Public Engagement Plan

Samuel Baker, Rainshine Heffner, Harrison Herzog,

 Michael Munkvold, Savannah Siebert & Lindsey Vinson

Table of Contents

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...2
2. Key Messages…………………………………………………………………………..3
3. Communicating Key Messages to the Public………………………………………..4
4. Methods of Engagement……………………………………………………………….5
5. Evaluating Methods…………………………………………………………………….6
6. Stakeholder Analysis…………………………………………………………………...7
7. Closing Remarks……………………………………………………………………….10

Introduction

Better Block has presented an approach to improve the pedestrian experience of MLK and Grand. When going over the current plan Better Block provided, we found the areas most lacking were specific courses of action for public outreach, identification of a specific means to achieve goals, and a thorough consideration of the unintended effects not only on participants, but on businesses as well. We believe Better Block will receive the greatest level of concern from local businesses, primarily due to a decrease in business awareness due to blocking storefronts from passersby, as well as potentially limiting parking.

To be able to provide the most amount of people the most amount of opportunity as well as incentive to use repurposed motorways, Better Block should provide people with opportunities to experience what the area has to offer, and if local businesses have an opportunity to reach more customers, it becomes a mutually beneficial relationship.  

We recommend using these measures to craft a new weighted system to decide what sort implementation of tactical urbanisation is appropriate for future projects.

There are five key components to measure the success of this project, but a number of ways to measure them. We would recommend using these as the metrics of success with your project.

Awareness

How many people know about Better Block, and how many people know about when Better Block is operating? Do people agree with the benefit you are providing with the community? Why or why not?

Education

Do people understand your objectives? Do people understand your motives?

Input

Are people willing to provide input when the opportunity is there? Are people inclined to provide input in general?

Interaction

Do people use the facilities you have provided? To what extent? Are people actively looking to engage with Better Block?

Partnership

After this event, has there been an increase in correspondence with businesses? How eager do businesses seem to collaborate with Better Block, and to what extent?

As a springboard to interact with the public and businesses, and provide insight to all of the above  questions, we have provided a stakeholder analysis containing business information and interests, as well as a social media engagement plan.

Key Messages:

Promote community interaction

Better Block’s goal is to run an event that is inclusive to all. Especially those who surround the area. Pedestrians, bikers and consumers will be able to connect and have fun at this event.

Faster transportation during the event

While car traffic is important, Better Block’s goal is to provide faster and more efficient lanes for biking and foot traffic. Their goal overall, is to Better the traffic and make the streets more inclusive for non-automotive users.

Safer and more inclusive biking lanes

Better Block wants to convey the biker safety and inclusiveness is very important to them. By shutting down a car traffic lane, it would give bikers and pedestrians more room and safety to move around.

Beautify pedestrian zones

Promoting community is also a big goal of Better Block. In their event, they want to make pedestrian zones a Better experience for everybody in the surrounding areas.  

Make commuting/biking more accessible

Better Block’s goal is to provide commuter and bikers with more room, accessibility and safety while getting along with car traffic. Their goal is also to provide Better transit information so that commuter and pedestrians have Better opportunities to access public transit routes. Also enhancing bus stops by providing more benches and accessibility.

Show the community the benefit

                Better Block is attempting to show the public what a complete traffic system redesign would look like in the context of MLK and Grand.

Key Messages: Conclusion

These messages all focus on making commuting easier, faster, and more enjoyable. Car traffic is easily catered to, but Better Block’s focus is to make the biker and pedestrian areas of MLK and Grand more accessible for the community. The goal is to shut down one lane of traffic to extend the sidewalk and bike lanes.This should increase foot traffic in a safer way.  It is more safe for pedestrians and bikers if there is more room designated for them. This could also incentivize people to use alternative travel methods opposed to driving.

Communicating Key Messages to the Public

Local Interest Bulletins

This would target people who are already involved in their community. If they see Better Block’s advertisements posted, they are more likely to be inclined to go and check out the event.

Mail fliers to surrounding communities

If people in the surrounding communities receive fliers in their mail, it guarantees that they will know about the event and what the event is trying to achieve.

Promote and connect to local bloggers such as Bikeportland.org.

By inviting local journalists and bloggers to come to the event, they could cover the story and more people will be incentivized to come to more Better Block events. Reaching out to different kinds of bloggers/journalists (coffee/food bloggers, photographers, bikeportland.org, etc.)

Create more social media promotions

Instagram has an easy and cheap way to advertise to social media users. Within the app you can locate and identify who your target audience should be. What their interests are and their location can play a factor on who actually sees these advertisements. Better Block could benefit from this because people who are living in the Portland area who are interested in biking, Trimet and community events will be targeted on their Instagram feeds.

Promote at PSU clubs and the PSU radio station: KPSU

College students are a large body of people that participate in foot traffic. Plus college students are usually eager to come to events that offer food and activities. By connecting with KPSU it will promote Better Block’s event to a large PSU population. It will also have an appeal to students to learn of the already-existing partnership between Better Block and Portland State.

        Promote at PCC & UP

                The more college students we can reach, the better!

        Show the community the benefit

        By implementing popular requests, as well as considering the effect on the broader populous, Better Block would have better probability of getting the community to desire long term change.  

Communicating Key Messages: Conclusion

To evaluate how these methods actually turned out, Better Block should follow how their social media presence has increased before and after the event and compare their turnout  to last events. Better Block should have a question/comment box where people at the event can have the opportunity to convey their questions/comments/concerns they may have regarding the event. Better Block should also ask people at the event where they heard of the event so that they know where the promoting worked best. If they get a consensus of where most people obtained their information of the event, Better Block can focus more on those promoting strategies.

Methods of Engagement

Social Media 

There's a need to create a social media empire because  having an online presence is very important in this day and age. Social media works wonders for promoting businesses and those same tactics could be applied to Better Block in order to help them promote events. Furthermore, with a social media account on all the major platforms it would be much easier for people to discover Better Block, and to see when their events would take place. For MLK and Grand specifically, Better Block should create accounts on major social media platforms they may not already be on, the big ones being: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Afterwards they could post event details on these platforms and encourage other users to spread the word. Also, reaching out to have already established users to promote Better Block and future events will help to reach a larger more broad target market.

Local Businesses

More foot traffic on the street could mean more people popping into the local businesses along MLK and Grand. Therefore, Better Block could notify the businesses about the event ahead of time and see if they would like to participate. Businesses that participate could promote their business while also promoting Better Blocks best intentions. Furthermore if Better Block keeps this trend going (building relations with parties affected by their events) then in the future they could have more participants in their events, stemming from parties who were positively affected by their projects in the past.

Local Residents 

With more pedestrian access and less car traffic the street could be much more tame for residents living along it. By tame, with less cars comes less noise, also with that comes more space opening up the visual environment since there is less general congestion. Better Block could approach local residents the same way they do businesses, and explain their event and why the resident might be interested in Better Block’s vision. Furthermore Better Block could provide incentives to come to the event, for example free food or.

During the Event

Youtube allows you to post videos for free, Better Block could film their events and post them online so people can see exactly what an event entails. Better Block could film the MLK/Grand event and compile the video into a short time lapse version. Then the video could be posted to social media accounts so that followers could witness first hand what a Better Block event looks like. On top of that if the event is a success then Better Block could post before and after photos of the street to show the public what physical changes occured due to Better Blocks actions.

Evaluating Methods

        Social Media

Social media platforms have various mens for you to track your online presence. For example, if Better Block posts a photo of an event to Instagram then they could physically see how many likes and comments that photo gets. Better Block could track their popularity growth there how many likes their photos get. Ideally Better Block would want the trend to steadily increase, given that their followers keep growing. With YouTube videos, Better Block could track the number of views their videos get, much like photos on Instagram Better Block could track the trends of views on their videos. Overall, Better Block should see an increase in their online presence as they put themselves on social media platforms more frequently. With steady followers across all platforms then it would be much easier to get the word out about events to those online who might be interested in attending.

        In Person Attendance

When examining their actual events, Better Block should take into account the amount of people that show up. Starting with MLK and Grand Better Block should evaluate how many attendees come to the event. Using this data, they could compare that number to the number of attendees at a future event. Much like their social media data, Better Block would ideally like to see attendance in events grow. By using the methods of approaching local businesses and residents about the events they could draw in at the very least more attention in the MLK and Grand event. Building strong local relationships is a key strategy in increasing your reputation. Someone from the MLK Grand sector might hear about a different event in the future and know that Better Block did something Better for their community, so they could do it again in another community.

Stakeholder Analysis

There are five major categories of stakeholders in relation to the Better Blocks MLK and Grand St. project, three are each a category in the private sector consisting of the businesses on both streets, and two being the public sector involving the residents of the area, and the commuters who pass through.

Private Sector

Restaurants/Bars/Markets, Retail, Small Business

Each of these subtypes of businesses on MLK and Grand hold similar benefits to partnering with Better Blocks:

• Partnering with Better Blocks will bring more foot traffic into stores, and may increase conversation
• Exposure to new customers who will come to Grand and MLK for the Better Blocks event
• Opportunity to show support for community, which may result in the community supporting the businesses right back

Although each of these businesses hold similar benefits to partnering with Better Blocks, they each hold their own unique risks or concerns to an event on MLK and Grand St.

Restaurants, Bars, and Markets

Sheridan’s Market, Nicholas Restaurant Lebanese and Mediterranean Cuisine, Lovecraft Bar, Green Leaf Juicing Company, Pica Pica Grill

Risk

• During the event, restaurants and bars will be almost solely reliant on foot traffic, making services like postmates unavailable for the day due to lack of parking and commuting restraints.
• Similarly, if Sheridan’s Market relies on a customer base that commutes out of the general vicinity, they will also face a drop in their regular clients due to the event due to similar issues.

Counter Argument

• Although there may be a loss in regular flux on customers, the event will expose restaurants, bars, and markets in the area to a new batch of consumers. This new clientele will not only be coming into the area to support Better Blocks, but also residents that lives in the surrounding area who may not know of them will be exposed to the convenience of these nearby businesses that are taking part in Bettering the community.

Retail

Andy and Bax Outdoor Store, Next Adventure, Evo, Vespa Portland, Miller Paint & Wallpaper, What's New? Furniture

Risk

• Big events like these are a red flag for companies avoiding loss prevention (stealing).

Counter-Argument

• Although large events do require additional staff to keep loss prevention at a minimum, the event brings in more customers than a typical day at most retailers, which would improve conversation rate and promote the higher sales for the day.

Small Businesses

Modo Yoga, Jack Billy, Ivan Dollar

Risk

• Scheduled appointments for that day will have a harder time getting to business due to lack of parking and commute time from the event

Counter Argument

• Having open sessions or discounted rates for services during the event exposes new clientele to the business and displays business support for the community

Public Sector

Residents VS Commuters

In terms of benefits and disadvantages, residents in the area of MLK and Grand St. almost completely benefit from a Better Blocks project on these streets.

Resident Benefits

• Community event within walking distance of home
• Increase in beautification
• A more livable environment created

Where residents benefit from a Better Blocks project, commuters to the area are disadvantaged by a Better Blocks project.

Commuter Disadvantages

• Commute time increased by rise in traffic congestion
• Reduced parking accessibility for cars
• Vehicles are unaware of the current increase in foot traffic

Here we can see that residents to the area benefit highly from a Better Blocks project, which makes sense because Better Blocks looks to create Portland into a more livable area for the people that live here. Commuters to the area may not see what Better Blocks wants to accomplish as great as it is for the community, which is why gaining the support for public transit and biking commuters is essential.

Gaining Transit and Biking Commuter Support

• Seating at all bus stops
• Enhance bike security by adding bike parking
• Prioritizing biker safety by expanding bike lane

Closing Remarks:

Better Block has done a fine job of outlining the actual reasoning to choose their Alternative 1 option (Pg7 Of MLK Grand Doc #3). The reasoning behind this is goal oriented in terms of provisions for the pedestrian, but the overarching interest of Better Blocks longevity and growth through partnership is not taken into enough consideration.  By playing more into the interest of local businesses, with a weighted consideration of local residents and alternative commuters on top of Better Blocks current research, more doors could open for business partnerships, allowing for some of the cost to host Better Block events to be exchanged for space, while providing pedestrians consumer incentive to go to Better Block events.

During any decision making processes, especially in terms of public relations, it is imperative to analyze how it will affect community awareness, education, input, interaction and partnership with Better Block. It is also recommended to generate alternative solutions to plans based on what will help positively affect any of these five key traits of public engagement.

By using Alternative 3, instead of the presented Alternative 1 in the MLK/Grand #3 document, Better Block could alleviate the potential negative impact on commuters going through the area. This will  resonate a more positive impression of serving the greater community instead of exclusively focusing on single passenger vehicles or pedestrians