Who Reports What? Neighborhood Observation and Civic Participation through Technology

Background and Purpose: Civic engagement platforms, such as SeeClickFix and FixMyStreet, have revolutionized the way citizens interact with their local governments. Under the “e-government” model, citizens can report neighborhood issues (e.g., potholes, noise complaints) and share knowledge about their local environments (e.g., measure air quality and predict bus arrival times) through electronic platforms. While such technology intends to help citizens to engage in governance more efficiently, there is a lack of understanding regarding how people utilize these tools and whether there are equity issues in participation behaviors and government response rates across neighborhoods. This study examines the impact of such digital interface on neighborhood-level outcomes.

Methods: This study collected and analyzed the online requests made to the City of Albany, New York, through SeeClickFix between January 2010 and February 2018. We analyzed the characteristics of reported issues (N=1,547) and their associations with neighborhood attributes, such as socioeconomic and demographic variables and walkability scores. We also conducted street observations in three neighborhoods (i.e., low-income, mixed-income, and high-income) to compare reported issues with on-the-ground observations. Common issues were observed, tallied, and analyzed by categories, including but not limited to the number of trashes, potholes, damaged sidewalks, and under-maintained properties.

Results: The descriptive statistics show that only 19.7 % of the reported issues were resolved by the government. Although the government acknowledged close to 60% of the total number of the reported issues, the acknowledgement did not lead to actual resolution of the corresponding problem. Furthermore, correlation analyses revealed that the reported problems were more likely to be resolved in higher-income, more-educated neighborhoods. Comparative analysis between neighborhood observations and city report data also revealed that the low-income neighborhoods were less likely to report issues online, even though issues were present and often more severe than other neighborhoods.

Implications: These findings suggest that neighborhood characteristics influence the adoption of participatory technologies like SeeClickFix, potentially leading to inequities in access to public services and environmental quality. Future research can further examine the factors that affect the level of technology use and citizen participation. Social workers can assist individuals in navigating different channels for reporting issues, resolving problems, and accessing equitable services to improve their quality of life within their communities.