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MINNESOTA CITIES | MAY/JUN 2019 | 9
<br />both physical and metaphorical. Once
<br />these doors are open, I believe we can
<br />create a participatory democracy unlike
<br />anything we’ve ever seen before. MC
<br />Dave Meslin is a Toronto-based community organizer and
<br />author of the book, Teardown: Rebuilding Democracy from
<br />the Ground Up (www.teardown.build).
<br />Wise words. Sadly, that report was
<br />written in 1972—before I was born. It’s
<br />almost as if someone has come up with
<br />a list of all the things that would make
<br />it more comfortable and convenient for
<br />citizens to engage politically, and then
<br />implemented the opposite.
<br />For example, our governments hold
<br />their most important public meetings
<br />during regular work hours, presenting
<br />an enormous obstacle to those who
<br />want to speak at a meeting or witness a
<br />crucial vote but can’t take time off work
<br />or school. (Timing is everything. That’s
<br />why “Dancing With the Stars” doesn’t air
<br />at noon, and restaurants don’t send their
<br />staff home at 5 p.m.)
<br />Very few city halls offer free snacks
<br />during meetings, and some even ban all
<br />food entirely from their chambers. Even
<br />fewer municipalities offer childcare for
<br />public meetings, even though IKEA has
<br />been doing it since 1958.
<br />All these barriers or inconveniences
<br />create an imbalance at city hall, because
<br />lobbyists and special interests will always
<br />find their way through the legislative
<br />labyrinth. But ordinary people will not.
<br />Think about the
<br />user experience
<br />Almost every topic I’ve dis-
<br />cussed here can be summed
<br />up with two words: user
<br />experience. In the world of
<br />technology, user experience
<br />(or UX, for short) is about maximizing
<br />the simplicity and comfort of a device
<br />or application—especially for first-time
<br />users. But UX doesn’t apply only to lap-
<br />tops or smartphones.
<br />Anything can be designed with
<br />UX in mind: a store, a car, or even a
<br />pen. All the commercial products and
<br />places we interact with daily tend to
<br />have incredible UX design. Companies
<br />invest effort, attention, and money
<br />into making you feel as comfortable
<br />as possible. Governments do not. In
<br />fact, they seem committed to creating
<br />uncomfortable environments.
<br />A healthy democracy must be acces-
<br />sible, comfortable, understandable, and
<br />convenient. Every aspect of the system
<br />needs to be dissected and assessed based
<br />on how it impacts these four necessities.
<br />If we want to create a culture that
<br />invites people in rather than pushing them
<br />away, the first step is to open the doors—
<br />simple as a single closed door can deter
<br />a grown adult from participating, try to
<br />imagine the cumulative impact of these
<br />layers and how they reinforce the idea of
<br />politics as an insider’s game. These are
<br />the often-overlooked mechanics of exclu-
<br />sion, and this is what makes our system
<br />rigged against ordinary people.
<br />The way that governments design pub-
<br />lic notices to communicate with citizens
<br />offers us a perfect example of what I’m
<br />talking about. When I presented a TEDx
<br />Talk back in 2010, I showed the audience
<br />what a public notice looks like in Toronto
<br />(dull, monotone, no images, tiny font,
<br />etc.), and then I showed how ridiculous a
<br />Nike ad would look if the company used
<br />the same approach.
<br />The ensuing laughter was expected. We
<br />all know that companies like Nike pro-
<br />duce fun, sexy, effective advertisements,
<br />while governments have cornered the
<br />market on dull, useless communication.
<br />Nike has effective ads because the
<br />company wants you to buy its products.
<br />But the message we get from bland public
<br />notices is that governments are com-
<br />pletely uninterested in having regular
<br />people involved in community planning.
<br />In other words, these government notices
<br />are rigged. Rigged to keep you unin-
<br />formed and uninvolved.
<br />Another obstacle:
<br />‘Municipal
<br />Gobbledegook’
<br />Of course, good graphic design
<br />is just the beginning. The
<br />effective use of colors, images,
<br />fonts, and layout is great, but
<br />if the words themselves don’t make any
<br />sense, you’ve still got a useless leaflet, web
<br />page, or sign.
<br />A report called “Municipal Gobble-
<br />degook,” written by the Toronto Bureau
<br />of Municipal Research, explains the
<br />problem: “Public notices, rather than
<br />clearly informing people of decisions
<br />that are pending, may only confuse or
<br />perhaps frustrate or even antagonize
<br />them. It is too easy to view the notices
<br />as mere legal formalities. But they are
<br />much more. These notices not only
<br />convey specific information to particu-
<br />lar individuals, but also are an import-
<br />ant mechanism through which citizen
<br />participation may be encouraged and
<br />informed or discouraged and possibly
<br />nipped in the bud.”
<br />Learn more at
<br />the League’s
<br />2019 Annual
<br />Conference
<br />Dave Meslin will be a key-
<br />note speaker at the League of
<br />Minnesota Cities 2019 Annual
<br />Conference, June 26-28, in
<br />Duluth. During his general
<br />session, “Empowering Com-
<br />munity Through Bottom-up
<br />Collaboration,” he will talk more
<br />about the common barriers
<br />that prevent engagement, and
<br />share ideas for building stronger
<br />social bonds at the community
<br />level. Using anecdotes, humor,
<br />and best practices, Meslin will
<br />demonstrate that we all have
<br />something to contribute and
<br />that the most vibrant cities are
<br />the ones that have learned how
<br />to tap into the collective creativ-
<br />ity, passion, and knowledge of
<br />community.
<br />Learn more and register:
<br />www.lmc.org/ac19mncities PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVE MESLIN
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