While the idea of listening and responding to residents may not seem "innovative," in a complex municipal bureaucracy like San Francisco this can be harder than it appears. Fix-It uses its multi-agency partnerships, unique data analysis abilities, and dedication to transparency to ensure that residents' concerns are not only addressed effectively, but sustainably, comprehensively, and with consistent communication. Fix-It has a toolbelt of solutions due to its versatile and experimental nature that are not always realistic to deploy in the silo’ed reality of traditional City government. Fix-It’s work with the community is not bound by legacy processes, allowing Fix-It to be positioned with a wider range of possible solutions. Furthermore, Fix-It is committed to measuring its success through pre- and post-intervention data analysis, surveying, and site review. A dedication to transparency and measurement is essential to Fix-It’s daily approach.

Because Fix-It is a model that is only two years old and being applied to new neighborhoods throughout the year, it’s clear that the cycle of this innovation currently touches on all 6 statuses. Fix-It’s data analysis and ongoing community partnerships lends itself to constant problem/opportunity discovery, with ideas and solutions to address a given issue dependent on the issue’s unique circumstances. As root causes of various quality of life concerns are looked into, new proposals and pilot projects are critical to Fix-It finding sustainable success. Because Fix-It partners with new neighborhood zones throughout the year it is constantly implementing and evaluating efforts. The lessons learned from those efforts inform the solutions and proposals for the next problems/opportunities, and the cycle continues.

Although the Mayor created the Fix-It Team with work overseen by the Controller’s Office, San Francisco residents serve as primary partners – residents generate all of Fix-It’s work. Fix-It also officially partners with 7 different City Departments to complete field work, and Fix-It is dedicated to partnering with existing community organizations in each of its zones, including non-profits, community benefit organizations, resident and merchant associations, etc to ensure maximum impact.

All San Francisco residents, merchants, and visitors benefit from improved quality of life and public space. Departments tasked with cleaning and maintenance see efficiencies that make better use of resources, and can more directly assist residents with their needs when facilitated through the Fix-It Team. Indeed, Fix-It’s model provides verified, validated concerns to agencies that can then have significant positive impact for businesses and residents.

Fix-It uses a variety of evaluation tools and methods to measure its impact and success. The most basic measurement analyzes Fix-It’s Action Plan completeness, to evaluate the comprehensiveness of Fix-It’s direct response to community concerns. Fix-It staff also visit zones regularly to visually assess conditions and confirm whether agency modifications have positively affected quality of life. Furthermore, Fix-It both surveys and interviews residents before and after its interventions to ensure its having the desired impact. Finally Fix-It performs rigorous data analysis of 311 service request and crime data, using algorithms developed to assess year-over-year trends and perform correlative before/after intervention analysis. Over a two-year period Fix-It hosted nearly 60 community meetings over 30 zones throughout San Francisco, engaged with nearly 1,500 community members, completed nearly 4,000 identified “fixes,” and found overwhelmingly positive feedback from the community.

The biggest challenge to Fix-It’s success is thoroughly assessing quality of life in a consistent and quantifiable manner across a variety of neighborhoods. There are many factors that sway both street life conditions and data results, and larger socioeconomic trends and City policy can make effecting lasting change regarding a given issue a challenge. In addition, as Fix-It expands to additional zones, scaling the operation to ensure continued productive partnership with its stakeholders becomes a greater challenge. Fix-It has found that effectively communicating expectations to both residents and City agencies builds the trust that is critical to a long-term successful process. Fix-It is also not afraid to pilot possible solutions, which is understood by stakeholders as an experiment which may or may not produce the desired results.

For the Fix-It model to be successful, clear support from higher levels of local government (Mayor’s office, City Administrator, Department Heads) is critical, as is buy-in from agency representatives to ensure work is being done. In addition internal employees who are knowledgeable about City processes and have community engagement skills is important. The Fix-It model relies on a shared understanding that the effort is not politically-oriented but rather politically-neutral, with only an improved quality-of-life as the goal. This foundation of trust brings a variety of stakeholders to the table, which creates enhanced conditions for success.

The Fix-It model is easily replicable to other municipalities, although it would require some modifications depending on governmental structure and relevant issues in a given city. Fix-It can also be incorporated into a city’s existing oversight and accountability structure. The City of Seattle did have a “Find It, Fix It” program with some similarities, such as neighborhood walks hosted by City officials for residents, with quality of life concerns prioritized and addressed. However the Seattle program did not have a significant data analysis component nor sustained follow-up and ongoing partnership. However the Seattle program did have a grant aspect to fund community projects, a feature that San Francisco Fix-It would like to incorporate in the future.

We’ve learned the classic lesson that simple can often be better. When City agencies communicate effectively, are consistent and logical in their strategies with simple information, follow-up, and follow-through, residents are incredibly understanding. This builds trust and enhances partnerships with the community. Another key mechanism for building trust are “quick wins” – oftentimes residents want to see large-scale changes and feel frustration and helplessness around challenging quality of life issues. However, when a partnership achieves simple, quick fixes (getting a crosswalk re-painted, having a tree trimmed), a foundation of trust is built that gives a City agency time to work on a larger-scale approach to endemic quality of life challenges, and residents feel heard, empowered, and confident in their civic representatives.

At this point, the Fix-It Team is comprised of only 5 staff: Director, Deputy Director, Strategic Manager, Community Outreach Manager, and intern. The small team allows us to be individually versatile and unified as a group, although it limits the amount of projects we can work on simultaneously. We anticipate adding one staff member in the near future to assist with contract and financial management, as our success has led to City agencies requesting support for supplemental cleaning contractor management. We think the small team is an advantage but we look forward to adding another team member to increase the height of our ceiling.