Articles

Greater & Greener: The Ultimate Outdoor Classroom

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

For nearly two centuries, New York City has led the way in its commitment to providing parks and green space for all residents. From the great historic Central and Prospect Parks, to the revitalized Bronx River Greenway to the catalytic High Line Park, the city’s innovative approaches to park development and partnerships can be adapted by all great cities. This coming July, city park planners, designers and visionaries, will have a chance to experience New York City’s parks like never before at the International Urban Parks Conference! Presented by City Parks Alliance, the event development committee for this year’s Greater & Greener conference promises a highly interactive program to include mobile workshops, a volunteer day, weekend tours, and receptions in great parks.

Top Urban Planners, Designers, Innovators from Across the Globe Gather This Week for CNU 20

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 07:00:00 +0000

This week a broad cross-section of America’s (and the world’s) best urban planners, designers, thinkers and doers will be gathering in West Palm Beach for the 20th annual Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU20). Even if you were unable to attend this event, you’ll have the chance to participate by following the CNU 20 buzz (Twitter hashtag #cnu20) of attendees as they work to craft hands-on solutions that will vitalize our neighborhoods, cities and towns.

Social Media Utilized By Planning & Transit Authorities to Monitor Public Sentiment

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:30:25 +0000

It seems that cities known for their successful public transportation programs have done a bit of listening to residents to make improvements, plan, and respond to citizen needs. In a city like Chicago where each day thousands of people rely on the Chicago Transit Authority to get to their destination, a good transit experience seems to make or break their day. And how do we know this? Search for the Twitter hashtag #cta and you’ll discover a multitude of statements from the Chicagoland populace.

A Citizen Planner’s Tool Box: Alternative Planning Resources

admin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 07:00:00 +0000

We recently stumbled across what might be one of Cyburbia’s oldest and richest resources, “A Citizen Planner’s Toolbox”. This forum was created a while back as a gathering place for the kinds of complimentary, affordable, and alternative resources that are desperately needed by citizen planners. Since its inception, there have been quite a few ideas and links posted by peers thoughout ther planning field, that we think our readers will find valuable; especially those who often have little or no budget to work with in communicating their projects’ development plans.

Open Mapping Workshops Provide GeoData Guidance to Planners

admin — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 08:00:00 +0000

A major new trend in cartography and urban planning, Web Mapping can safely be regarded as one of the hottest new public engagement tools. Historically, cartography was expensive, restrictive, and complex. However, with the relatively recent rise of web mapping, a range of free and proprietary data and technology has been born. As a result, the barrier to entry for creating maps on the web has shifted from that of the paper atlas and other traditional cartography.

Nine Sessions Not to Miss at This Year's APA National Planning Conference

admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:00:00 +0000

The American Planning Association (APA) is gearing up for it’s 2012 National Planning Conference in Los Angeles next month (April 14-17), and the Technology and Planning Division have some great sessions set for this year. From what we’ve heard, this year’s program calls for sessions on 3-D simulation, performance measurement tools, as well as citizen engagement programs and GIS applications. Here is a list of sessions which intrigued us, and we wanted to share with you...

Communicating Planning Project Initiatives & Achievements

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000

The question of how to effectively and appropriately communicate with the public regarding department or organizational planning initiatives and achievements frequently comes up for us with clients. Although some planners may have fine tuned their project communication strategy, it became apparent to us recently, while browsing discussions on Cyburbia.com, that many are still struggling to find some fresh ideas on how to spread the word about what they are actually working on.

Hands-On Resources to Address Opportunities & Possibilities in Location Technology

admin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Can you imagine today’s world without location-based technology? It’s everywhere—in augmented reality apps for smartphones, GPS systems in our cars, urban transportation systems, and with public participation (ie. Gov 2.0) and visualisation web portals. In the past year, EngagingCities alone has dedicated over twenty posts to the subject of GIS in planning, with a 2012 location-based article series in the works as we speak. This being said, getting a handle on the multitude of planning related geospacial platforms and tools out there isn't easy, especially considering the rapid rate at which this technology is evolving.

Increasing Public Participation in Rural Planning & Community Development

admin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

A community planner from the “Back 40”, working on a multi-jurisdictional planning process for a small, rural community recently posed this question on Cyburbia. Planner.tk, a local design firm associate and community planner with a passion for 'saving the environment', inquires about how to drum up successful public participation in their county of less than 30,000 people. Insights and ideas came in from fellow Cyburbia members regarding useful techniques in community development as well as unique challenges faced by planners focused on rural areas.

Online Resources for Community Building and Public Participation

admin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

We’ve been keeping our eye on "Community Engagement", a LinkedIn group that encompasses discussion on community building, education, public participation, participative democracy and working in partnership. One of the most popular ongoing discussions has revealed some of the group members’ go-to websites for community engagement in terms of urban planning, support for citizen dialogue, and innovation. Here’s a list of the highlights:

New Field Guide Helps Local Officials Plan for a Stronger Democracy

admin — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:00:00 +0000

The National League of Cities (NLC) has recently created a toolkit called, “Planning for Stronger Local Democracy: A Field Guide for Local Officials” with the purpose of guiding city leaders to cultivate a culture of transparency and accountability to also address and resolve issues.

Should My Department Have a Facebook Page?

admin — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:50:56 +0000

An entry level planner approaches his manager and asks if the department should be considering creating a Facebook page to get the word out about current projects. Says he knows a planner in the Bay Area that has recently done this for his community. The manager is skeptical. His only experience with Facebook in this context is work-related questions that would come in directly to him from residents, which foiled his attempts to have a personal life in the small town he managed. So, is this a good idea? Or a bad one - to have a Facebook page dedicated to your community and managed by your city department? What about controversial projects you are working on?

Creating More Efficient Social Media Processes

admin — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:00:00 +0000

There are many ways to leverage your project’s web and mobile presence in our ever innovative world of outreach and communications technologies. In our day to day dealings with clients, we teach businesses, including real estate companies, non-profits, local authorities, and government institutions how to reap the most benefit from today’s most popular social media services, including blogs, online communities, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

Resources Help Municipalities Better Implement Open Gov Policies

admin — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Open Government Initiative is a collaborative project which was established by a familiar group of passionate advocates of open government, including CityCamp, Colorado Smart Communities, Code for America, the Sunlight Foundation, OpenPlans, in late 2010. Guided by their commitment to transparency, participation and accessibility in government, the group has made significant progress in the movement to build the public’s trust and satisfaction by creating new opportunities for innovation. Recently, Open Government Initiative published their Candidate Open Government Pledge and Declaration of Open Government Principles, in an effort to make it easier for local governments to better implement open government policies. The sample templates, highlighted below, echo President Obama’s collective call for open government, in his address to the United Nations in September 2010.

Celebrating National Community Planning Month

admin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Communities across the country are celebrating National Community Planning Month this October. The month long “event”, sponsored by the American Planning Association (APA), its members, chapters, divisions, and professional institute, was developed to recognize the vital role of planners and planning in communities throughout the U.S. At EngagingCities, we have been encouraged historically by the amount of participation we’ve seen with this celebration at a local level here in Colorado. We are excited to see what is in store for 2011’s celebrations around the nation.

Appreciating Community Feedback

admin — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Excited by the possibilities, you may have embraced web 2.0 technology with open arms to engage residents in your community. But what if your sites aren’t drawing the quantities of visitors you had anticipated? A commonly overlooked aspect of building an online community, is appreciating the one you already have.

Facilitating Online Collaboration

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 07:00:00 +0000

When it comes to online conversations and forums, the role of the facilitator has become essential in supporting a participatory process. But how has the role of the facilitator evolved with the increasing use of online communication as opposed to conventional face to face interactions?

On Managing Consultations Efficiently

admin — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:08:50 +0000

I’ve heard the same question a couple of times this week in a couple of different contexts, so I thought I’d offer some thoughts here. “How do we effectively manage large volumes of responses to consultations with limited resources, especially when these volumes are likely to increase as a result of more accessible online engagements”? It’s a great question. The growth of the internet as a means for spreading our ‘engagement net’ ever wider brings with it the potential for a much greater degree of community participation. Unfortunately, this is a double edged sword.

How to Deal with Negative Public Feedback

admin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Time and again we hear of city government’s shying away from social networks because they’re afraid of opening themselves up to criticism. Feedback can mean everything in some online circles, but don’t let fear of negative feedback deter you from forming online communities or engaging in social media. It might sound counterintuitive, but look for the positives: Negative feedback and constructive criticism provide authenticity to your community. Nobody’s perfect, and an entity that appeared perfect would feel insincere and worthy of suspicion.

Measuring Social Media Effectiveness

admin — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Now that many planning projects have launched their social media campaigns and are moving in the direction of actively managing a web presence to maintain open online dialogue platforms for public engagement, its time to evaluate what can be done to effectively measure their success rates. It is difficult to benchmark respective activity in the social media realm, as performance is measured differently. This is especially true due to the fact that social media is so versatile, diverse, complex and multi-faceted, spanning many disparate objectives and many different platforms.

Engagement Strategies to Make Your Planning Website a Success

admin — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:21:34 +0000

It’s one thing to create project websites or social media accounts for your planning project - but it’s a completely different story to actually get people to visit them and become engaged. We often see planning projects that are offering an impressive list of social media features and participatory elements, just to see a handful of submissions, comments or other activities that could be considered participation.

Monitoring Online Discussions About Your Planning Project

admin — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:00:00 +0000

At some point in time, planners might have had the option to create their plans without including the public and to simply present the final product at a workshop. And we know how that goes, duck and cover. With the ease of publishing and sharing news, information and commentary on the Internet today, planners and decision-makers do not have that option any longer. Your residents are talking about your plans or proposed changes, whether you like it or not. Worse, if you’re not careful, they might gain broad support quickly and public opinion about your project is about to get negative.

Using Facebook Fan Pages to Better Engage Your Participants

admin — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:29:32 +0000

These days RFPs for planning projects often include the requirement to use Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites as a means to communicate with the public. Unfortunately, it typically doesn’t go beyond that and many projects that we have seen simply use these venues under the assumption we-build-it-and-they-will-come. Therefore the level of activity and fans or followers is often low.

Participation Metrics in Online Communities Often Neglected

admin — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:30:16 +0000

In our opinion, evaluation of participation metrics should be paid more attention to. More often than not, online communities don’t serve their purpose of engaging visitors, simply because they are not being monitored appropriately for optimal participation. Here are just a few things that can be done to raise the bar to measure and increase public engagement in online communities.

Your Opposition Is Ahead of You

admin — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:44:39 +0000

Lately I’ve been reading about an increasing number of instances in which good-faith planning efforts are being ambushed, often delaying or completely derailing various initiatives. Here, for example, are the new commissioners of Carroll County, Maryland, working to “fix” their comprehensive plan – click on item VI in the agenda under the video or jump to about 1:07 to get to the heart of it. More informatively, here’s the East Bay Tea Party in California revealing the strategy it used to derail a public visioning workshop focused on sustainable development.