Most Discussed Ideas

These are the ideas with the most comments about them. To add your comments, visit an idea page and use the "Post Comment" form there.

Start Community Gardens

Submitted by Chris Hardie in Food and Agriculture

When we know more about where our food comes from, we can begin to have more control over our diet so that we eat healthier and in ways that reduce our impact on the land. Community gardens are a great balance between everyone needing to go out and learn how to grow their food, and everyone just depending on imported foods or non-local growers. By teaching ourselves and each other how to grow food, and sharing that knowledge (as well as the fruits of our labor) with each other, we build community and eat better.

Create a Local Stock Market

Submitted by Chris Hardie in Business

Why do we send our savings accounts, retirement funds, pension funds, and other investments off to other communities? Let’s invest SOME of that in the success of the local community.

Local banks like First Bank Richmond already have some investment programs that guarantee you're investing your funds in the success of local businesses. We could create other kinds of "stocks" that allow us to put our money where our mouths are.

New Media Summit

Submitted by Chris Hardie in Technology

There are so many new technologies available to us to share information, collaborate on projects, and build connections. Many people don't have time to explore these fully, while others may be intimidated by them. We should have a "new media summit" with presentations, workshops, panel discussions and networking events to let interested local residents explore and understand these technologies and opportunities better. From blogging to Facebook, Twitter to YouTube, there's a lot to learn and share!

Gas Works Community Center

Submitted by jim hair in Historic Preservation

A place for the community to gather, not associated with any existing group. Veterans Museum. The Cardinal Greenway trail public bathrooms, a Gorge Interpretive Center, and bike rental. Read more »

City-Wide Wifi

Submitted by pegwole in Technology

How many times have you been out and about with your laptop and thought "Oh hey I need to look something up" or "Joe from work sent me an important email that I need to read" but there aren't any open wifi networks or you can't affor to pay for the wifi in places like Starbucks? Well I think this city could use a city-wide wifi network for it's citizens.

Pushing the use of free software and RSS for the pal-item website.

Submitted by pegwole

I think the pal-item website shouls use somehting like drupal or joomla to power their site, also the lack of a RSS feed is kind of annoying. I'm not trying to be picky but they really seem to be behind in adapting to things that have basically become standard and commonplace on the web. I think we should convince them to use a free and opensource content management system, along with that they will have the added benefit of having RSS feeds, more control over their site, and a lot more flexabillity. What do the rest of you think?

Beyond Facebook

Submitted by WayneCounty in Media and Broadcasting

I realize that if we have anything in common when it comes to what we all do online, it has to be Facebook.

It has become so popular that it seems everyone you talk to has an account and hangs out there. But what I'm also realizing is it has become a lot like AOL used to be: a place where people go and stay for the most part, without venturing out of Facebook to other sites on the web.

One of the problems for locals has been there wasn't much else to do to meet up with people in our area and find out what's going on.

Install bike racks in key destination areas

Submitted by Chris Hardie

A city Richmond's size is great for biking around, but if cyclists have to worry about their bikes being stolen or damaged when they get to their destination, they may be less likely to take advantage of the opportunity. Bike racks really are a critical pieces of infrastructure for any urban area that wishes to attract visitors for shopping and browsing, and Richmond has gone without them for far too long. In difficult economic times, it's a relatively low-cost and easy solution that makes our public spaces and key destinations even more attractive and accessible.

Community Greenhouses

Submitted by jonathan in Food and Agriculture

When I go by the greenhouses located on the northwest side of Richmond, I always notice that many are sitting there unused. What if some of them could become community greenhouses? Another approach would be to reuse some of the glass that is there to build smaller greenhouses that could be located in people's yards or adjacent to a local community garden.

Create public graffiti mural spaces

Submitted by Chris Hardie in Arts, Culture and Fun

There's clearly an untapped wealth of skills and interests in the community when it comes to creating public art.

Richmond Brainstorm