Splicing the Stories of the Hybrid City

Kevin Chaney, June 27, 2022

As the COVID-19 pandemic spilled into 2022, many of us became “fed up” with the persistence of public health measures, while the level of animosity toward governments and institutions increased significantly (Martins, 2022). However, even as the pandemic (and the people) raged on, other major social and environmental challenges surfaced into public consciousness. For many citizens, the connection between extreme weather, natural disasters, and climate change; or between institutions and systemic racism became more clear than ever before.

The citizen as user

In our increasingly urbanized world, social and environmental challenges become quality-of-life challenges for cities to address (Department of Finance Canada, 2021). Local governments provide basic quality-of-life services to their citizens related to safety, water, waste disposal, mobility options around the city, and natural and recreational spaces.

Yet citizens, as users of municipal services, experience these services differently. Some appreciate these services and want more of them at better quality. Others don’t experience the value of those services and resent the price paid for them in taxes. Still others chafe at the ways that services entrench privileges and inequalities.

The Hybrid City

“If you don’t feel good about your downtown, you don’t feel good about your city. Then you start to think about moving to the suburbs or out of the city or province entirely.” (Calgary Herald, 2022, para. 8)

The adaptations made by people during the pandemic have forced cities to redefine themselves. Citizens are walking out into “hybrid” cities, with part of their identifies emmeshed in remote work and online communication (Bruinius et al., 2022). The meaning of “where” has changed. For some, the city is no longer the place to be. The pandemic has opened up other ways for the urbanite (and suburbanite) to exist. Though we might zoom in-and-out of different spaces and places in our hybrid world, it remains true that that the hard geography of our urban spaces matter — and matter a lot.

It is in the city, where the electrical grid is directed, where cars transport us and our food and supplies, where housing types create (or divide) communities, this is where we show whether we are up to challenge, or no match for it. It is in the city where investments in “hard” physical infrastructure will reduce emissions from homes, buildings and vehicles, improve quality-of-live in equity-deserving communities.

Who knows? City investments may even create capacity for local businesses to meet our material needs, which would help substitute the imported emissions from the stuff we buy from overseas.

Considering the Problem

For such long-term investments to happen, local governments need the support of citizens who are also users of municipal services. They must deliver services in a manner that is competent and empathetic to elicit trust (O’Leary et al., 2019).

How can local governments frame the value of municipal services in a manner that renews trust in government to address important life-quality challenges? The ability of local governments to highlight value and success can also build trust with the public (O’Leary et al., 2019).

How might we do this? Below are potential considerations for the City of Calgary to these “how might we” (HMW) questions.

Knowing the users of municipal services

Looking at the problem from the perspective of the user, we see that municipal services impact citizens in a variety of ways.

User personas

Most Canadian want a good relationship with their local government, especially those citizens who are new to Canada (Argyle Public Relationships, 2019). But given the diversity of stakeholder involved, three user personas were created to consider the value of municipal services from different perspectives.

Brad is a 54-year old male who has lived in Calgary since he moved in early 20s from Saskatchewan. Involved in several successful oilfield service companies for 30 years before losing his job in 2015. Has a technical diploma, and is now doing construction work.

Kelsey is a 29-year old female who has lived in Calgary her entire life. Has a graduate degree in environmental engineering and has just recently started a family.

Bwale is a 32-year old male who moved to Calgary two years ago from Nigeria. Has a background in finance and is completing additional studies between odd jobs.

Walking through the user interview with these personas, we consider how they might respond:

Empathy mapping

A similar way to better know our users is to empathize with their experience. Here the empathy mapping responses are shown for those same user personas.

The root cause

Finally, we can also refine the problem statement using the 5 Why’s technique.

Empathizing and Building Trust with Users

“Canadian municipalities need to listen to and respond to the public desire for a relationship with their local governments — because these relationships are critical to democratic engagement, trust, compliance, and social cohesion” — Daniel Tisch (Argyle Public Relationships, 2019, para. 9)

The reality of migration, attracting talent, integrating newcomers, brain drain, and the shifting identities involved with that, makes it challenging to sustain intensive social and environmental solutions over long periods of time.

Local governments remain the most trusted order of government amongst Canadians (Federation of Canadian Municipalities, 2019). In seeking the right solutions, local governments will have to consider this complexity and ensure they are managing their touch points with users. Each road sign, each passing garbage truck, each bus or train arriving at the stop, each pothole, all generate user impressions. Local governments have a strategic interest in ensuring these impressions form an overall story of trust in government and institutions to effect positive change.

Where there is trust, then good solutions are real action are possible.