Why listen
Elections alone cannot rebuild civic trust, and this episode maps out what actually can.
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In this episode
- Concrete ways to influence local policy outside of voting
- How city governments can build environments that support democracy
- What community-led initiatives look like on the ground in real cities
- Why restoring trust requires ongoing participation, not just election cycles
About this episode
Participating in elections is just one part of civic engagement. The many other ways of influencing your community and public policy are arguably the greatest difference to rebuilding trust.Healing democracy was never going to happen with an election. In this episode, we discuss real ways to go beyond the ballot box and engaging people as we restore trust in government and in city leadership, based on our recent webinar on the same subject.
“A colleague at a conference I was at earlier this year said, 'In city government, we hear so much about creating an environment that's good for business. What about creating an environment good for democracy?'” says Tom Borrup, co-editor of the new book “Democracy as Creative Practice: Weaving a Culture of Civic Life.”
In this episode, we hear from Borrup; Phoebe Bachman, a Philadelphia-based artist, curator, and facilitator from The People's Budget; April De Simone, founder of The Practice of Democracy; Next City collaborator Richard Young, founder and executive director of CivicLex; and Pam Bailey, the editor of the Beyond Elections section at Proximate, a new nonprofit newsroom covering public participation and democratic innovations.
About Next City
Join Lucas Grindley, executive director at Next City, where we believe journalists have the power to amplify solutions and spread workable ideas. Each week Lucas will sit down with trailblazers to discuss urban issues that get overlooked.
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