"Popularise" - build your city

At the end of 2011, two brothers Dan and Ben Miller launched a new Popularize application. At that moment, they had a house in their ownership and they decided what to do with them: open a coffee shop, a souvenir store, an office space? In many ways, the face of the city depends on developers and entrepreneurs who dispose of the territory, and most people do not participate in the adoption of such decisions. Millers decided to change the situation and listen to the opinions of the inhabitants of their native Washington.

How does this work

The main participants in the process are the owners of buildings, who are interested in the opinion of the townspeople, and the townspeople themselves who are outing their thoughts about a particular project. Owners of buildings, businessmen and developers can create “drawing boards”, which post information about the project, photographs and their questions to citizens.

The townspeople, introducing their real name and the index, get the opportunity to comment on the project (they like it or not), offer their ideas and tell their friends about it on social networks.

Advantages

According to the authors of the project, everyone benefits from this idea:

• Developers/ owners of buildings receive new fresh ideas from residents of the city and their direct customers, have the opportunity to evaluate the demand for the project even before it begins and draw attention to their business;
• A small business working in a particular area can familiarize themselves with the ideas of the community and adopt something to be more competitive and in demand;
• The community gets the opportunity to influence what the district and the city look like. Take this, large corporations imposed their ideas from top to bottom, we want to start building the area from the bottom up

Instead, large corporations imposed their ideas for development from top to bottom, we want to start building the area from the bottom up

Popularise

For each idea on the site you can vote, but a large number of likes will not mean that the proposed project must be implemented. This is just a tool showing developer the potential of the proposed idea and the response to it from the side of the community.

Examples

At the moment, four real objects have been posted on the site. The owners of the premises are carefully approaching the question: place detailed plans for the premises, describe their main physical indicators, rental rates and the features of the areas where they are located. In order for more people to learn that they can participate in the fate of the house, a large banner is hung on it with a proposal to join the discussion.

Photos of the community: