JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools

pictures and stories from the water’s edge

JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools header image 2

How can we create civic space?

November 2nd, 2004 · No Comments

A piece in the Bremerton Sun’s Bainbridge Islander publication (dated October 30 – November 5) described a recent community meeting to help the youth on the island. The article (I couldn’t find it on thesunlink.com site) ended with the following paragraph:

Mayor Darlene Kordonowy said she hopes the group’s questions and comments can be typed up and “passed around in coffee shops and talked about.”

I may not be a typical islander, but I can count the times I have been to coffee shops on one hand. I do hope that these questions and comments are discussed in the community. But I wonder whether relying on paper copies and coffee shop patrons is the best way to promote dialogue.

Is this the civic space we have as an island – coffee shops?! How can we find a commons where we can talk together? On an island of 20,000, I don’t think that coffee and copies are sufficient for creating effective discussions that include many community members.

This seems like the perfect place for a blog. Or a wiki. Or even a moderated web site. We need a shared space so that all of us can participate and help our community change. Coffee shops can only hold a certain number of customers, and paper copies can be shared so far. But the Internet has fewer limits. More of us can fit on-line. We can type our questions and comments, and respond to others. We can read and write. We can sit at a computer terminal with a cup of coffee, each one of us, and talk…

Tags: island

0 responses so far ↓

  • There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.

Leave a Comment