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Nextdoor suffers a lot of the same problems of traditional social media, the ease of spreading dis-information. Recently our city council was proposing a speci
by bronco21016 8y ago
Nextdoor suffers a lot of the same problems of traditional social media, the ease of spreading dis-information.
Recently our city council was proposing a special assessment against each property in our neighborhood of about 100 houses to rebuild our roads. The project was estimated to cost each tax payer $50,000 in a neighborhood of houses where the values range from $150,000-$250,000. Yes, they wanted to take $50,000 from each home, in addition to normal property taxes that should pay for infrastructure, to rebuild our road.
One of the councilman’s wife (someone that most would think is informed) was posting on Nextdoor claiming the special assessment was something the residents of the neighborhood would vote on and that residents should vote yes on the special assessment to beautify their neighborhood and that anyone who votes no clearly doesn’t care about their neighborhood. The problem with this is the special assessment clauses in the city ordinances do not provide a mechanism for residents to vote. It’s purely a vote of city council members. So here we have a city councilman’s spouse spreading falsehoods about how city government works. I reported the posts and countered them both with citations of ordinances and recorded questions about the process at city council hearings but because she has a large following and more ‘influence’ in the Nextdoor sphere I was labeled a liar and crazy person that doesn’t care about his neighborhood. Nextdoor did nothing to stop the dis-information.
I’m aware it’s only one anecdote but I find it hard to believe that Nextdoor can become any reliable source of local news when it’s so easy to post and spread straight up falsehoods on the platform.
- Bombthecat 8y agoI hope they voted yes and paid 50k?
- cagenut 8y agofwiw, separate from the topic at hand, your experience of shockingly large road/sewer bills coming due is rapidly going to become normal. for a walk through of the math check out about three minutes of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVaEmg-S-j0&t=10m50s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVaEmg-S-j0&t=10m50s most of these american exurban developments of 50 - 250 homes, with no other meaningful town or tax base, down winding side roads and cul-de-sacs, got built starting in the 80s and really ramping up in the 90s. they are all 40 - 60 year infrastructure financial time bombs. the math never worked, it was just built on a long enough horizon that everybody got to assume it would be someone elses problem.
- davidw 8y agoI sense some Strong Towns in this comment!
- stcredzero 8y agothat anyone who votes no clearly doesn’t care about their neighborhood It's exactly this kind of assertion, combined with followup attacks which is degrading public discourse in 2019. I reported the posts and countered them both with citations of ordinances and recorded questions about the process at city council hearings but because she has a large following and more ‘influence’ in the Nextdoor sphere I was labeled a liar and crazy person that doesn’t care about his neighborhood. Fits the general pattern to a T. Might makes right. I have the most followers, therefore I am right. I have control of the forum, therefore I am right. How is it the general population doesn't have a basic grasp of epistemology? In 2019, it seems like fully half of the population thinks might makes right is intellectually worthy! What if you wrote up a pamphlet and started talking to people in person?
- bronco21016 8y agoEventually that’s what happened. A couple of neighbors organized and put out pamphlets to have an in person meeting with one of the councilmen to get things set straight as to how the process would move forward. Participation was quite high which really gives me hope that the world isn’t completely broken. As of now the plan is to put out a millage for vote across the whole city to cover several city infrastructure projects.
- jiveturkey 8y agoSadly, completely expected. Nextdoor should be called 'busybody'. IMHO the negatives outweigh the positives. The real problem is that Nextdoor has no incentive to fix it, in fact they have a disincentive. Their business model seeks posts that spread like wildfire, pitchfork-ism and the like.