The document outlines short and long term challenges facing the midcoast region, including an aging population, high housing costs, and the effects of economic recession. It then discusses opportunities for community challenge grants to fund master planning, affordable housing development, energy strategies, and civic engagement tools. The recommendations focus on developing affordable housing near job centers and transportation, as well as implementing community energy and climate adaptation plans while deepening civic participation.

1. Community Challenge
Grants
Overview of Possibilities

2. Contents
Challenges
Opportunities
Recommendations

3. Short Term Challenges
Cause Effect
•Tight Credit limits the ability of the Private
• Real Estate market sector to grow through traditional means
continues to be •Less buyers, More renters= low home prices,
sluggish, credit is high rent prices
tight •More rentals+older housing stock= Increased
vulnerability to Rising Heating Oil Prices
• Oil and Gas Prices •Affordable Housing often located far from
employment centers=Vulnerability to Gasoline
have risen nearly Prices
$1/Gallon in one year •Service Industry Jobs are particularly sensitive
to effect of recession/energy prices on tourism
• Reduced Revenues economy
•Competition for donations and grants prevents
have impacted Local, collaboration within Non-Profit Sector and results
State and Federal in inefficient duplication of efforts
Treasuries • cuts have severely limited Local, State and
Federal Agencies ability to respond to these
challenges

4. Cause Cause
Effect
Effect
Less Home
$ For Sale Owners
Less
Renovations
Lending
Fuel Prices
Older Housing
Stock
More
For Rent
Renters Less
Higher
Property
Tax Heating Higher
Revenue Costs Commuting
Higher Demand Costs
Public Services
Staff Cuts Limits Ability Outer Communities
to Address Needs
Town Center More Much Higher
Affordable Transportation and
??
Higher Lower Energy
Housing Heating Costs
Rent Usage ?
?

5. People in the suburbs drive to supermarkets and!load up the car with many bags of food.! People in
cities depend much more on walking to the local store, or taking a bus or train. This map came about
after asking a simple question: how many Americans live within a reasonable walk or drive to a
supermarket? In this case, "reasonable" was defined as a 10 minute drive, or a 1 mile walk.!The green
Sources: Esri, DeLorme, NAVTEQ, TomTom, Intermap, AND, USGS, NRCAN, and the GIS User Community |
dots represent populations in poverty who live within one mile of a supermarket.! The red dots represent
USDA
populations in poverty who live beyond a one mile walk to a supermarket, but may live within a 10
minute drive...assuming they have access to a car.! The grey dots represent the total population in a
given area.
http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=153c17de00914039bb28f6f6efe6d322

6. Supermarket
Access Midcoast
Region

7. Text for Pages 4-6 quoted
Long Term Challenges directly from Midcoast
Economic Development
District, Comprehensive
Economic Development
Strategy 2009. Some text size
has been changed for
emphasis
The major challenge to the region is
demographic. Planning Decisions, Inc., projects that the region’s overall
population will be stable overall between 2005 and 2015 – going from 99,300 to 99,700 – but that it will
change dramatically in composition.
the number of young people under the age of 20
Specifically,
will decline by 4,700, or 20%; the number of working-age
people (20 to 54) will decline by 3,300, or 7%; while the number of
retirement-age people (55 plus) will increase by 8,400, or 30%.

8. growth in income for area businesses, local governments, and
In general,
the state require a growth in the number of people working and
producing products and services of economic value.
Attracting young people to move to the area and start businesses
will be important to the region’s future economic success.
Growth of Population 65+
60.00%
United States 11.4%
Maine 12.4%
45.00%
Midcoast 25.6%
30.00% Brunswick 50.6%
Sagadahoc 16.3%
15.00%
Lincoln 21.6%
United States Maine Midcoast Brunswick Sagadahoc
0% Lincoln

9. It is hard to attract young people when
housing is so expensive.
Both Lincoln County and the Brunswick labor market area communities have
seen housing prices grow from around $125,000 in 2001 to around $200,000 in
2005. During this same period, median household incomes only grew about
$3,000. Even though housing prices have stabilized in the last
18 months, they are still out of line with historical ratios to
household incomes. This is an
obstacle to
attracting young people to the area.

10. Summary of Challenges
Lack of property tax revenues/
Base Closure/Recession has Federal, State Austerity have
resulted in low home prices but severely strained public planning
high rents agencies’ ability to address these
issues
Low-Income residents living in
The Midcoast Region needs to
older housing in outlying
actively attract young talented
communities are the most
workers or the economy will lack
vulnerable to energy price
significant growth.
increases

11. Opportunities-
Community Challenge Grants
In June 2009, HUD, DOT, EPA formed the Partnership for Sustainable Communities and are
committed to aligning programs and resources in support of 6 Livability Principles:
• Provide more transportation choices to increase safety, accessibility, and reliability
while reducing household transportation costs.
• affordable housing that expands location- and energy-
Promote equitable,
efficient housing choices
• Improve economic competitiveness of neighborhoods by giving people reliable access to employment
centers, educational opportunities, and other basic services.
• Target Federal funding toward existing communities through place-based policies
• remove barriers to collaboration, leverage
Align federal policies and funding to
funding and increase the effectiveness of existing programs.
• Enhance or urban.
rural, suburban
the unique characteristics of all communities, whether

12. Eligable Activities-
A Development of master or comprehensive D. Develop building codes that balance energy
plans that efficient rehabilitation of older structures and the
a. promote affordablehousing co-located creation affordable and healthy housing;
and/or well-connected with retail and
business development and E Strategies for creating or preserving affordable
b. 2)discourage development not aligned with housing for low-, very low-, and extremely low-income
transportation, economic development, or families or individuals in mixed-income, mixed-use
regional sustainability plans; neighborhoods along an existing or planned
transportation corridor which are based on data and
B. Development and implementation of market analysis;
local,corridor or district plans and strategies
that promote livability and sustainability while F Strategies to bring additional affordable housing to
avoiding displacement; areas that have few affordable housing opportunities
and are close to job clusters;
c. Comprehensive review to develop and
prioritize revisions to zoning codes, G. Planning,establishing,and acquiring land for
ordinances, building standards, development, redevelopment, and revitalization that
administrative regulations/actions or other reserves property for the development of affordable
laws to remove barriers and promote housing within the context of sustainable
sustainable and mixed-use development and development (see Section VI.B.1 for additional
to overcome the effects of impediments to fair requirements for land acquisition);
housing choice, including form-based codes
and inclusionary zoning ordinances to H Development of community-scale energy strategies
promote accessible, long-term affordable and implementation plans, and climate adaptation
housing that reduces racial and poverty plans; and
housing concentration and expands fair I! Development of pre- and post-disaster plans in
housing choice; the context of sustainable communities.

13. A. Development of master or B. Development and G. Planning,establishing,and
comprehensive plans that implementation of acquiring land for development,
local,corridor or district redevelopment, and revitalization
a. promote affordable housing
plans and strategies that that reserves property for the
co-located and/or well-connected
promote livability and development of affordable housing
with retail and business
sustainability while within the context of sustainable
development and
avoiding displacement; development (see Section VI.B.1 for
b. 2)discourage development not
additional requirements for land
aligned with transportation,
acquisition);
economic development, or
regional sustainability plans;

14. F. Strategies to bring additional
affordable housing to areas that have
few affordable housing
opportunities and are close to job affordable housing
clusters; close to job clusters;
E. Strategies for creating or preserving along an existing or
affordable housing for low-, very low-,
and extremely low-income families or planned transportation
individuals in mixed-income, mixed-use corridor
neighborhoods along an
existing or planned community-scale energy
transportation corridor which strategies and
are based on data and market analysis; climate adaptation plans;
H. Development of community-
scale energy strategies and
implementation plans, and climate
adaptation plans;

15. What’s new •! Stronger emphasis on
public engagement, and
this year? alignment with state and
federal efforts.
In addition, no less than 5 percent of the budget request
must be committed to activities that specifically support
the goals of this NOFA to deepen the engagement,
participation, and governance of populations
underrepresented in planning processes.

16. Opportunities:
Government as Platform
[T]he most successful companies are those that build frameworks that enable a
whole ecosystem of participation from other companies large and small. The
personal computer was such a platform. So was the World Wide Web.[...]This is
the right way to frame the question of "Government 2.0." How does government
itself become an open platform that allows people inside and outside
government to innovate? How do you design a system in which all of the
outcomes aren't specified beforehand, but instead evolve through interactions
between the technology provider and its user community?
Rather than licensing government data to a few select "value added" providers,
who then license the data downstream, the federal government (and many state
and local governments) are beginning to provide an open platform that enables
anyone with a good idea to build innovative services that connect government
to citizens, give citizens visibility into the actions of government and even to
participate directly in policy-making. Tim O’Reilly Government as Platform
http://ofps.oreilly.com/titles/9780596804350/index.html

17. Civic Participation Tools-
See Appendix A for
Examples
Data Commons- Civic Engagement Tools-
Civic Engagement Tools follow the “Gov 2.0”
Most “data commons” platforms follow the
model by using various networking, bulletin
“OpenGov” model of striving towards
boards, and web conference platforms to
transparency but with less emphasis on full
participation. directly engage the citizenry in participatory
decision making.
• Maine.gov DataShare • peakdemocracy.com • openblock.org
http://www.maine.gov/cgi-bin/data/index.pl
•metrobostondatacommon.org • seeclickfix.com • Community Almanac
•Data.gov (federal OpenGov Initiative) • localocracy.com • Civic Commons
• frontporchforum.com • Wikiplanning

18. Opportunities- Local Government
as “Platform” for Entrepreneurs
• To attract creative capital a city must • An innovative approach to
“market its problems not just its demographic challenges is both a
assets” (http:// means and an end in of itself.
www.businessinsider.com/your-city-
as-a-platform-for- • Arrival of the Downeaster in 2012,
entrepreneurship-2011-8) redevelopment of Brunswick
Landing, former base housing,
• Larger urban metros may have more Transportation Alternatives, “Big
resources but they also have more City amenities in small town
competition. Institutions are less atmosphere” provide Brunswick/
accessible by nature and regulatory Midcoast with all the ingredients for
barriers can be impossible to attracting entreprenurs
change without access to vast
resources to begin with.

19. Town Meeting 2.0?
[G]overnment is, at bottom, a mechanism for collective action. We band together, make laws, pay
taxes, and build the institutions of government to manage problems that are too large for us
individually and whose solution is in our common interest.
Government 2.0, then, is the use of technology—especially the collaborative technologies at the
heart of Web 2.0—to better solve collective problems at a city, state, national, and international
level.
The hope is that Internet technologies will allow us to rebuild the kind of participatory government
envisioned by our nation’s founders, in which, as Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to Joseph
Cabell, “every man…feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs, not merely at an
election one day in the year, but every day.” Open Government Advocate Tim O’Reilly
While Open Government advocates believe technology can facilitate the
egalitarian, direct-democracy the country was founded on, small town New
Englanders have quietly practiced direct democracy for over 200 years in the
form of the town meeting. Will this tradition continue to thrive as Maine is settled
by people from out-of-state? Even assuming the midcoast region is able to
attract young working talent in the future, will they be at all interested in the civic
affairs of their community?
Any Government 2.0 application in small-town New England, where face to face
communication still has influence, should be seen as an extension of town
meeting and not a replacement.

20. Summary of Key Concepts
• affordable housing close to job • [Government can provide an]
clusters;along an existing or open platform that enables
planned transportation corridor anyone with a good idea to build
innovative services that connect
• community-scale energy government to citizens, give
strategies and climate adaptation citizens visibility into the actions
plans; of government and even to
participate directly in policy-
• deepen the engagement,
making.
participation, and governance of
populations underrepresented in
planning processes.

21. Goals and Recommendations
The Cut and Paste Method
Build a By
Deepen[ing] the engagement,
community-scale energy participation, and governance
strateg[y] and climate of populations
adaptation plan[]; underrepresented in planning
processes.
Planning for
Through an
open platform that enables anyone
housing close to job with a good idea to build innovative
clusters;along an existing or services that connect government to
planned transportation citizens, give citizens visibility into the
corridor
actions of government and even to
participate directly in policy-making.

22. Affordable Housing Opportunities
Text
Proposed Redevelopment
Alternatives for McKeen St.
Former Base Housing Urban Design Renderings for
Complex Brunswick Landing and McKeen
StUrban Design for Main Campus, Brunswick Landing
Housing Developments

23. Affordable Housing + Job Clusters
Redevelopment of Naval Air Station Brunswick into Brunswick Landing has
created extraordinary opportunities to reshape the socio-economic make-up
of the region. The Midcoast Redevelopment Authority has identified market
segments with the highest growth potential.
•Aviation •Composite •Information •Education •Alternative
• General and Materials Technology • College campuses Energy
corporate aviation
• Composites • Data centers • Applied workforce • Renewable energy
• Aircraft manufacturing
• Secured server
training generation/distribution
manufacturing
• Composite farms/emergency • Distance leaning • Renewable energy
• Aircraft materials research back-up facilities centers (MLTI) research and
maintenance, repair and development development
and overhaul (MRO) • Contact centers
• Energy product
• Aerospace manufacturing
research and
development
• Government
agency (e.g.
Homeland Security)

24. Other Economic Clusters
• The Creative Economy
Defined broadly, the Creative Economy can refer to highly educated “Knowledge Workers” including
Designers, Scientists, Researchers and Architects in addition to Artists, Musicians and Craftspeople. An
influx of “freelancers” within these creative professions is well underway in nearby Portland, Maine.
Partially due to the efforts of the Creative Portland Corporation. With the introduction of frequent rail
service between Boston, Portland and Brunswick in 2012 there will be an opportunity to attract some of
this highly skilled talent. See Presentation titled Brunswick Maine-Creative Hub compiled ny the Pioneer
Workshop for a more detailed analysis.
• Health Care Services
The influx of elderly retirees to the midcoast region also creates some economic opportunities in the
form of private health care services. The expansion of Midcoast Hospital to Brunswick Station, the
presence of multiple retirement facilities and the popularity of Nursing and health professional
certificate programs offered by SMCC offers opportunities for low-income Americans and Immigrants.
Without housing and transportation however, labor costs will be significantly higher should workers be
forced to commute long distances.

25. Industry Clusters
Information Technology College/Higher Creative
Shopping/Retail Economy/
Education
CoWorking/
Manufacturing Green Energy Restaurant Startup
(Including Composites) Incubator
Aviation Supermarket
Health Care Services

26. Potential Housing
Areas by Industry
Income Level
Potential High Growth
Employment Clusters
Manufacturing Creative Information Health Care
Economy Technology Services

27. Transportation
Corridors

28. Current Brunswick Explorer Route
The Brunswick Explorer began service in 2010 and is managed by a unique public-private
partnership known as the Midcoast Collaborative for Access to Transportation. The route is based
on studies commisioned in 2005 and 2007 which recommended orienting service towards disabled
and elderly adults. However, the rapid transformations resulting from the global recession, NASB
Redevelopment and the planned resumption of passenger rail service in 2012 have resulted in a
different landscape than the region studied in 2007. Routes and services which may have seemed
unfeasible in 2005 may be possible in 2012.

29. The Midcoast Collaborative for Access to Transportation is a unique
partnership of non-profits, volunteer organizations, government entities,
hospitals, universities and is thoroughly representative of the largest
stakeholder organizations as of 2005 when the initial plans were
underway.
As innovative as the Brunswick Explorer service Original Collaborative
is, the limitations of the current service can be
explained by this excerpt from the 2007 feasibility Members
report
• Brunswick and Topsham municipal governments
Historically, and as an ongoing trend, • Coastal Trans
the poor and elderly are concentrated in the
• Bowdoin College
• Mid-Coast Hospital
more densely populated areas of Brunswick, • Brunswick Housing Authority
as the younger and more affluent move out • Tedford Housing (formerly: Tedford Shelter)
of the urban center to the new “suburbs”. • Sweetser
(emphasis added) • Independence Association Inc.
• Sexual Assault Support Services of Mid-Coast
Whether this observation was true in 2007 is Maine
debatable, but recent evidence overwhelmingly • People Plus (formerly: 55 Plus)
proves that ongoing trends are in the exact • United Way of Mid-Coast Maine
opposite direction... That is younger and • Maine Department of Behavioral and
Developmental Services
more affluent people overwhelmingly • Maine Department of Transportation
prefer more densely populated areas!

30. Since the final feasibility analysis for the Collaborative was completed
in 2007 extraordinary changes have taken place on both a global and
local scale. Given the unique circumstances, these developments will
undoubtedly effect the regional makeup for years to come. The
current state of open-source technology, coupled with the
Community Challenge Grants present the opportunity to meet
these shifting transportation needs as they occur, while
simultaneously marketing the region as a place of innovative
leadership.
Developments since the 2007 Feasibility
Analysis
•Collapse of the Housing Market
•2007 Gasoline Avg Per Gal-$2.50, 2011 -$3.79
•Closing of NASB, Opening of Brunswick Landing including SMCC
Advanced Technology Center, Kestrel Aircraft Manufacturing,
Resilient Communications, American Bureau of Shipping and
Embry Riddle Aviation School
•Opening of Brunswick Station complex including 85 Room Inn,
Walk-In Medical Clinic, Center for Orthoepedics, Train Station,
Concord Trailways Bus Service, retail and restaurants
•Expansion of the Brunswick Industrial Park
•Construction of Amtrak Downeaster extension to Brunswick
Station with service to begin in 2012.
•A 24 hour layover facility for Amtrak

31. “Wheels”
A MODEL FOR
COMMUNITY TRANSPORTATION
IN THE
GREATER BRUNSWICK AREA
2007

32. “Wheels”
A MODEL FOR
COMMUNITY TRANSPORTATION
IN THE
GREATER BRUNSWICK AREA
2007

33. Naval Air Station Shuttle
As plans are developed for the future use of the Brunswick Naval Air Station, area
officials may want to consider adding an additional shuttle route to link the former
military base with Brunswick’s downtown center.
Routes and schedule times will depend what new activities take place at the former
Naval Air Station and on the future configuration of roadway access. It should be
possible to operate a roundtrip route between downtown Brunswick and a
redeveloped base in less than one hour. Depending on the design of future
roadways, it may even be possible to provide a round trip in 30 minutes. This
suggests that two buses could be used to provide a Brunswick – Naval Air Station
link approximately every 20-30 minutes.
If two buses operate throughout the day (from 7:00 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.), the cost for
five-day-a-week year round service is likely to be about $190,000 per year. If one
bus is used to link the Naval Air Station with downtown Brunswick, the cost for all-
day service would likely be about $100,000 per year. This route could start and end
at a new transit hub at a future Brunswick train station. Depending on what
activities take place at the navy base, it may be appropriate to include additional
stops at Bowdoin College and adjacent to Maine Street.
“Wheels”
A MODEL FOR
COMMUNITY TRANSPORTATION
IN THE
GREATER BRUNSWICK AREA
2007

34. Brunswick Explorer Route-Industrial
Park to Brunswick Landing via McKeen
St and Old Bath Rd.

35. Projected Inbound Commuting
Patterns
Vanpools from North
Commuters via Rail

36. Bath City
Bus Route
A study is currently
in progress to
determine the Midcoast Hospital by Appointment Only
feasibility of
connecting the
Bath City Bus to
the Brunswick
Explorer route at
Midcoast Hospital.

37. Proposed Brunswick Explorer Routes
Current Route: Baribeau Dr-
Sweetser
Commuter Route: Industrial
Park- Brunswick Landing
via McKeen/Old Bath Rd
Topsham Route: Brunswick
Station- Topsham Fair Mall

38. Government As
Platform
Open platform that enables anyone with a good idea to build innovative
services that connect government to citizens, give citizens visibility into the
actions of government and even to participate directly in policy-making.

39. Recommendations-
Community Scale Energy Strategies
• Convene a group of volunteers to help • Catalogue and Inventory of studies,
draft community-scale energy/ reports and provide a listing of contacts
transportation recommendations for various transportation providers online
• Update and Implement Bowdoin- • Collaborate and connect with MCOG,
Brunswick Climate Action Plan NNEPRA, MDOT, Bowdoin College, The
Midcoast Collaborative for Transportation
Access, GPCOG, GOMaine, Bicycle
• Implement Energy Efficiency
Coalition of Maine, East Coast Greenway
Recommendations for former Base
Foundation, GrowSmart Maine, Friends of
Housing
Midcoast Maine, Concord Trailways, The
Maine Eastern Railroad, BDA, Southern
• Host workshops on Efficiency Maine for Midcoast Chamber of Commerce, MCEDD,
RENTERS MRRA, SMCC, UMaine, etc... So as to
better coordinate between citizens, non-
• Provide Incentives for Landlords to profits and officials
improve efficiency and install Pellet
Heaters/Solar/ other alternatives

40. Community Scale Energy
Strategies (Cont.)
• Work with Bowdoin College, East Coast Greenway Alliance, ,
Bicycle Coalition of Maine, local businesses to build
community-wide bike-share. Possibly building off of
Bowdoin’s Yellow Bike Club
• Look into enacting a P2P car-rental program like
relayrides.com and adding more Zipcars closer to Brunswick
Station
• Build a database of relevant data from wide variety of
transportation providers intended for such a time when
consolidated e-ticketing/payments is widespread.

41. Recommendations-
Town Meeting 2.0
• The use of civic • Online networks can utilize
participation tools in Mid- crowdsourcing and
Coast Maine should be an microvolunteering to utilize
extension, not a advice and expertise from
replacement of existing beyond geographic
town meeting traditions. boundaries
• Meetings can grow out of • Visibility of online
online discussions and discussions advertises
online discussions can MidCoast as open to
grow out of meetings innovation.

42. Recommendations-
Online Committees
• Initiate an active“Open Data” initiative
• Convene a board of “Civic Hackers” whose purpose is to set up a “virtual town hall” in
accordance with the best practices of the “Civic Commons” using Civic Participation tools
such as openblock.com or frontporch.com. Online committees should always include a face
to face element, whether it is an official board meeting or an informal meetup, conditions for
participation online must involve partipation in real life.
• Civic Media/Wayfinding/Interaction Design- A group of volunteer artists and designers tasked
with redesigning wayfinding and signage.
• Important to stress that Committees are voluntary. “Value Added” services by hired
consultants services can be useful but can have the effect of inflating costs to the point that
implementation will never be possible.

43. Online Participation Tools Can
Enhance Traditional Public Dialogue
Traditional Public Online Participation
Outreach Meeting Tools
Discussion continues online
where next meeting date will
be set
Meeting uses video
webcast. citizens, guest Directions for Joining
speakers and absent
Online Community
commitee members are
given variable options to Announced at Meeting
submit questions

44. The Availability of Open Source
Transit Data Has Resulted in
Hundreds of Innovative Applications
Transit Appliance:Open Source Code
+Consumer Grade Screen Display -$60

45. An inventory of relevent open transit data can have far-reaching effects in a rural area. Open Transit
Data has been released with great success in places like Portland Oregon, and Boston where over
1/3 of MBTA riders use some form of mobile app to plan their trips or locate their bus or train. Mass
transit has been difficult to implement in Maine because of the low population density. However,
with sufficient network adoption, a “Smart Transit” system can effectively its modal response much
like the “Smart Grid” uses data to determine power generation.
Open Transit Data
Schedule a Trip
Check Your
Neighborhood
Find A
Ride
Open Data Can Change The Game

46. Recommendations-
A Transportation Data Project
• an integrated mobility solution that seeks to • revolutionizes perceptions of transit in semi
coordinate mass transit with micro transit in a rural communities by making mass and micro
semi rural community. transit accessible in areas previously thought
of as unsuitable for transit solutions.
• provides an information techonology solution
that leverages open data streams to inform the • leverages existing transportation infrastructure
public about available transit options and to and local transit operations"with an overlaid
increase the public's confidence in the information technology solution that allows the
reliability of these transit options. public to self-coordinate the use of multiple leg
transit options even in conjunction with
• seeks to encourage the development of micro privately owned vehicles.
transit solutions through a geo social
networking architecture that reduces the • disseminates and collects operational data of
barriers and islolation commonly associated all existing transit operations and"seeks to
with rural communities. create new micro transit solutions in a fully
transparent manner that allows self
determination of transportation and improves
citizen independence and self reliance.

47. Regional Connections
Carpools,Vanpools, Carsharing, even Boatsharing offer scalable
MicroTransit solutions for outlying communities. For the more heavily
trafficked routes between Lisbon, Brunswick and Bath, Vanpools can
transition to scheduled service upon introduction of rail service.
Lisbon
Connector
Bath/Brunswick
Shuttle
Downeaster
Existing
Vanpool Route
to Augusta
Existing
Vanpool Route
to BIW

48. Appendix-Screenshots of Web-Based Collaboration-
Tools

49. Description
Information is the currency of democracy.
Then why is it that so many people feel disconnected from local decision-making?
Public agencies spend billions each year to manage their data. Then why is so much of it locked away in
closed, creaky systems?
And why is it that cities facing the same tough choices — from running schools to building roads — are
stuck finding solutions on their own?
At OpenPlans, we think cities can work better. We think it should be easier for public agencies in one
place to adopt good ideas and good software from other places. We think opening up data and inviting
citizens into the civic process is a good thing.
Who We Are
OpenPlans is a non-profit technology organization helping to open up government and improve
transportation systems.
We build open source software. We help agencies open up their data. We report on urban issues."We
offer technical assistance to public agencies, and we build communities around our initiatives in order
to seed an open and evolving ecosystem of technology tools that further the public interest. We’ve
launched"OpenGeo,"Streetfilms,"Streetsblog,"GothamSchools, Civic Commons,OpenTripPlanner
and"more. We have a particular interest in transportation and urban planning. And we’re just getting
started.We’re a team of 50 transit nerds, journalists, and engineers. We’re based in New York City, but
we have staff and projects located in far off places (like Portland and Australia).

50. Open Plans Projects Page

52. A New
Kind of
Public
Service
As the “Facebook
Generation” comes of age
and moves into the public
sector, an explosion of
“Civic Apps” and “Social
Good” networks have
appeared with varying
levels of success.
Two standouts are
CODE FOR
AMERICA and
OPENPLANS

57. OpenPlans and Code for America recently partnered for the
creation of civiccommons.org

58. Curate the Make Tough Decisions Tap into the ideas and Public service can be
Conversation Easier creativity of your thankless. Give
Communicate directly Public engagement constituents. Get recognition to the
with your community can help you better qualitative and people who make
on issues that are assess the needs of quantitative data your community a
important to them. Set your constituents, and about where they better place through
the record straight prioritize better when stand on important points and badges.
using a transparent tough decisions need issues. Get in touch to learn
and public platform. to be made. ! more.
! Higher Quality Data Recognize Volunteers

60. Online Civic
Engagemment
Tools
peakdemocracy.com
seeclickfix.com
localocracy.com