engaged city task force - first report

7/30/2019 Engaged City Task Force - First Report

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Mayors Engaged City Task Force Quick Starts

Task Force

MayorsV a n c o u V e r

engagedcity


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2 Mayors Engaged City Task Force Quick Starts

W lv rbl mor ommuoopporus:a period when a vast array o ree and inexpensive tools enable people rom all

over the world to quickly connect to one another, share ideas and participate

in discussions and debates on every topic under the sun. Smart phones, instant

messaging, YouTube, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and many other social

platorms have transormed how we communicate and interact with one another.

Civic governments around the world are embracing new technology and using it

to improve the way they engage with citizens.

It seems ironic that such communication technologies should coincide with the

decline o civic engagement and increased eelings o isolation trends that

threaten the civic abric o our city and undermine our work to build a more

aordable, greener, and stronger Vancouver. Numerous studies have documented

the general decline in civic participation: decreased voting rates, the decline in

volunteering, the retreat rom participation in community and neighbourhood lie.


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While some may eel that being engaged in ones community is a nice to have,

others would argue that engagement is critical to the success o any community.

There is a growing recognition that the larger challenges o a community cannot

be addressed i the residents who make up that community remain indierent

and detached. Engagement is a key ingredient to creating a vibrant, caring and

resilient community in Vancouver, one that is strong enough to address the

signicant challenges and opportunities our city aces in the years ahead.

How does a retreat rom civic involvement impact City Hall? For decades, the

City o Vancouver has invited residents to provide input on various issues being

tackled by City Council: budgets, new building developments, business licenses,

community planning, to name a ew. At one time, the City relied heavily on

public meetings, oten held at City Hall, which required people to physically

attend an event to learn about an issue, discuss ideas and provide their eedback.

Frequently, public consultations involved only those citizens with the time,

energy, language skills and condence to communicate directly to Council.

Citizen advisory groups began in the 1970s as a way to engage the community,

and now have more than 300 members. Mail, phone and later email joined the list

o methods that City Council used to gather eedback. Starting in the mid-1990s,

web pages were created or specic projects to help keep the public inormed.

Recently, or the rst time, Vancouver established positions within the civil service

dedicated to enhancing public engagement and exploring innovative ways to

open up public policy and planning debates to a greater number o residents.

In the last three to our years, the City o Vancouver has adopted new ways

to broaden its conversations with the public. 3-1-1 provides a direct point o

access or questions and concerns. Four new community plans in the Downtown

Eastside, Marpole, the West End, and Grandview-Woodlands are all underway and

will be completed this year. The City has had signicant success employing new

online technologies that invite a wide range o residents into critical discussions,

as evidenced by the success o the Talk Green To Us campaign, which engaged

over 30,000 people in the creation o the Greenest City Action Plan.


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Engagement is a key ingredient

to creating a vibrant, caring and

resilient community in Vancouver, one

that is strong enough to address the

signifcant challenges and opportunities

our city faces in the years ahead.


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The decline in civic participation also poses a serious challenge or the health

and well-being o Vancouver. This was underscored in 2012 when the Vancouver

Foundation, Canadas largest community oundation, measured how connected

and engaged people were in Metro Vancouver. The survey looked at the issue

rom three levels: peoples riendships, their neighbourhood relationships, and

their eelings and involvement in the larger community o Metro Vancouver.

The Foundations study o over 3,800 residents (1,000 o whom were living in

Vancouver) identied and quantied the areas and the people who were most

detached and disengaged. In particular, the survey ound that 25 to 34 years olds

are the most disconnected and disengaged, along with people living in condos

and high rises. The study also noted growing solitudes in our neighbourhoods.

While relationships with neighbours are polite, they are generally shallow. The

survey suggested that ew residents have done a avour or their neighbour, and

ew participate in neighbourhood improvement activities. As well, the survey ound

that the more languages spoken within a neighbourhood, the less people trusted

each other and the less they bothered to do things to improve their neighbourhood.

These ndings present some clear challenges. Vancouver is increasingly a

community o many cultures and languages. We are a city that will need to

build more aordable housing, particularly multi-unit dwellings, to ensure an

adequate housing supply in the coming decades. We are an urban area that

wants to attract and retain younger adults. We are a community that, like many

other urban centres, aces some signicant social and environmental challenges.

...

...


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For the City o Vancouver, the Vancouver Foundations ndings were a call to

action: an opportunity to explore new ways that a municipal government could

play a greater role in creating a more engaged community.

How could a city government

facilitate and strengthen

relationships between

and among neighbours

of different cultures?How could the City

enhance its use of social

media tools for policy

development?

How could it

improve signage

and communications

materials?

What could a city government doto get more residents, particularly

those aged 25 to 34, engaged in

civic life and decision making?

The rst step towards answering those questions was the creation o an

Engaged City Task Force, and with it, an interim report composed o

Quick Start recommendations. We hope that City Council will embrace these

recommendations and quickly move orward on a path to ostering a stronger,

more engaged and connected city o neighbourhoods in Vancouver.


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Residents o Vancouver were invited to

apply and more than 100 applications werereceived. Particular attention was paid to

recruiting individuals who representedthe geographic areas o the city, had

experience engaging individuals 25 to 34years o age, and expertise in using social

media or community engagement.

On October 3, 2012 Vancouver City Council passed a motion to create the Mayors EngagedCity Task Force. The goal o the task orce was:

On December 5, 2012 Mayor Robertson

announced the 22 members o the TaskForce. The group represents a broad cross-

section o ages, backgrounds and proessions.What we have in common is knowledge,

experience and commitment to communitypublic engagement in Vancouver. Even with

22 members, we recognize it is not perectand impossible to ully represent such a

diverse city like Vancouver.

to examine innovative

best practices for civic

engagement, and seek to make

progress on priority issuesincluding improving the way

the City communicates with

citizens, engages immigrants

and youth, consults on policy,

increases voter turnout and

enables community connection

at a neighbourhood level.


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Th fst mtig th tsk ws hld Jy 17, 2013. ov th xt pl

mths, mmbs bk it gps t gt ids i th ky s:

1.

2.

3.

Improving civic government-to-

resident and resident-to-civic

government engagement.

Improving neighbour-to-

neighbour relationships

and engagement.

Communicating and

engaging the community in

the work o the Task Force.


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Like other Mayors task orces beore it, the

Engaged City Task Force frst concentrated on

ideas that could be achieved in the short term

what have been dubbed Quick Starts.

This frst report is a short list o those

recommendations we eel could be accomplished

by the City within a six month time rame.

The Task Force will develop a nal report, with a longer

list o short and long-term recommendations, by the endo July. Over the coming weeks, we will be looking or

ways to invite more people into the discussion o ideas.

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Bring City Hall to the Community

Participatory Budgetingor Neighbourhoods

Many people are unable to access City Hall to use the services they want during the hours

it is open, due to work or travel constraints. The City should develop a pilot program ora mini-City Hall to have key city services available at select times in neighbourhoods,

starting with those poorly served by transit access to City Hall. A mobile kiosk that visitsdierent neighbourhoods could provide basic services that people need rom City Hall,

such as getting a new blue bin, paying a parking ticket, or registering to vote.

Other cities in North America, such as Ne w York and Chicago, are moving towardsmechanisms or residents to determine how money is spent in their neighbourhood.

The City should set aside money in its capital budget or neighbourhood inrastructureto pilot a participatory budgeting program in select neighbourhoods. This could be a

great way to engage people who do not normally get involved in city initiatives. Winningprojects could be used or local priorities like park enhancements, new playground

equipment, amenities or seniors, street upgrades or new green space.

Declare a City-wideNeighbourhoodBlock Party Day

NeighbourhoodCouncillorLiaisons

The underlying theme o a Neighbourhood Block Party Day should be to empower

neighbourhoods to engage neighbours with one another. The City should build on thesuccess and demand or Car Free Days in Vancouver by declaring a Neighbourhood Block

Party Day, creating economies o scale or block parties to plan, access city services, andbuild public awareness. The Block Party Day should seek to go beyond just single-amily

neighbourhoods to areas with high-density rental and strata buildings, the residents owhich were identied in research rom the Vancouver Foundation as being the most likely

to cite eeling isolated rom their local community.

The city-wide election process prevents residents rom ormally having an identiedgo-to councillor or issues in their neighbourhood. The City should reinvigorate

the Council liaison positions by requiring each councillor to represent specicneighbourhoods in Vancouver, and working with local organizations to hold one

public event in their designated neighbourhoods per year, with a ocus on enhancingknowledge o city services and processes, and connecting people to City Hall. There

may be an opportunity or these liaisons to work through the rotating mini-City Hallsto create regular engagement with a particular neighbourhood.


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Inspiring Leadership

PBNYCIn 2011, our New York City Council Members launched a participatory budget process

PBNYC to let residents allocate part o their capital discretionary unds. This year, eightcouncillors are taking part, each putting up $1 million in unds. Residents can submit

ideas on projects to invest in, which will appear on a ballot open to district residents age16 and older. The process starts with neighbourhood assemblies in the all, who identiy

community needs and select delegates. Over the winter, the delegates meet to develop

proposals, and then share them with the community though project expos to soliciteedback. The projects are revised and then put to a community vote in the spring.

The PBNYC program engages a wide variety o resident groups, with over 20 representedon a city-wide steering committee that includes elected ocials. Groups include the New

York Immigration Coalition, New Yorkers or Parks, and the Pratt Center or CommunityDevelopment, ensuring a diversity o viewpoints in the process.

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Open the Doors to City Hall

City Hall is the peoples building, and the City should hold opportunities or the publicto visit dierent foors, explore dierent departments, and visit oces that they cannot

normally access. An Open Door day in Vancouver could also include key pieces o cityinrastructure such as the Southeast False Creek Neighbourhood Energy Utility, the

Manitoba Works Yard, or police and re acilities, to build awareness about the servicespeople receive or their tax dollars. Open Door day should be ree to the public and provide

opportunities or venues in dierent neighbourhoods throughout Vancouver, or peopleo all ages to tour, ask questions, and gain a new understanding o how the city works.

Eorts should be made to present some tours in languages other than English.

Voter turnout is low in Vancouver, with just 35% o eligible voters casting a ballot in 2011.

In the 1960s, 70% o rst-time young voters in Canada would vote in the rst electionthey were eligible in. By 2004, this was down to 30%. We need to do better. The City

should be doing everything it can to make it simple and easy to register and be inormed.A permanent online voter registration and elections page should be available at all times

on the Citys website, not just in the lead-up to an election. People who register to vote inadvance are much more likely to cast a vote than those who dont.

The webpage should include an opportunity to register online to vote, as well as

inormation in dierent languages on how to do so by phone or email, timelines andrequirements or registering to run or elected oce, and details on what is needed

to vote in terms o identication.

Make it Easy to Register to Vote

City Hall 101

Many city processes are conusing and opaque to members o the public. The City

should provide inormation in an easy-to-read, easily accessible ormat on the website toexplain the dierent ways the public can interact with the city, as well as explain specic

programs and policies. Budget development, city service responsibilities, rezonings all othese should be explained in a standing section on the City website.

Graphics and animations should be used to convey complicated inormation, such as the

development process, and tap into the wealth o artistic and design talent in Vancouver tocollaborate on new ways to convey basic civic inormation to people who want it.

City Hall Storytelling

Storytelling is a powerul way to engage people in discussions about how to improve theircommunity, and can be eective in bringing together a diverse group o people. How

many people in the public know the work by city sta that takes place behind the scenes?An event such as Rain City Chronicles would provide opportunities to hear personal stories

about City Hall rom sta, residents, business owners and others. This would oster betterawareness about how the City operates. The event could also include residents, business

owners and others who have stories to tell about their interactions with City Hall.


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Doors OpenDoors Open is a successul concept used in cities around the world, and has been growing

in popularity in Canada. The City o Calgary hosted Doors Open YYC DO YYC NAKED romSeptember 29 to 30, 2012. 35 sites participated, with the challenge to provide more than

just ree access, but a behind-the-scenes look at how some o the most popular and well-known venues operate, giving people the chance to not just look, but experience.

DO YYC NAKED said:

Expect to see t he heart o Calgary rom the 1900s wrapped up in the Calgary o today.

Expect to experience Calgary dance, music and theatre rom the stage, not the seats.

Expect to go behind the scenes in high-profle sports venues. Expect to learn the secrets

and mechanics o how our city works. Expect to have access to private archives and

collections. Expect to see sides o Calgary no one has seen beore.


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Earlier PublicInvolvement inMajor RezoningProposals

The City should request that developers who seek a major rezoning o a propertyhold a community open house prior to any design proposals being put orward. This

would prevent a scenario where expensive building design renderings are completed

and made public at an open house, creating a perception that little will change ipeople provide comments or concerns. These open houses should be held in theneighbourhood where the development would take place, and p rovide an opportunity

or the developer to inorm and educate local residents on what is possible to build onthe site, and or the community to express any opinions early on.

Providing an earlier opportunity or public input prior to a major rezoning will

strengthen public trust in the planning process, and allow or proponents to gain abetter understanding o community concerns beore a rst design is put orward.

Enhanced Notice o Planning Changes

Providing an adequate period o time or the public to be notied o planningand development items on Council agendas is an important way to build greater

understanding o public policy changes. Currently, council reports are posted 5 to 6 daysin advance o meetings. The City should aim to increase this time, rom a week and

a hal to two weeks. With more time to absorb the reports coming orward, there is abetter opportunity or dialogue, eedback, and avoidance o misunderstanding, as well

as bolstering the public hearing process, which already provides extensive time andnotication or citizen eedback.

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RethinkPublic Signs

It is time the City o Vancouver brought public signage into the 21st century. Too manyo the notication signs, particularly related to planning and development, are written in

outdated, technical language that makes it dicult or people to understand. These signsuse small onts, lack colour, and seem to encourage people to ignore them, rather than to

read and be inormed by them.

The City should engage the proessional design community in a redesign contest orits development notication materials. The redesign contest should seek proposals or

how City signs can be engaging and visually appealing when inorming the public aboutdevelopment proposals.


The 4th WallIn 2011, Torontos Urbanspace Gallery commissioned DaveMeslin, a local public space activist, to develop an exhibiton how to create a culture o local citizen engagement. Theresult was The Fourth Wall; 36 recommendations or how

the City o Toronto can improve civic engagement, spanningelectoral reorm to supporting neighbourhood groups.

The rst recommendation Reaching Out asked

the question could the city do a better job of sharinginformation and communicating with citizens?The

answer was a proposal to redesign public notication signs,resulting in posters that were colourul, creative, and simple

to understand.


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Bring 3-1-1 Online

CrowdsourcedVenue List

The Citys inormation telephone number 3-1-1 is increasingly used by

Vancouverites to provide eedback and seek ino rom City Hall. Providingan online 3-1-1 unction, such as through Twitter, would enable it to reach

a broader range o people, particularly a younger demographic who mightbe less likely to call but have no problem tweeting a quick question.

Have you ever wanted to host an event in your neighbourhood, but had no idea whatvenues were available to hold it in? Access to community venues is oten restricted by

a lack o knowledge o what exists, and one o the rst and sometimes most dicultsteps in bringing people together is nding a place to do it. This recommendation aims

to support local residents in their eorts to organize community activities and events.A central list o venues that is created and updated online by community members is

a way to support community-driven activities by providing reliable and easy-to-accessinormation about the places in the city where people can come together.

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Create and Promote anEngaged City Listserv

Create andPromote an OnlineEngagement Panel

Currently, i you want to nd out all o the dierent ways to get involved with the

City, you need to keep tabs on a number o dierent departments: the Citys Twittereed, the Greenest City Facebook page, the Marpole community plan Twitter eed, or

the Cultural Services newsletter, or example. The City should start an Engaged CityListerv to ensure that citizens who want to stay up to date on city events involving

engagement, such as open houses and ino sessions, receive the inormationregularly, and in one place, by email.

The City should take advantage o innovative new online engagement tools andlaunch an open, online community panel that enables citizens to engage regularly

with the City to provide eedback on civic issues. Using interactive survey anddialogue tools to collect eedback, this panel with membership in the thousands

would provide a new avenue or citizen input that builds on existing structuresor engagement. The online panel would allow or more in-depth eedback and the

ability to ensure that responses are demographically representative o Vancouver.

Create and Promotean Engaged CityTwitter Handle

Soliciting eedback rom the public will be important or the process o developing

the nal report rom the Task Force. The Task Force looked at many ways to engagepeople on social media, and concluded that a keep it simple approach was best or

eective engagement. Launching an Engaged City Twitter handle or people to tweetideas and eedback will be a simple way to crowdsource ideas or the nal report, and

build up an online community that can then be continued by City sta once the TaskForces work is complete.

Providing an adequate period o time or the public to be notied o planningand development items on Council agendas is an important way to build greater

understanding o public policy changes. Currently, council reports are posted 5-6 days inadvance o meetings. The City should aim to increase this time, rom a week and a hal

to two weeks where possible. With more time to absorb the reports coming orward, thereis a better opportunity or dialogue, eedback, and avoidance o misunderstanding, as

well as bolstering the public hearing process, which already provides extensive time andnotication or citizen eedback.

The Tk Fce ecgnize tht while me ept e tight fwd nd wuld nt fce

bie t being pted me thn 5-6 d in dvnce, ept tht e me cmplex nd

equie deciin within cetin timefme m nt be ble t chieve the tget.


@NYCMayorsofceIn October 2012, Hurricane Sandy devastated the eastern coast o the United States,leaving 7.5 million people without power over a two day period and $30 billion in property

damage. Social media proved to be a key component o how the City o New Yorkcommunicated during the emergency, with New York Mayor Mike Bloombergs oce at

the oreront o online engagement.

The City quickly published inormation on up-to-the minute food predictions, as wellas locations o emergency shelters and ood distribution centres to its open data portal,

enabling developers and designers to build emergency maps and applications. TheCitys main twitter channel, @NYCMayorsoce, quickly became the go-to source or real

time inormation, and in combination with a partnership with Twitter, which donatedthousands o dollars worth o sponsored tweets, reached over a million more users and

more than doubled its ollower count over several days. The City sent more than 2,000tweets and responded to over 300 questions during the Hurricane, and published news

releases on Facebook and Tumblr in easy-to-read ormats to reach an even larger audienceduring a natural disaster, keeping them inormed on what the City was doing to respond.


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Our hope is that these Quick Start

recommendations will enable the City to

move quickly on improving civic engagement

in Vancouver. There are simple, tangible

steps the City can take to enhance public

consultation, improve the eectiveness o civic

communications, and oster collaboration and

connection within neighbourhoods.

To be clear, improving civic engagement is not something

that will happen quickly, and there is no magic solution.

These recommendations are just a rst step. We look

orward to engaging the broader public in the weeks

ahead as we work to create a nal report that will provide

a roadmap or enhancing civic engagement in Vancouver

or the years to come.


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Engagement at a Neighbourhood Level1. Bring City Hall to the Community

2. Participatory Budgeting or Neighbourhoods

3. Declare a City-wide Neighbourhood Block Party Day

4. Neighbourhood Councillor Liaisons

Improve Civic Education5. Open the Doors to City Hall

6. City Hall 101

7. Make it Easy to Register to Vote

8. City Hall Storytelling

Improve the Development Process9. Earlier Public Involvement in Major Rezoning Proposals

10. Enhanced Notice o Planning Changes

11. Rethink Public Signs and Notices

Social Media for Civic Engagement12. Bring 3-1-1 Online

13. Crowdsourced Venue List

14. Create and Promote an Engaged City Listserv

15. Create and Promote an Online Engagement Panel

16. Create and Promote an Engaged City Twitter Handle


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Waldo Brino

Vice President o the Vancouver Latin

American Cultural Centre; member o the

Citys Multicultural Advisory Committee

Mark Busse

Host o Creative Mornings Vancouver; past

president o the BC Chapter o the Society

o Graphic Designers

Mary Elisa Campbell

Director, Princes Foundation or Building

Community in Canada; Former Executive

Director o the Design Centre or

Sustainability, UBC

Dennis Chan

Former Chair and current Director

o S.U.C.C.E.S.S.

Samuel Chen

PhD student at SFU studying transormational

change in the Faculty o Education

Hanna Cho

Curator o engagement and dialogue,

Museum o Vancouver; ormer Project

Manager or Youth Outreach, Asia Pacifc

Foundation o Canada

Catherine Clement

Executive Director o Communications at

Vancouver Community College; ormer

director o Vancouver Foundations

Connections and Engagement survey

Curtis Davey

Volunteer/Operations Director o KitsFest;

Director o SLIDELUCK Vancouver and the

Playground Interactive Society.

Richard Delaney

President o the Canadian Institute or

Public Engagement

Olive Dempsey

Facilitator and engagement strategist;

ormer communications coordinator with

Get Your Vote On

Meharoona Ghani

Director o strategic planning, community

engagement and outreach at Reel Causes

Jennier Gray-Grant

Executive Director at Collingwood

Neighbourhood House

Peter Greenwell

Current Chair o the Vancouver City

Planning Commission

Lizzy Karp

Co-ounder o Rain City Chronicles;

Engagement Coordinator or CityStudio.

Colleen McGuinness

Current member o the Citys Seniors

Advisory Committee; director with the

Dunbar Residents Association

Tara Mahoney

Co-ounder o Gen Why Media

Lyndsay Poaps

Former Vancouver Parks Commissioner;

ormer Urban Fellow with the City o

Toronto. Co-Founder o Check Your Head.

Scott Sheldon

Co-ounder o Vancouver Change Camp

Marten Sims

Director o Communications and acilitator

with the Vancouver Design Nerds; Sessional

Faculty at Emily Carr University

Paul Taylor

Executive Director o Gordon

Neighbourhood House; ormer Executive

Director o the Downtown Eastside

Neighbourhood House

Julien Thomas

Specialist in arts-based community

engagement; acilitator o Late Nite Art

series; Gather Round; and Stick Shit public

art projects

Tesicca Truong

Board Chair o Sustainable SFU, student

senator on SFU Senate, VSB SustainabilityConerence Chairperson


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May 2013

Vancouver Mayors Engaged City Task Force

engaged city task force - first report

Documents