The article soon landed on I Believe in Birmingham, a Facebook group that hosts discussions on local matters. There, residents criticized the City of Birmingham’s lack of maintenance on road repair.

I’m a member of a couple of thriving Facebook groups focused on civic and planning/design issues in Philadelphia. What’s great about these groups is being able to see how other people respond to stories of the day and occasionally chipping in with my perspective. I sometimes wonder how this kind of online community could be directly incorporated into a planning process, and I think your post provides a pretty good example of what’s possible.