AIM Consulting served as the community engagement consultant for the Broadway Street Improvements Project. This project aimed to identify key improvements to the historic Broadway corridor to make it a more inviting and safe place for all users.
To help inform the project team’s recommendations for areas of improvement along the corridor, AIM coordinated and promoted a series of pop up workshops. The goal of the pop up workshops was to receive feedback from users of the corridor on challenges and opportunities; and to make providing feedback convenient. Project team members set up workshop stations in each of the corridor’s three districts including a light rail station, a state office complex, restaurants and bars, and bus stops. To notify the community about the project and pop up workshops, AIM implemented a robust notification campaign that included sidewalk chalk art, electronic communication, social media, media relations, door hanger flyers for businesses along the corridor, and coordination with local neighborhood and business associations. AIM also coordinated with a local bicycle advocacy group to plan a bike ride along the Broadway corridor to one of the pop-up workshops.
As the planning process progressed, AIM coordinated and hosted two community open house meetings to receive feedback on existing conditions along Broadway and preview proposed improvements and preliminary design concepts for improving the corridor. AIM worked with the City of Sacramento’s Public Information Officer to promote the meetings on the City’s website and blog, and implemented a media campaign to promote the meetings with local news outlets, resulting in coverage on all major evening news stations.
Public notification included door hangers to local under-represented neighborhoods and businesses along the corridor, signs at frequently utilized intersections, and email notifications to the nearby neighborhoods and community-based organizations. AIM also partnered with the local business improvement district to reach out to the businesses and invite them to the meeting. More than 150 community members attended the two community meetings to learn more and provide feedback on preliminary designs.
To reach the community at large and gather additional feedback on the proposed improvements, AIM developed and promoted two online community engagement surveys to gather feedback about existing conditions walking, biking, and taking transit along the corridor. AIM received more than 300 responses from community members online. AIM received additional responses from targeted outreach to under-represented low-income communities and a booth at the local food bank distribution along Broadway.