The Importance Of Public Relations

Over the past couple of days, I've had the opportunity to attend and participate in two public briefings on contentious topics for New York City - Columbia University's plan to expand into the Manhattanville area of West Harlem, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's plan to raise fares on all transit services in the metropolitan area and to raise the tolls on bridges.

Both plans have merit. Columbia University certainly needs more space (as a post-doctoral Fellow at the university, I feel lucky to be blessed with a cubicle in a mouse-infested room in the basement underneath one of the university's undergraduate dormitories - some of my colleagues literally don't have desks!), and the Manhattanville area does seem like a reasonable place for the university to expand into.

After seeing the MTA's budget, it is clear that the Authority needs more revenue, both to keep the system running and to continue to renovate the system and add transit service to accommodate the growing population of the region. They view the fare and toll hikes as the system users' contribution to a larger cost-sharing package in which a number of other players will also be contributing.

It struck me, however, that the two institutions hosting these public briefings have a problem. A big problem. With public relations. In both cases, many New Yorkers have negative experiences with these institutions, and are reluctant to give them the benefit of whatever doubt there may be about their intentions for the future. In Columbia's case, this will cost them a lot - even if their expansion plan is eventually approved. It may cost them plan approval, too.

If the university is to succeed in its expansion, Columbia absolutely needs to create a harmony that doesn't currently exist between university affiliates and the rest of the Morningside Heights and West Harlem community. When campus tour guides warn visitors that much of the area outside of the university gates is "dangerous" (when in fact crime rates in the area are about average for New York, and substantially lower than those in Midtown), it doesn't help.

Although the campus is indeed more diverse than many, the university would do well to create a requirement that students and new staff and faculty hires at least learn about the non-Columbia communities that share our neighborhood. Columbia also needs to better publicize those programs and services that they actually DO provide for the non-Columbia affiliates in our community. They have a "Neighbors" section on their website - a great start. But I would bet that if they put a fraction of the time, energy, and resources that they are now using to "inform" the community about their development plans into informing them about their community programs and services AND engaging them in a dialogue about joint visions for the future of our shared neighborhood, this would go a long way toward improving neighborhood harmony.

As for the MTA, riders of the city's subways are constantly dealing with service delays and changes due to construction. We have incomplete information about which lines will be affected when (in the form of confusing notices on pieces of paper that are taped-up around the stations and garbled announcements over ailing station and traincar PA systems). We have no information about when the construction will actually be completed. We also have no information about what construction projects HAVE BEEN completed, and how they have made our trips somehow safer, faster, or more comfortable.

It seems to me that it would be well worth the expense to improve information flow to the riders. Do some experiments and find a clearer format for information dissemination about service changes. Include an expected completion date for the construction. Tell us how this construction is improving the system. Use some of the advertising space on subway cars to highlight past achievements. And make it all look good. Then, when the MTA goes to the newspapers and says they need to raise fares, the public might be more receptive.

This stuff is not "rocket science", as the saying goes. Is it simply that some powerful institutions don't want or think that they need to invest in taking people's opinions seriously? To the MTA's credit, the briefing I attended yesterday was meant partially to ask for community input, the top officials at the MTA were active participants, and the actions that they will take did not appear to be fully decided before they asked us what we thought.

Interestingly enough, part of the land that Columbia University would like to expand into is currently an MTA bus depot. Maybe while they are negotiating, they can compare notes on improving their PR?