Crain's: Here is how you rebuild Bronzeville

Via The Chicago Neighborhoods
An application (app.)/game to rebuild a neighborhood? Interesting idea:
Here's how to have fun and an impact while you're at it: By playing a game on your smartphone, you could bring retailers and public spaces to a blighted swath of Chicago's South Side.

A new FarmVille-esque app called Build It! Bronzeville allows players to earn points by creating a new and improved Bronzeville (virtually, of course) by building a playground here and a police station there, a sandwich shop on this corner and offices on that one. Players can spend those points on other new amenities. They also can earn points by scanning receipts from real-life shopping in the neighborhood or wherever.

The game could guide the city on economic development and yield data that retailers might buy: How much money Bronzeville residents spend and on what, providing store owners a better idea of the kind of retail that would be viable.

For now, the Build It! Bronzevlille app lives on a developer's phone. Like the community it's designed to serve, the game needs investors so it can move from test product to market.
Read the whole thing - this article is from Crain's you might have to get beyond a paywall. Also check out their official website @ Team Build It!

Do you think an app. such as this could help revitalize other communities such as Englewood, Chatham, and Roseland?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Proposed Chicago ward remap would add Hispanic seats - Chicago Sun-Times

There should be an elected school board

Happy Birthday, Worlee & the Citizen Newspaper!