New York City dwellers are famous for ignoring their neighbors, but if Mayor Michael Bloomberg has anything to say about it, that’s about to change.
The city isteaming up with Nextdoor, a social network aimed at connecting neighbors, Bloomberg announced on Friday.
The network, which launched three years ago and recently unveiled a new iOS application,has already partnered withmore than 120 city governments, including San Diego, Dallas, and San Jose—three of the ten largest cities in the country.
“Partnering with Nextdoor is another step forward in our adoption of strategic technology that better serves New Yorkers,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “Nextdoor gives New York neighbors an easy way to connect and communicate with those who live around them. It also provides the City with a direct line of communication to residents about important and often critical updates.”
Nextdoor’s unique utility is that is connects people not with friends and family, or pundits who share their worldview, but with people who simply happen to live close by.
The official city Web site, NYC.gov, already uses social media platforms likeTwitterandFacebookto reach out to New Yorkers. The partnership with Nextdoor is intended to target those updates to specific neighborhoods, providing public safety alerts and engaging with people about changes to their neighborhoods.
In theory, it could also enable a sort of online, crowd-sourced neighborhood watchto prevent crime.
Follow Emily Johnson on Twitter@emilyjreports
