Community & Civic Education
Neighborhood
What is a neighborhood? It's not a city. It's not a county. It's not a block. Yet we still talk about neighborhoods and know what we mean when we say that word.
Click on a city or town. Which neighborhood is your home? Tell everyone about YOUR neighborhood.
Salinas (scroll down for list)
Seaside (map, CTRL and + to zoom in)
<Movement break!>
Cities and Towns Discussion
- How long have you lived in your town?
- Have you ever lived in another town or city?
- Have you ever lived in another state?
- In another country?
- What do you think "Local Government" means?
- From 1 to 10 how important do you think local government is?
- What 3 things would you like to learn about your local government?
Cities and Towns Have Goals Too
Yesterday you discussed your own goals. Did you know cities and towns have goals too?
City Government
Where IS a city's government? _______ Hall
Another word for City Government is MUNICIPAL Government. Municipality means city.
PRESENTERS: ask people to name a city or two then look up the city hall addresses or use the list above.
<body break - stretch, drink, jump around>
City government can have a lot of different offices and services. Look at the basic organization of a city government.
- Who has the biggest responsibility?
- Which GROUP makes the laws and ordinances for a city?
- Do you know that City Council meetings are open to the public? Anyone can go. And if you have something you want the city to do, or a problem you want the city to solve, you can bring it to that meeting and make it public.
Songs About Cities - Take a singing break
Cities Choose Goals
Cities have problems. Sometimes the people at City Hall know about them. Other times they don't. Residents of the city can bring their problems to the City Council.
YOU are a resident. You could bring your concerns to the City Council.
What problems do you notice that your city should try to solve? Anything in these areas?
- Transportation
- Roads and buildings
- Services like libraries, schools, water, sewer, recycling
- Cleanliness and condition of the city
- Access for wheelchairs, canes and walkers
- Availability of public places like parks and theatres
- Jobs
GAME BREAK!! Name that City!
How Do You Tell the City?
- The City Council members represent districts of the city
- Find out the City Council member for your district. Usually it's on the city website
- You can call that person's office, or go in person during office hours, or write a letter or e-mail.
- If it's a really BIG problem that the city doesn't have a good answer for, and many other people feel it's a problem, the City Council can decide to make it a goal to solve that problem.
Just like your goals can be about improving things, cleaning up, using your money or your things more carefully, learning new things, or completing projects, the city makes goals about similar concerns.
Pretend your group is a city council. PRESENTER: choose or invent a city problem to discuss. Everyoun can talk about how the problem can be solved for a few minutes. After a few minutes put the solution you came up with to a vote.
- City buses don't have wheelchair straps but the money wasn't in the budget
- The librarians are all on strike for more pay but the mayor wants to give himself a raise
- A woman in a small neighborhood wants speed bumps on her street to slow down drivers but her neighbors don't want them.
Answers to Name that City
01 -Rio De Janero, Brazil 02 -San Francisco, 03 - Las Vegas 04 - Los Angeles 05 -Sydney, Australia
