Érd held its first citizens' assembly on how to change from a rapidly growing urban agglomeration of Budapest into a more vibrant, liveable and greener city in 2022.
Problems and Purpose
In terms of its population, Érd has been the most dynamically developing Hungarian city over the past three decades. However, this growth has also been accompanied by many challenges: the limited options in terms of local transportation; the increasingly congested road network connecting Budapest and Érd, which is burdened by the growing commuter traffic; and the lack of a real city center worthy of a city the size of Érd – these have emerged as issues that deeply affect the quality of life of Érd’s residents regardless of their age, gender, or life circumstances. In this situation, the city’s leadership recognized that it could react most effectively to these challenges by involving the community and soliciting its active participation in the efforts to identify potential solutions. To this end, as the third city in Hungary to do so, it convened a citizens’ assembly.
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
The Érd Citizens’ Assembly was organized by DemNet in cooperation with the municipal government of the city of Érd in Spring 2022. The project was co-funded by the Municipality of Érd and the donors of DemNet. DemNet was responsible for the process design, the overall coordination, and the sortition. Professional facilitation was provided by the Association of Hungarian Facilitators.
Methods and Tools Used
Members of the citizens’ assembly were selected through a two-stage random selection process.Firstly, the Ministry of Interior provided the Municipality of Érd with the data of 10000 randomly selected Érd residents, who were then sent an invitation to register for the Assembly. From those who had registered for the event, DemNet randomly selected 50 people in a way that guaranteed that the Assembly would eventually be representative of the adult population of Érd based on gender, age groups, level of education and districts of the city. An open-source software, developed by the Polish partner organization of DemNet, the Center of Climate Assemblies, was used for the sortition, which was live streamed online.
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
How could Érd transform from an ordinary commuter town into a living city? How could it become greener, more livable, and a home to a more vibrant community? That was the question explored by 50 randomly selected Érd residents in the summer of 2022, during the city’s first Citizens’ Assembly. The Assembly, which spanned two full weekends (from June 11-12 and June 25-26), was and coordinated by DemNet and a team of experts, in cooperation with the municipal government of the City of Érd.
In May 2022, 10,000 randomly selected Érd residents were invited to participate in the Érd Citizens’ Assembly. From of those who responded to the invitation sent out by the Municipality, DemNet chose 50 people by lot, making sure during the process that this group would be eventually be representative of the adult population of Érd in terms of gender, age groups, level of education, and the place of residents within the city. Those selected became the members of the Érd Citizens’ Assembly.
Over the two weekends allocated to the Assembly, with the help of experts and stakeholders, the members discussed the most pressing issues concerning the city’s infrastructure and transportation, analyzed the various aspects of the issues involved, shared their experiences and opinions, and, at the end of the process, jointly formulated and voted to adopt a package of seven proposals, which they presented to the leaders of Érd. The complete package of adopted proposals contains the following items: 1) promoting safe transportation and the reduction of automobile traffic by rethinking the Érd road system and greater support for bike traffic; 2) making the city more attractive for businesses with a smaller ecological footprint, which could help increase Érd’s revenues and create jobs locally; 3) reviewing the city’s infiltration trench system and building an effective rainwater collection system to improve water management; 4) creating several city subcenters by rethinking community spaces and public spaces, augmented by community-building processes; 5) creating more green areas in the city; 6) fostering local tourism and creating more leisure opportunities for local residents; 7) completely reconceptualizing Érd’s central parking system.
As a result of the Citizens’ Assembly, a real dialogue emerged on how the city could become more livable, and how implementing the Assembly’s proposals could serve the city’s sustainable development. The Citizens’ Assembly could also constitute a major step in promoting community life in the city and help give rise to a new form of municipal self-governance based on genuine partnership.
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
It is believed that citizens’ assemblies are especially useful when it comes to issues that are particularly difficult to get a grip on. In the case of Érd, the need for this type of collective brainstorming was very palpable. Following the initiative of the city leadership, the participants of the Érd Municipal Assembly spared neither time nor energy and fully immersed themselves in this process; they were genuinely keen on finding out what their neighbors think about the problems confronting their municipality and how they could jointly find the best (or at least acceptable) solutions for everyone. They learned a lot from the experts and each other during the two weekends of the Assembly. Many realized that enacting even seemingly small changes could constitute a difficult challenge, while they also became aware that ultimately the ability to create a city that is a better place for everyone is in the hands of the community itself.
The result of this process was a package of proposals that could help achieve significant progress in several areas and will hopefully end up benefiting the entire city.
Analysis and Lessons Learned
In a questionnaire filled out by the CA members after the event, 95% of the members of the Érd Citizens’ Assembly reported that their knowledge about the transportation situation in Érd has expanded thanks to the information they picked up during the Citizens’ Assembly. They also had a positive view of the Assembly overall: 70% assessed that the event was better than they had anticipated, while a further 25% indicated that it was in line with their expectations – in other words, 95% were pleased with the event.