Public Outreach
What is it?
Public outreach is a broad term that encompasses many different levels of public involvement. In historic preservation, public outreach typically takes one of three forms: informational meetings, public hearings, or workshops/charrettes.[1] These three types of public meetings have different norms, are designed to achieve different outcomes, and represent varying levels of true engagement with the community. Informational meetings are one-way flows of information that are designed by those in power to instruct the public.[2] This can be beneficial in certain contexts but provides communities with little real ability to influence outcomes that are ostensibly “for their benefit.”[3] Public hearings describe a range of both formal and informal meetings where presenters explain their ideas and refine them based upon community feedback.[4] While this gives the community a voice, this process provides no assurances to the public that their feedback will be taken into account. Workshops and charrettes are more powerful forms of participation where the community sets agendas and designs solutions for problems.
Why do it?
Public outreach provides a number of tangible benefits. Historically, the rationale for involving the public in historic preservation was to increase community support for preservation initiatives and showcase the work historic preservationists were doing.[5] However, true public outreach recognizes that while preservationists possess technical expertise for developing historic context statements, local communities possess the stories and experiences related to the built environment that inform the content of these documents.
Public Outreach Issues
Good Examples
Potential Community & Preservation Partners
Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Maryland
Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce
Chinatown Collective
Korean Community Service Center of Greater Washington
Organization of Chinese Americans, Greater DC Chapter
Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation
Preservation Maryland
Maryland Center for History & Culture
Asian & Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
Chinese Historical Society of America
Save Our Chinatown Committee
Chinese Historical Society of Southern California
Asian American Center of Frederick
Chinese Culture and Community Center (Gaithersburg)
Japanese American Citizens League
Maryland Vietnamese Mutual Association (Silver Spring)
Resources
1. Elisabeth M. Hamin and Jeff Levine, “Getting involved: Local residents and the planning process,” in Preserving and enhancing communities: A guide for citizens, planners, and policymakers, edited by Elisabeth M. Hamin, Linda Silka and Priscilla Geigis, 10. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007.
2. Ibid.
3. Sherry A. Arnstein, "A Ladder of Citizen Participation," Journal of the American Planning Association 35, no. 4 (1969): 216-224.
4. Hamin and Levine, “Getting Involved,” 10.
5. Barry R. Lawson, Ellen P. Ryan, and Rebecca Bartlett Hutchison, Reaching Out, Reaching In, (National Park Services, 1993), 3.
6. “My HistoricLA: Guide to Public Participation in SurveyLA,” City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning, accessed November 30, 2020, https://surveyla.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/myhistoricla_11-3-09.pdf.
7. Jenn Low, “ ‘Dear Chinatown’ at Lunar New Year,” Humanities Truck, February 17, 2020, https://humanitiestruck.com/dear-chinatown-at-lunar-new-year/.
Public outreach is a broad term that encompasses many different levels of public involvement. In historic preservation, public outreach typically takes one of three forms: informational meetings, public hearings, or workshops/charrettes.[1] These three types of public meetings have different norms, are designed to achieve different outcomes, and represent varying levels of true engagement with the community. Informational meetings are one-way flows of information that are designed by those in power to instruct the public.[2] This can be beneficial in certain contexts but provides communities with little real ability to influence outcomes that are ostensibly “for their benefit.”[3] Public hearings describe a range of both formal and informal meetings where presenters explain their ideas and refine them based upon community feedback.[4] While this gives the community a voice, this process provides no assurances to the public that their feedback will be taken into account. Workshops and charrettes are more powerful forms of participation where the community sets agendas and designs solutions for problems.
Why do it?
Public outreach provides a number of tangible benefits. Historically, the rationale for involving the public in historic preservation was to increase community support for preservation initiatives and showcase the work historic preservationists were doing.[5] However, true public outreach recognizes that while preservationists possess technical expertise for developing historic context statements, local communities possess the stories and experiences related to the built environment that inform the content of these documents.
Public Outreach Issues
- Public outreach is often carried out in a perfunctory manner.
- Underrepresented groups see no tangible benefit to historic preservation.
- Underrepresented groups feel that they have little to contribute.
- Meetings are held at inconvenient times or hosted in inconvenient locations.
- The ability to participate is limited by language barriers.
Good Examples
- The City of Los Angeles’ Office of Historic Resources implemented a successful multi-pronged approach to public outreach for SurveyLA that gave the public meaningful opportunities to participate and recognized the diversity of the citizenry, too.[6] The outreach program informed citizens about SurveyLA and the benefits of historic preservation through a multilingual and multimedia approach. It also included a guide for neighborhood groups to use to capture information about the places and properties that were meaningful to the community. Emphasis was placed on identifying places of cultural and social significance.
- When Jenn Low and others were looking to “placekeep” in Washington DC’s Chinatown, they made a point of driving to the Wah Luck apartment building where they knew many longtime Chinatown residents lived.[7] They set up an engaging display, asked people to participate in a “Dear Chinatown” poster activity, and brought equipment to record interviews with residents. By traveling directly to residents, they were far more successful than if they placed the onus on residents to come to them.
Potential Community & Preservation Partners
Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Maryland
Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce
Chinatown Collective
Korean Community Service Center of Greater Washington
Organization of Chinese Americans, Greater DC Chapter
Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation
Preservation Maryland
Maryland Center for History & Culture
Asian & Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
Chinese Historical Society of America
Save Our Chinatown Committee
Chinese Historical Society of Southern California
Asian American Center of Frederick
Chinese Culture and Community Center (Gaithersburg)
Japanese American Citizens League
Maryland Vietnamese Mutual Association (Silver Spring)
Resources
1. Elisabeth M. Hamin and Jeff Levine, “Getting involved: Local residents and the planning process,” in Preserving and enhancing communities: A guide for citizens, planners, and policymakers, edited by Elisabeth M. Hamin, Linda Silka and Priscilla Geigis, 10. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007.
2. Ibid.
3. Sherry A. Arnstein, "A Ladder of Citizen Participation," Journal of the American Planning Association 35, no. 4 (1969): 216-224.
4. Hamin and Levine, “Getting Involved,” 10.
5. Barry R. Lawson, Ellen P. Ryan, and Rebecca Bartlett Hutchison, Reaching Out, Reaching In, (National Park Services, 1993), 3.
6. “My HistoricLA: Guide to Public Participation in SurveyLA,” City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning, accessed November 30, 2020, https://surveyla.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/myhistoricla_11-3-09.pdf.
7. Jenn Low, “ ‘Dear Chinatown’ at Lunar New Year,” Humanities Truck, February 17, 2020, https://humanitiestruck.com/dear-chinatown-at-lunar-new-year/.