Snow Summit Community Ideation Session

Background: A key challenge for a northeastern mid-sized city was sidewalk snow removal. As one of the snowiest cities in the U.S., the local government receives many safety complaints each year for sidewalks being icy or blocked with snow, and sidewalk snow removal is the responsibility of the adjacent property owner.

Process & Solution: The team designed a series of workshop activities to solicit input from city residents on how the City could help to improve winter sidewalk conditions. They worked with local community organizations and the local media to promote and advertise the one-time summit, being hosted on a weeknight at a city elementary school. In addition to ideation activity stations, there were also data gathering stations (for the worst sidewalk locations), a general complaints station manned by the City’s constituent engagement lead, and a children’s station so parents could bring their kids and know they were being supervised. 

Results: Over 100 city residents attended the summit to submit ideas at the different ideation stations and share data points for the most dangerous winter sidewalks. Data and ideas gathered were shared on the City’s open data portal. A handful of the ideas were taken into implementation planning, with at least one being fully implemented to contract a company to clear sidewalks in high-traffic areas.