Neighborland

Location: New Orleans, LA

Website: www.neighborhoodland.com

Neighborland is a new way to shape the development of your city. It’s a tool for learning more about your neighborhood and having a say in its future. We started this project with a simple question: “What if residents could easily share their ideas for improving their neighborhoods?” Could these ideas help community leaders, entrepreneurs, and developers better meet the needs their communities? Can presenting this data in a transparent and friendly way help shape the development of a neighborhood — or at the very least, provide a new form of public accountability?

We launched Neighborland in New Orleans in June 2011. Now that we’re live, we’re looking for ideas that are creative, feasible, and supported by our neighbors. Take a look around the site and you’ll see neighbors sharing ideas and asking (and answering) questions about their communities. You can listen to neighbors you’re interested in and receive notifications to keep track of the ideas that you care about. We believe sketching an idea that might benefit your neighborhood is a meaningful civic action, and with Neighborland you don’t need to go to a city council meeting or be friends with a developer to do it. We’re working hard to make sure your ideas are seen by the right people.

This site is just the beginning. Stay tuned for upcoming workshops, pop-up stores, events, and how-to guides that respond to issues that are important to your community. We’re kicking off a series of events later this summer to collect ideas from as many residents as we can. On July 15th, we’ll select some of the best ideas in New Orleans and we’ll work with you to help make them happen.

We hope that Neighborland will create meaningful connections between neighbors, community leaders, property owners, developers, and our local government.

Whether Neighborland humbly offers this tool for New Orleanians to voice their hopes, share local knowledge, and work together to make these ideas a reality.