Casual Case Studies in Digital Citizenship: Stormwater, Continued
This is a continuation of a story that begins here.
After the success of the first polls I asked my mom and my business partner to replicate the poll for their NextDoor neighborhoods. My partner, Scott Hunter, ran the poll for the Larchmont/Edgewater and 25 nearby Norfolk neighborhoods. Mom’s poll ran in Lynnhaven Shores and [X] nearby Virginia Beach neighborhoods. The results continue to be interesting.
In Norfolk, 80% of NextDoor respondents favor stormwater drain adoption. Notably, not one person in 40 left a comment. Scott actually predicted no one would comment.
Over in the Shore Drive area, which is in the same, large Lynnhaven Council District as my neighborhood in King’s Grant, the responses were also largely positive: 75% are in favor of adopting drains. Here again, VB residents had something to say about the poll. The very first response was also our first comment to get personal. To paraphrase: “How about instead of putting up this poll you go clear the drain on your own street.” We’re just using the poll tool as it is intended to dialog with our neighbors and fellow citizens. So, the fact that my mother is 71 years old, has survived two brain tumor surgeries, and does clear trash and drains on her street is technically just as beside the point as the negative comment. All of the other comments were positive. No one in the Shore Drive area complained about the stormwater tax, City of VB’s responsibility, or our budget priorities.
The story in my NextDoor neighborhood took an unexpected turn, that in hindsight makes all the sense in the world, today. Someone who has adopted children asked me to change the name from “adopt-a-drain” to something else due to sensitivity of adoptive parents and children. Others took exception and replied with links to the dictionary. Another adoptive parent first wrote that it’s no big deal and then followed up with a more understanding, but still no big deal, tone. Someone asked, essentially, “can we all just get along?” That’s about when the local TV news reported approximately 120 geese were culled from our neighborhood lakes and suddenly no one in NextDoor cared about storm drains.
So this is where we are. People will adopt storm drains here in HRVA. Those who are upset and won’t adopt storm drains have some fair points but they aren’t going to keep us from doing something positive if we have the will and resources to move forward.
If you are reading this and you took the poll and wrote comments, thank you. You deserve a badge for digital civic engagement. If we get this thing up and running I’ll use the poll to contact you about adopting your first drain!
If you live in Hampton Roads and haven’t taken the poll, please take the poll on Facebook: https://poll.fbapp.io/adopt-a-drain-hrva
