New research from Cities Forward
From Service Requests to Stronger Participation
Insights from city leaders, community partners, and resident data on 311, trust, and civic engagement, and how cities can better understand and respond to resident priorities.
How cities can better understand and respond to resident priorities to build trust and increase civic participation
Resident perspectives311 data insightsRecommendations for actionOur core belief
When local government shows residents what it is doing, explains what it cannot yet do, and responds when they speak up, residents gain confidence that their voice matters.
That confidence is the foundation of civic participation, from reporting a problem to attending a meeting to voting.
Executive summary
What we examined
Service records often leave the outcome unclear. Across about 1.6 million closed 311 requests, 82% had no explanation of what happened in the public data fields we examined. Interviewees also described tickets closing when a request moved between departments, even though residents understood closure to mean the problem was fixed.
A new report can signal a conversation that remains unfinished. In the median city, about 15% of eligible closed requests were followed within 30 days by another request of the same type nearby. Records alone can’t tell recurring conditions, duplicates, and unresolved problems apart. Residents’ feedback can.
The practical question
How can responsiveness become an ordinary part of city government?
Without depending on a mayor’s visibility or a resident’s ability to attract attention online.
Everyday government
Crews fix streets every day. Residents rarely hear that the work happened.
What’s inside
Ten sections, from the street to city hall
The memo draws on interviews, public 311 records, an early look at service and voting participation, and what we’ve learned running programs with city halls since 2022. Appendices cover methods, definitions, and limitations.
- 01Making Everyday Government Visible
- 02The Burden of Being Heard and Staying Informed
- 03What City Leaders Told Us
- 04What Public Service Records Reveal
- 05From Existing Tools to a Continuing Feedback Loop
- 06Three Pillars of Lasting Civic Participation
- 07An Early Look at Service and Voting Participation
- 08Building on Cities Forward’s Experience
- 09What the Proposed Pilot Would Test
- 10Making More of the Work Cities Already Do
Three connected pillars
How cities build lasting civic participation
Communication
A continuing stream of updates about work in residents’ neighborhoods: progress, delays, verified completion, and a way to reply when something is still wrong.
Programs
Low-cost local programs that build civic knowledge, skills, social connection, and agency, grounded in community conditions.
Learning
Ongoing learning among mayors and city staff, so practices that work spread across cities and last through leadership transitions.
Proposed pilot
2027
Do residents hear back, understand what their city is doing, and influence what happens next, within a process staff can sustain?
Read the full memo
Bring these findings to your city.
Request the full memo, or talk with us about what the 2027 pilot could test in your city.
The Memo
Listening, Understanding, Acting
Residents tell their cities what they need every day. This memo looks at what happens next: what 1.78 million 311 requests from 16 mid-size cities show about follow-through, what 17 mayors, city staff, nonprofit leaders, and funders told us, and how a 2027 pilot will test a better way.