I don’t really have any recommendations for low investment / high impact, just high investment / high impact. I think the nature of the problem “get people to do what is required in local government to reduce NIMBY power” inherently requires a lot of effort to do well. And the pre-requisite is educating people. That’s why one of the keystones of Maximum New York is my class, The Foundations of New York.
In general, I think it’s relatively easy to get people to show up to civic/government things if they really understand how the government works, the organizer keeps the environment chill/fun, and each individual can connect showing up to concrete longer term change. (This is part of what I call the “buddies and pals” theory of political change. It works!)
But the hard work that precedes this easy option is actually educating people to a pretty high level, at which point they possess the psychological capability of being intrinsically interested in government. You don’t really have to force them to do anything at that point, they’ll want to.
As far as organizing something in Philly: I don’t know the particulars of its governmental structure and relationship to Harrisburg as well as NYC/Albany. If I wanted to get a group together in Philly, I’d first find a cool story of relatively recent, impressive change that’s occurred in that system, and then write a post that says something like “let’s do this again, good change is possible!” That grounds the meetup with a concrete example of good change, and gives people something to grip as they ascend the education cliff, which I think is vital to civic motivation. (And political pedagogy is its own separate challenge for instructors and civic group leaders.)
I don’t really have any recommendations for low investment / high impact, just high investment / high impact. I think the nature of the problem “get people to do what is required in local government to reduce NIMBY power” inherently requires a lot of effort to do well. And the pre-requisite is educating people. That’s why one of the keystones of Maximum New York is my class, The Foundations of New York.
In general, I think it’s relatively easy to get people to show up to civic/government things if they really understand how the government works, the organizer keeps the environment chill/fun, and each individual can connect showing up to concrete longer term change. (This is part of what I call the “buddies and pals” theory of political change. It works!)
But the hard work that precedes this easy option is actually educating people to a pretty high level, at which point they possess the psychological capability of being intrinsically interested in government. You don’t really have to force them to do anything at that point, they’ll want to.
As far as organizing something in Philly: I don’t know the particulars of its governmental structure and relationship to Harrisburg as well as NYC/Albany. If I wanted to get a group together in Philly, I’d first find a cool story of relatively recent, impressive change that’s occurred in that system, and then write a post that says something like “let’s do this again, good change is possible!” That grounds the meetup with a concrete example of good change, and gives people something to grip as they ascend the education cliff, which I think is vital to civic motivation. (And political pedagogy is its own separate challenge for instructors and civic group leaders.)