The idea comes from Carol Coletta, president of CEOs for Cities, and Jake Barton, principle of the media design firm Local Projects. Urban Omnibus sat down with the two of them to ask about the program, which will be rolling out soon in other cities after it's launch in Chicago.
Jake Barton explains the why:
"As they exist now, most contemporary forms of participatory activity in the public sphere invite critique: if you put forward a plan and put a microphone in front of it, people are going to critique it. And, because community meetings happen in physical space in a very restrictive amount of time, the only people who go are those who already care about the issue at hand, who have the time and disposition to make their voices heard, or the people who are most polarized on either side of the debate. For Give A Minute, we wanted to lower the barriers for entry into constructive dialogue focused around positive collective change rather than specific complaints."
