City of cupertino: Civic Engagement
The City of Cupertino constantly strives to engage its citizens when planning is involved. However, very limited citizen engagement in early planning phases, along with public outcry and strong resistance in later ones has become a problem when planning new development and the revitalization of Cupertino's public spaces.
Our team tackled this problem head on. We strove to answer How might we improve civic engagement in Cupertino, before crises develop?
Our team tackled this problem head on. We strove to answer How might we improve civic engagement in Cupertino, before crises develop?
Process
Fieldwork
Our fieldwork consisted of field observations, surveys, and prototype intervention. As a team, we visited various sites in Cupertino to get a sense of what the community is like and potential sites for conducting our future fieldwork.
Surveys
We surveyed Cupertino community members at various locations in order to gauge perception of city planning and civic engagement in Cupertino. We conducted fieldwork at seven different sites in the city of Cupertino:
- Cupertino Crossroads: Shopping complex (Blue)
- Main Street: Partially-complete commercial and residential complex (Black)
- Cupertino High School: Public secondary school (Pink)
- 99 Ranch Market: Asian supermarket (Yellow)
- Whole Foods Market: American Supermarket (Green)
- Collins Elementary School: Public primary school (Purple)
- Cupertino Library: Public library (Orange)
Our fieldwork consisted of field observations, surveys, and prototype intervention. As a team, we visited various sites in Cupertino to get a sense of what the community is like and potential sites for conducting our future fieldwork.
Surveys
We surveyed Cupertino community members at various locations in order to gauge perception of city planning and civic engagement in Cupertino. We conducted fieldwork at seven different sites in the city of Cupertino:
- Cupertino Crossroads: Shopping complex (Blue)
- Main Street: Partially-complete commercial and residential complex (Black)
- Cupertino High School: Public secondary school (Pink)
- 99 Ranch Market: Asian supermarket (Yellow)
- Whole Foods Market: American Supermarket (Green)
- Collins Elementary School: Public primary school (Purple)
- Cupertino Library: Public library (Orange)
prototyping and results
Based on the data that we collected through our surveys, we identified the information gap as the issue to address with our intervention. We chose to prototype an intervention for young families to become more informed about resources and information on development in Cupertino.
Our intervention is a hopscotch court with information about a proposed development included in the squares. The display ends with a call to action and information about getting involved with the project.
We decided to make the prototype interactive for kids, so that parents would be enticed to stop and look at the information while their kids played with the display. We were also interested in giving passersby both immediate information on which development projects are going on in their city and a link to encourage them to become more informed later. We envisioned that the City would be able to utilize the display when seeking public comment on proposed projects, and customize the listed projects and provided information accordingly.
Our intervention is a hopscotch court with information about a proposed development included in the squares. The display ends with a call to action and information about getting involved with the project.
We decided to make the prototype interactive for kids, so that parents would be enticed to stop and look at the information while their kids played with the display. We were also interested in giving passersby both immediate information on which development projects are going on in their city and a link to encourage them to become more informed later. We envisioned that the City would be able to utilize the display when seeking public comment on proposed projects, and customize the listed projects and provided information accordingly.
We created a template for companion flyers which passersby can take home and read through more closely when they can. In addition to informaton, the flyers include descriptions and dates for every stage of development of a particular project, as well as ways in which citizens can get involved at every stage.
the civic engagement playbook
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Our final deliverable, the Civic Engagement Playbook, is a document that provides an overview of the challenges that the City of Cupertino is facing with community engagement within the city planning process, as well as numerous strategies, throughout five different platforms, to help the City of Cupertino better engage its population in regards to urban planning and development.
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The team
From left to right:
Sebastian Martinez-Sanchez
Jenny Han
Terence Zhao
John Zhao
Chiamaka Ogwuegbu
Sebastian Martinez-Sanchez
Jenny Han
Terence Zhao
John Zhao
Chiamaka Ogwuegbu