To our knowledge, this tool does not yet exist for Community Boards, but would be very useful. Residents are the Boards’ eyes and ears on the street. While they are walking around the neighborhood, people can send their Board a text message to report about street conditions or suggest ideas. For example, report overflowing trash baskets or suggest locations for bike racks or street trees. This can help Boards with their efforts to collect information about what’s happening in the district.
Mobile phones are accessible to more people, especially in lower-income and under-represented communities. This means that Boards can potentially gather more feedback through SMS.
See textizen.com for an example for collecting citizen feedback via text messages.