Hasta La Ideas

In some way or another, we all pay taxes to the cities we live in, and we benefit regularly from city services. But few of us are aware of how exactly our money is spent on municipal projects. Also, while the structures of democracy ensure town halls and the ability to petition our representatives, even fewer of us feel a sense of agency in guiding the decision-making process.

I recently learned about Citizinvestor, a site that attempts to bring crowdfunding to city projects in the United States. Unlike most crowdfunding sites, not just anyone can join: they have to be city officials, and the project has to be approved for moving forward. Citizinvestor steps in with the funding side—city officials can go directly to their constituencies to seek funding. The city gets the funds it needs, and citizens know exactly how their dollars are being spent. As with Kickstarter, projects are only funded if they meet 100% of their goal.

In a recent TEDx talk, co-founder Jordan Raymor introduced the notion of the government as a vending machine, where citizens can choose what projects they want to pay for and engage with. This has dangers, of course—a project like this could detract from the sort of systemic change that many cities require to provide more equitable services for all citizens, not just those who have access to credit cards and the time to check a crowdfunding campaign. But Citizinvestor isn’t mean to replace regular government functions. It does, however, provide a platform for accountability.

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