What if we could easily share ideas for what we want in our neighborhoods? This is the question that drove Dan Parham, Tee Parham, and Candy Chang to create Neighborland, an online tool that helps people shape the development of their places. It’s an experiment that takes Candy’s I Wish This Was public art project a few steps further to help people voice what they want in their neighborhoods and take next steps to make things happen. It connects residents who want things with likeminded people, resources, and knowledge. It’s a valuable poll for civic leaders and developers to assess what residents want in different places. And it helps reveal neighborhood demands and prove there is a viable customer base for new businesses to open.

Neighborland has been a big team effort with integral development by Alan Williams, Chris Palmatier, and James Reeves. Thanks to generous support from the Urban Innovation Fellowship from Tulane University and the Rockefeller Foundation, they launched it in New Orleans in the summer of 2011 and are working closely with local organizations and individuals to improve it, test new features, and help make things happen. To an exciting time collaborating with passionate people so the future of our communities better reflects our desires today. For inquiries, please contact Dan.

Visit Neighborland.com.

After the pop-up night market, Bywater, New Orleans

At the StayLocal! table at the Poboy Fest. Photos by Malcolm Mansour.

“I see Neighborland as a kind of Internet version of stoop-sitting. And New Orleans has always been a stoop-sitting kind of place, where people gather to chat on porches or front steps or across a wrought-iron fence. By all means, join the conversation. I am. My dog Lucy and I are so on board with that thread about pet-friendly restaurants in the Garden District.” – Times Picayune