Three technology specialists are working to offer suggestions on improving quality of life in Lexington neighborhoods. The bluegrass community was one of ten selected nationwide to participate in this year’s 'Code for America' project.
The non-partisan organization links web industry workers with cities to further openness and government efficiencies. Livien Yin says the ten-month project could have implications for other cities. “What we’re really aiming for is just a specific issue in Lexington and then consider its broader impact and how it could be expanded, or better yet to find a way for citizens to better engage with the government and be able to locate their individual concerns or neighborhood’s specific concerns and be involved in that actively,” said Yin.
Fellow Lyzi Diamond says a project in San Francisco focused on developing a new app to alert food stamp recipients when their allotments were about to run out. Fellow Erik Schwartz says the effort begins with getting a reading from citizens. “What we’ll do here is do a lot of user research and try to understand what’s going on in the city and talk with as many people as we can and get a sense of what people love and people think could be better and that sort of thing,” said Schwartz.
The three technology fellows are expected to go out into many neighborhoods during February to gather comments about pressing issues. Lexington Mayor Jim Gray says 28 local individuals, businesses, and foundations are contributing to the ‘Code for America’ project.