires a lot of searching, this is kind of a localized deal. The Flash transcoding is a little rough, but I think that's OK – it means that whether you take with an HD camera or with your cell phone, you'll get about the same quality. And we're finding out it's more about the content of the video than the quality of it.
Another cool thing they're doing is getting into Facebook; there's now an app with which you can
subscribe to RSS feeds from within your Facebook profile.
Anyway, I hope to be back doing this more often. I had a real hard time with
Andrea's passing, but
Zach's return after a years-long absence is spurring me on.
Labels: 40 below, brain drain, citizen media, civic engagement, downtown, facebook, social empowerment, syracuse
