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?