Our block association, the Manhattan 75, is officially powered by a new Claude Code backend, complete with a DIY CRM, event manager, photo uploader, and Stripe connection to process member payments. 🔥 🔥 🔥 You can view the latest iteration here: https://www.manhattan75.nyc/ Incredibly cool to meet up with two other non-engineers on my block and do a formal tech handoff and transfer for our new webmaster and secretary/historian. We are all builders now! Next up -- OpenClaw for the block association???

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the really interesting thing about building in public is that sometimes the people you need next on the journey are already the ones who have been playing along from home i have been seriously falling behind on maintenance and upkeep and knowledge work for my block association (because volunteer work...) so the exec team and i decided i would do much better with a secretary on the team at our last board meeting I idly mentioned it, not assuming anyone would want to pick up the job. but instead one of the newest and quietest people on the board raised his hand at the last meeting expressing interest in being secretary we met up this weekend for a run-down. turns out he heads up an internal AI task force for a major company and is essentially already doing the role of corporate librarian for them. he honestly could not be more excited to do this job and i could not be more excited to NOT have to do it hehehe.

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My 70-year-old neighbors are getting better at AI fliers for the block hehehe

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BIG news on the block...tonight we elected our 7-person board of directors! Feeling pretty proud how we've been able to catalyze a community that's big enough to activate enough members on the street for a formal board in just 18 months. It's a pretty special thing to see. <3

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My block association has decided to run The Longest Table this year! We are targeting a Saturday in June. It's a block-wide potluck where people bring their own food, we help supply tables. It's part community vibes, part fundraiser. If you're interested in running one yourself and need a little inspo of someone else who's doing it too, give a shout and we can be virtual "block buddies" to get this program off the ground. https://www.longesttablecommunity.org/

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I know this is kind of a small potatoes thing but I'm really proud that over the past 18 months, I've successfully restarted our block association to the point that we now have an engaged member list of 300 people, 10-12 regular meeting attendees, and 50 paying members. Last night was our first meeting of the year and we all agreed we need to formalize roles, officially lean into nonprofit status and get a formal board of directors in order. Someone even asked what would be required of the president (!!!) While I'm not (YET!) ready to step down from this leadership role, a real sign of something worth continuing to build is when other people step in and feel agency to take action (or want leadership roles too). We are a long way from having this be a smooth operation, but it's been a really fun example of starting something from zero and growing up as a leader with a group that I catalyzed myself. If you're in the early stages of considering taking on block or community work, give a shout. I'd be happy to share back lessons learned.

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I’m not sure who needs to hear this but if you steward a block community and live in a neighborhood that has film shoots, you should definitely approach the production team and ask them to make a donation to your association Lots of NYC block associations earn ad hoc contributions this way.

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Are there any Farcaster communities down at a Nextdoor block level block level like ft green or Santa Monica or the city in London

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PSA - When the world around you feels like it’s falling apart from the top… …leaning into hyper-local community is really good for the soul One year into the Manhattan 75 block association now and 20+ of us volunteered to mulch 40+ tree beds on the block today. I’m not gonna lie and tell you this has been easy to get off the ground. But I can tell it’s what we all need right now. ❤️

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Came back from a weekend away and discovered that neighbors in my block association had not only self-organized a trash pickup walk, but also made a rat newsletter (with ChatGPT) and then updated the website (using an AI no-code website builder I built for them) https://manhattan75.nyc/ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

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Hi neighborhood builders! I'm hosting a fun (Free!) AI Power Hour this Thursday for people who want to build social impact tools for their communities. Join me and Julia Gitis of Community News Lab in SF to go from 0 to MVP in just 60 minutes! RSVP here https://partiful.com/e/Bwr9Nv8voZcuT72scj7l?

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Front yard happy hours FTW

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Hey Neighbor

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When I ask myself the question of “what would you do if money were no object?” The answer is always, “help other people create the kind of neighborhood I have.” But I can’t think of how to do that in a sustainable way

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So last night was kind of a big deal because I got to visit City Hall in /new-york for the first time and receive an awards for a micro-grant on behalf of my block association, The Manhattan 75! Some of you probably know I’ve been pushing reactivating hyper-local community on my block for the past year or so. I started bootstrapping my own block association last summer, with the help and encouragement of @cabin (h/t @savannah and @hillis!) and despite a lot of slow starts and long pauses, I’ve somehow managed to become President, rebrand, and recruit a half-dozen eager volunteers to get engaged. One of those volunteers got so empowered by rat mitigation that he recruited NYC’s Rat Czar to our block (via cold email) and at her encouragement we applied for this grant. We will set out to create a street-wide “rat pack” with “rat squads” per block, and some mitigation efforts. Part of this grant award is being included in a community of 15 other block association, tenant association and community garden orgs in the city. In other words, I’m in another neighborhood accelerator. 😜 The cycle continues. This is what it feels like to learn and build with community.

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