Lexington, KY - Three fellows from Code for America that have been assigned to spend the next 10 months helping Lexington better use data and technology are spending the rest of their month in town getting a feel for the needs of the area.
“The theme of this month is exploring and finding out what things are happening,” said one of the three Code for America fellows, Erik Schwartz, a web developer. “Sometimes you identify a few quick wins that… solves a couple of problems really easily and then you move on to something that’s bigger in scope.”
Schwartz and his cohort consisting of Livien Yin, a visual and web developer and Lyzi Diamond a GIS and mapping specialist were selected out of 650 applicants for one of the 30 available fellowships in 2014 that are assisting 10 governments around the country. (For more on the initial announcement of Lexington’s participation in Code for America click here.)
Schwartz, Yin and Diamond will work together over the next 10 months, sometimes here in Lexington and the rest of the time together at Code for America’s headquarters in San Francisco where they will be able to collaborate with the other fellows to best utilize the skill sets they each posses.
Citing a previous project, Yin said the structure of Code for America is valuable in its partnerships with cities and other territories looking for technological fixes and new ways to identify issues within communities.
“It was a powerful example of how you can leverage tech and human empathy to better connect citizens with their local government toward shared goals,” she said about a project to mitigate blight in New Orleans the Code for America fellows implemented.
“We can all remember a time when the word geek was not especially viewed as compliment or praise,” Lexington Mayor Jim Gray said during a press conference introducing the team. “Now days, it’s a badge of honor. It means problem solver, creative thinker, innovator.”
Commerce Lexington President and CEO Bob Quick said Lexington will benefit from the eyes of outsiders set on improving a community.
“Having three leaders in technology from around the country come here and help us to see what we cannot see and help us to develop ways to better connect with our community is extremely important,” he said during the press conference.
Each fellow had their reasons for why Lexington was high on their list for where they would like to perform their fellowship. Part of Schwartz’s reason was that the Oberlin College grad is married to a Lexington native whose parents area still in the area.
Yin and Diamond said they were drawn to Lexington’s hope to focus on neighborhoods in the city.
“I picked Lexington because of the huge sense of community and neighborhood engagement,” said Diamond who spent much of her youth in Oakland and most recently worked for the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. “Neighborhoods are a huge part of what can make a city great and the neighborhood culture in Lexington and the way people interact with each other is really fascinating and as a geography geek it’s a pretty exciting problem to be able to tackle.”
Lexington is also home to a Code for America Brigade of volunteers looking to assist and carry on the program. Lexington is one of few areas to have Code for America Brigade in place prior to fellows coming to town. For more on the brigade’s local captains, click here.