99 Gaining Engagement in Policymaking While many of the city’s dashboards have been created and are maintained by individual city departments, the effort to better tell the city’s story has been cross-departmental and enterprise-wide. The new Clean Arlington indicators, for example, come from code enforcement staff, the parks and recreation team, the asset management group, public works, and Warren’s communications team. Each city department has interior landing pages where more detailed indicators can be found on a dashboard. “If you’re a resident, and all you care about is the library, you’ll see scorecard measures that are important to you,” Warren said of the public’s ability to tailor what information they see. Tying the city council’s priorities to innovative storytelling helps keep the public engaged. Warren has seen a noticeable difference in the questions staff members get at public meetings, too. “We do town hall meetings during the budget process and, routinely, the questions that we get from our residents are much more informed as a result,” Warren said. “They have that background going into it.” In 2020, Arlington’s voters approved a quarter-cent sales tax to fund an economic development corporation to attract jobs and companies to the city. Telling the city’s story is a key component of that recruitment effort. Whether it’s improving road conditions, learning how the city is supporting its families and neighborhoods, or encouraging new businesses to open, “those are all core things that our residents truly care about, day in and day out,” Warren said. Planning and Designing Better Communities In Arlington, a resident or visitor can search an interactive map for all the city’s public art, finding a picture of the piece, the address, artist, and a description. People can also submit information about a piece of public art through an online GIS survey. The city’s Park Finder includes a way for residents and visitors to look up Arlington’s parks by location on a map (including proximity to the person doing the searching). Results show up as an alphabetical list or can be listed by park amenities such as boat ramps, hiking trails, sports fields, ponds, playgrounds, and more.
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