Sidewalk Senate: go for a walk, then let a local Gemma help you write to the people redesigning your street

Description and use

Sidewalk Senate lets NYC residents capture walk reflections and link them to official street improvement plans using a local Gemma model, with no tracking or data export.

Problem

Residents often have opinions about local streets but rarely attend meetings or read long design documents.

Outcome

Sidewalk Senate enables residents to capture and contextualize their street experiences locally, linking them to dated public‑space proposals without any tracking or data export.

Workflow

• 1. Optionally type a destination and press "I'm heading out"; the app hides the map and confirms no tracking.
• 2. Go outside, walk, coffee, etc., without GPS or photos.
• 3. Return and write a short reflection; confirm the location if it matches a curated spot.
• 4. The local Gemma model reads the reflection, cites the exact page of the proposal, and labels its output as "AI interpretation · Review required".
• 5. Edit the suggested question or write your own, tick "I've reviewed these words", and keep the draft unsent.

Evidence

Sidewalk Senate is a small, local‑first notebook that sits on either side of an ordinary outing.

Source

The model can only cite what a person reviewed. Each curated source is broken into short claims with a page number.

Source

No tracking, Gmail, email sending, account connection, live search, analytics or persistent reflection storage is implemented.

Source