20 special mailboxes will be coming to neighborhoods across Buffalo’s east side this February, where residents can drop ideas for community development.
The “idea boxes” as they’re being called, are part of the Pride in Place project, intended to celebrate and reinvigorate Black and Brown culture. The project is being orchestrated by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, in partnership with the Buffalo Center for Health Equity.
The boxes will be placed in 20 locations with prompts to ask residents about their vision for neighborhood spaces. Alexa Wajed, Pride in Place’s project manager, said the goal of the idea boxes is to encourage creativity and inform neighborhood development and planning.
The idea boxes are “nostalgic, and something that is not done very often,” Wajed said. “And it’s very tactile. So, to get people to actually write something down on paper and open up a mailbox and drop it in has an amazing connotation to it.”
The project also offers an opportunity for local artists. LISC is holding an open call for designs for the idea boxes.
The idea boxes will be installed this February. The community’s input will be compiled by LISC and shared with developers and other stakeholders.
“This will lead us to make informed decisions about what summits need to take place, what conversations need to take place, or where we need to push back on maybe some type of policy or policymakers, to incite change,” Wajed said. “And to spark change, and to make it a lasting change that is going to benefit the community in which these things and these developments are taking place.”
Wajed said the project is especially important during the pandemic, as neighborhood disparities have been heightened and greater community support is needed.