At this year’s Future of News and Civic Media conference I learned about The Open Planning Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to civic empowerment through public space and transporation reform. They have produced a number of interesting web-based projects to catalyze change in the urban landscape, including ‘Uncivil Servants,’ a website for citizens to report parking abuses by public servants. The project seeks to prompt structural changes in the way parking violations are handled in New York City through a combination of research, education and advocacy. Starting with a survey of city drivers using government-issued permits to park illegally (pdf of the report is available here), they built a site where you can learn about the validity of these permits, blog about violations (above) and map them (below). The project aims to reduce the number of permits issued and hold accountable those that abuse them to make the streets safer for everyone.
