Shout it from the summit: Activists needed

Maureen Feeney, Boston City Council's president, is the force behind the upcoming "Boston Civic Summit." (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff/File 2006)

Can a one-day gathering of city residents inject fresh life into civic activism in Boston? City Council president Maureen Feeney thinks so, and she's pedaling fast to put the final touches on plans for the May 3 "Boston Civic Summit."

Though Boston has long been known for its vibrant mix of civic associations and neighborhood groups, Feeney worries that we're on a downward slide. "We have for a long time depended on the same people, who are getting older and tired," she says. "You can go to 15 meetings in Dorchester in a week, and you're going to see a lot of the same people."

That sounds like a fairly timeless lament about civic involvement through the ages: There are a small number of people who do and a vastly larger number who don't. But whether it's because of a waning tendency among children of longtime residents to settle and raise families in the neighborhoods where they grew up, or an increase in immigrants who feel more like outsiders in local affairs, Feeney says we need to do more to help stitch together the civic fabric that once formed a tight weave on its own.

The citizen summit at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center will feature workshops on "best practices" for civic engagement, including strategies for building organizations, fund-raising, and communicating goals. A "knowing zoning" seminar will help residents understand the complex world of permitting and land-use law that is often at the center of contentious development battles.

But beyond all that, Feeney wants the event to bring together residents from various corners of the city, especially those who have not been heavily involved in civic life, to give them a sense of the possibilities for improving their community by working together.

"How do we keep the tradition of volunteerism alive in the city?" asks Feeney. "Because I do think it's what makes this a livable city. There's tremendous need for this social capital," she says, speaking the language of Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, whose 2000 best-seller, "Bowling Alone," chronicled the decline in civic engagement in America.

Putnam recently caused a stir with new research among 30,000 US residents showing that the greater the level of racial and ethnic diversity in a community, the lower the various indicators of civic engagement, such as participation in community projects and voter turnout.

Davida Andelman didn't need Putnam's massive study to tell her that. "When you have people who are different from one another, it does take longer to build up those relationships, to build trust to have people working together," says Andelman, a longtime activist in Dorchester's Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood - an ethnic stew of blacks, whites, Latinos, Vietnamese, and Cape Verdeans.

Andelman is among those veteran civic leaders who are excited about the summit. "I think it's great. We need to have more cross-fertilization going on in this city," she says of the effort to bring together residents from different neighborhoods to share experiences.

Mayor Tom Menino sounded a note of skepticism about the event in January when Feeney first floated the idea, saying he worried that such a gathering might lead to unduly heightened expectations of what city government can do. Feeney says she's not sure whether the mayor will take part. "We've had some conversations," she says. "But it's not about Tom Menino, and it's not about Maureen Feeney, and it's not about any elected official."

Feeney and her staff have been working hard on outreach to ensure attendance by a broad cross-section of city residents, and she's hoping to land a major keynote speaker. But she and others promoting the event know the true mark of its success will be if it can do more than just draw together Boston's most reliable civic players.

"It can't just be the usual suspects," says Andelman.

Michael Jonas can be reached at jonas@globe.com.