Review Phase I: July 2019 to November 2019
The Goal: take one city, figure out how civics works in practice, discuss whether the civic ideals are being met and imagine moving forward.
While it could be any city, this project selected Niagara Falls, N.Y. as it’s study subject. It’s maybe the best known brand in the world; it’s international, having a city in Canada within a hundred yards of its border, so we can evaluate civics internationally as well as domestically, and it possesses all the resources necessary to manage its own affairs.
During the summer/fall of 2019 this project hit the streets and asked Niagara Falls residents what they thought of the city in general, how it got this way, and where it could go from here. Nineteen separate articles were published in the local newspaper, The Niagara Gazette. This Phase would also determine whether there was sufficient interest in carrying on, and moving into other Phases.