Urban Communications Plan
There are essentially three stakeholder groups for the communications plan. The City in the sense that whatever plan is communicated will in part hold agents of the city accountable for following through on whatever promises are made in the plan. The second is the incoming people and those interested in moving to Oakland. False controversy over migration is something that can dissuade people from coming to Oakland and investing in the city. The current residents, especially the nimby-types who are complaining about change, are really a tertiary group in the communications plan. The second group is really the most important target for the communications plan at this point because the City wants to encourage continued investment that will create jobs, decrease crime, and increase the quality of life.
These main stakeholders may be newer residents of Oakland, but they may also be people who are considering moving to Oakland. Perhaps most important are people who look at the area's shifting demographics and are considering starting a business in Oakland. Leveraging lower rents, Oakland can begin to attract start-ups, artisanal businesses and other engines of job creation.
SMART Goals
The communications plan has to have some specific goals. Marriage to the idea of SMART goals, however, ignores the fact that not all knowledge is capture in finite, measurable numbers. There is nothing smart about blindly tossing out numbers and calling them goals. There has to be a "why." So first it is advise to consider the overarching goal, which is to change the narrative from one that conveys a message that newcomers and change are inherently bad, to one that embraces Oakland's arrival as a modern city. The reality is that global cities all of the world are facing these same changes, with sharp increases in housing costs, rapidly-changing neighborhoods, and complaints from people who aren't prepared to adapt to change. Oakland can't stop global economic forces; it's messaging cannot convey sympathy for foolish attempts to do so. People who don't want to adapt to the way the world is today honestly have no hope of winning, and their lashing out against "others" is exactly what the City doesn't not want to help facilitate in its messaging. So the City really needs to change the tone and narrative of this discussion towards the fact that newcomers are diverse, they are families, they create jobs, they bring money into the city, and they result in lower crime rates and a higher quality of life.
A key element to creating SMART goals is to know where you stand today. This is especially needed for a plan that aims to change perceptions -- your goals will likely have a starting point and an ending point. In other words, you can't increase something 10% if you don't know the current level. So before setting out SMART goals, some formative research is required, so that the evaluative research can be compared...
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