On August 16, the Ethics Review Board of New Orleans voted unanimously to recommend the city’s Code of Ethics be revised to bar City Council members and candidates from accepting political contributions from utility firms regulated by the city.

These firms would include Entergy New Orleans, Cox Communications, and any vendor that works on a contract awarded by the City Council or the Sewerage and Water Board.

Additionally, the recommended rule would ban contributions from any political action committee or executive staff member of the firms.

Neighborland is a New Orleans project of Civic Center that was founded by Candy Chang, Tee Parham, and Dan Parham. It harnesses the power of crowdsourcing in order to improve and reinvent their neighborhoods.

The site says: “We love New Orleans. We want Neighborland to be a fun and effective way to make our city a better place.”

Here is how it works:

• Citizens of New Orleans can go to the Neighborland website and fill in the statement –  “I want ____ in my neighborhood.” The idea is to offer something that would make your neighborhood a better place.
• Then they can start a discussion online and campaign for support and votes.
• Hopefully they get enough support to keep the discussion going and figure out how to make their dream a  reality.

Ideas include requesting more bicycle parking in the French Quarter, more transit options to get to the airport, and the opportunity to recycle glass.

Luke Fretwell from Govfresh interviews Co-founder Dan Parham in the article “Here Comes the Neighborland” from July 26.

You can keep up with the lastest news from Neighborland on Twitter and Facebook.

Cities everywhere, take note!