The idea: you submit possible questions; the online community votes for the best ones; then the candidates get a week (or so) to answer the top 5-7 questions. Their responses are posted on the Brighton Centered blog.
The method worked well recently when Adam Gaffin crowdsourced questions for Dan Conley, Suffolk County District Attorney: blog readers were requested to submit questions; ten of these questions were submitted to a vote; the top five vote getters were listed and sent to Conley; Conley answered them.
Here's What You Do
Submit your questions one of four ways:
- Post a comment at the bottom of this blog entry
- Email them to me: pahre@comcast.net
- Email them to the AllstonBrighton2006 Google Group (membership required)
- Email them to the BC_Neighbors_Forum Google Group (membership required)
Rules for the Questions
- No candidate names in the questions: the questions should be general enough so that all candidates can respond.
- No rude language, profanity, etc.
- Up to three questions submitted per person. Candidates may submit questions, too.
- I will edit questions as necessary to make them clearer. I will remove duplicate questions.
- Questions should be relevant to a City Councilor's role; questions about legislation facing the Congress, for example, would usually be off-topic unless you can convince me otherwise.
- City-wide issues are relevant, not just issues facing Allston-Brighton.
- I will personally whittle the list of questions down to 15 (or so) for the voting round. I will try to choose a broad array of topics.
Dates for the Project
- Now - August 20 (noon): submit your questions
- August 20 - August 31: vote for the best questions at the Brighton Centered blog
- August 31: top 5-7 questions sent to all six A-B City Council candidates
- September 10: all candidates responding to the questionnaire by COB on this date will have their full set of answers posted on the Brighton Centered blog. Late responses will be posted only at my discretion (so that candidates cannot see each other's responses before submitting their own).
Pose your questions now! Get answers for your questions about the most pressing issues facing Allston-Brighton!
2 comments:
A bicyclist was killed earlier this year on Cambridge St in Allston, a notoriously unfriendly and dangerous road for bicyclists. I have heard numerous A-B residents ask the city to make roads across the city more bike-friendly, mainly through the addition of on-road bike lanes and also by calming and slowing traffic, increasing safety for bicyclists (and pedestrians). However, few, if any improvements have been made. In addition, residents have been asking for more bike racks, especially in commercial districts, which are also still lacking. Neighboring cities continue to make significant strides for improving conditions for bicycling, while Boston continues to fall further behind. As city councilor, will you make it a priority to make bicycling safer and more convenient in Boston? If so, what specifically will you do?
The Carman's Union, (The T drivers, etc) have been without a contract for over a year now, about 27% of fares go to service the debt that was dumped onto the public transit system, fares have been increased three times in six years and no significant improvements to service has occurred, in fact scheduled expansion of services have been postponed yet again. Do you oppose cuts to benefits and would you support a strike by the employees? Would you be willing to take the T back into public ownership as a not-for-profit service to be managed by the city, the union and the community?
Post a Comment