« Media, community, and "making sense" | Main | Join the nonrevolution! »

Andrew Rasiej just does it!

Many of us have been talking about connecting people with government (or, more generally, both politics and governance infrastructure), but Andrew Rasiej is putting his time and energy on the line, running for Public Advocate of New York City. Andrew really gets it, and the words he's published at the site come from the heart of someone who's been practicing civic engagement for years. Seeing this makes me realize that more of us should just do it. [Link]

Every day, thousands of civic-minded individuals and organizations in hundreds of neighborhoods selflessly work to clean up our parks, improve our schools, care for neighbors, and strengthen our communities. Yet, too often, our voices and concerns are not heard and our collective power is never felt, because city government is stuck in an old paradigm: elect one person and supposedly they will solve our problems.

I am running for Public Advocate because I want to use my experience in bringing ideas and people together to leverage the full potential of all New Yorkers. And I believe we can begin to do that by reinventing the Public Advocate’s office and moving it into the 21st Century.

How? By first refocusing it on reconnecting New York, and creating a vibrant, self-sustaining network of public advocates who can collectively and effectively drive change in our communities. Then by taking advantage of a wide range of new tools and technologies to inform and engage all our citizens and give them a full voice in their city’s future.

The bottom line: There’s no way one elected official can solve the problems of 8 million people. But I am convinced that 8 million people working together can solve the problems of one city.

jon posted this at 3:31 PM
Share on Facebook| email to a friend

 Subscribe to RSS feed for Weblogsky