Scatter random tire spikes on the roads. 10k would probably get you quite a few
Wow that would kill a lot of people where I grew up. Very efficient.
You are overestimating the danger of a punctured tire. It is easy to notice, usually gives you plenty of time (on the order of minutes) to come to a complete stop before the tire is deflated, and even after the tire is fully deflated it still allows you to stop relatively safely for a short while (until it is cut through completely). It would probably result in a few crashes (because in carbrained places many drivers don’t know how to operate a vehicle at all), but the worst outcome from this is ambulances/firetrucks being stuck in traffic jams.
I was thinking starvation, due to food deserts in the too-big suburbs. (lots of roads, so I’m not sure what cleanup time would look like. I guess with good prioritization maybe folks could get groceries along the highways?)
Ah yeah, that makes sense. However, if all roads are fully jammed, most people would be able to walk to a grocery store - it’s likely not insanely far away from you (quick search suggests average straight-line distance to a grocery shop in the US is ~4 km = 50 min, which sounds very far away from a non-US perspective but still not completely unreachable), it’s just that usually there’s a highway full of traffic between you and the store.
Or like a 10-15 min bike ride, probably use the pavement or go off road until the spikes are cleared up
I’m assuming not many suburbanites have bikes.
Well then buy one, you can probably get one that is good for a while for less than your monthly car payment.
Drop a bunch of solar meshtashtic nodes on roofs in waterproof casings.
Free Citywide Cell Service basically. Fuck the telecoms. 😁
For that kind of money you’re really only talking about minor maintenance or beautification projects. Maybe funding the cleanup of a local area or two. Fresh coat of paint on a couple buildings. Maybe a mural. We’re talking small scale here. Which of course isn’t nothing. Small steps are what lead to bigger steps.
So personally I would probably spend it on a local park near me that needs heavy updating. Maybe redo the walking trail and if there’s enough money left over plant some more trees.
This amount is peanuts compared to the operating budget of the city I live in…
Realistically? I was pleasantly surprised by someone trying to make little tree pit gardens on the street where I live. $10,000 might be enough to make some of those on a few residential streets and kickstart a local initiative for the community to keep maintaining them. There may be some leftover money for acquiring a few communal trash bins to help with trash issues around the neighborhood as well
$10k isn’t a lot for city improvement, but it’d pay for an art installation or two.
Very little you could do to a city with 10k. Probably feed a bunch of people for a little while.
Or plant a food forest with fruit trees, berry bushes etc. good for the environment, for recreation and for teaching kids about where food comes from while supplying some free food for whoever wants to do some picking.
I live in New York so practically nothing
A common eagle scout project where I grew up was surrounding vulnerable trees with beaver wire.
fill in some fuckin potholes
On a similar energy, I’d remove speed humps. They’re worse by design.
I mean, the design is to force drivers to slow down. Looks like they fulfilled their requirements.
Bike lanes and clearing brush around the dirt paths where sidewalks should be.
If I also had a fair bit of time, community micro-grants are my favorite. Solicit ideas for improvements, offering 100-1000 bucks each. Select several, widely publicize what will be done.
Next favored, run a citizen assembly on a community issue (if you can do it cheap, have some money to allocate as an agenda item).
Finally, if the point is to ask what I want done… Right now it is probably homeless shelters and food pantries in the US. Lots of grants drying up.
Man 10k… Can’t even afford to pave 1000ft of single lane road… ummmm
I dunno, maybe like pay to install 2 ADA crossing ramps? Can 10k get me 2? I think it might…
Leave. Fuck this city. That 10 grand would be better put to use relocating me to somewhere better.
Honestly right now food is at an all time high, finding local food banks would be top of the list.
I’ve run a lot of art workshops for mixed age groups and adults. No one is ever unhappy after making art together, it’s a wholesome way to get out with friends or meet new people, or just learn a new skill.
Paid workshops charge $20-100, which is an unnecessary expense for people these days.
The initial investment in supplies can be as low as $5/person depending on the type of art, locations can be cheap to free (libraries, community centers, quiet nights at bars and restaurants,) and if you can’t run the workshop yourself, many artists would be happy to do it for a small honorarium.
For 10K, you could run dozens of free art workshops for a year or two.
