Lancaster, Pennsylvania: New Department of Neighborhood Services

By Alanna Margulies, Democracy Cities

When Danene Sorace was elected mayor of Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 2018, the city had never operated a department dedicated exclusively to neighborhood services and development. Sorace and her staff’s eyes, City Hall could do more to engage citizens in the city. In her time campaigning door-to-door in the lead-up to the 2018 election, Sorace described being surprised at how many inconveniences and structural problems residents were facing that could have been solved by city services. Sorace explained, “they were living with things that they didn’t need to be living with.”  Sorace and her staff were determined to do something about these challenges.

One of Sorace’s first acts as mayor was creating and inaugurating Lancaster’s Department of Neighborhood Engagement (DoNE), a department that would sit within the mayor’s office with Milzy Carrasco at the helm. Over the past three years, DoNE has integrated a data-driven system to complement canvassing as a means to understanding which neighborhoods and blocks need the most attention and should be the targets of development projects. This hands-on approach includes countless programs, policy overhauls, and relationships that have improved city services and the daily lives of Lancaster residents.

You can read the case study here.