As Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio prepares to succeed Michael R. Bloomberg, a coalition of leading foundations — including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund — will unveil an ambitious citywide effort, beginning this weekend, to enlist regular New Yorkers in sharing their views about the city’s future.
At Canal and Varick Streets in Manhattan’s Hudson Square neighborhood, workers are finishing a tentlike complex that will serve as the home base for the effort, called Talking Transition.
A spokeswoman for the project said that it was developed independently from the mayoral campaign and that Mr. de Blasio was not involved in its planning.
Christopher Stone, the president of the Open Society Foundations, which were established by the billionaire George Soros, said the project, which is nonpartisan, was meant to “keep the energy and engagement that we typically see in a campaign alive and active after the voting is done.”
“This election in particular, and this transition in particular, is a signal moment in the city’s fortunes,” Mr. Stone said in an interview on Wednesday. “New Yorkers have already overwhelmingly expressed their desire for change, and now this is a chance to help make it.”
At the Hudson Square headquarters, which opens on Saturday, a 500-person meeting space will host programs on a variety of public policy issues, from the ins and outs of the city’s property tax system to lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy.
Visitors will be asked about issues facing the next mayor. People can offer comments on iPads there or on postcards.
The project will reach across the five boroughs. More than 100 canvassers, speaking 19 languages, will set up outposts at libraries and other high-traffic locations, and three passenger vans towing iPad-equipped mobile kiosks will visit transit hubs, libraries and community events.
Anthony W. Marx, the president of the New York Public Library, said the library events were a means of “providing a way for all New Yorkers to communicate with their next mayor.”
“Democracy doesn’t end at the election booth,” he said.
Yahoo Local News – New York Times
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