Most local governments can reach residents. Very few can hear them back at the speed of a text. In October 2022, PCG launched the first two-way texting program for a city in Florida. The program gave the City of Aventura a direct line to residents, and gave residents a direct line back. When a severe rainstorm hit in summer 2024, the line added more than 1,000 subscribers in under 72 hours.

The city, saved in a resident’s phone. Message is the point: the same number that sends the alert receives the reply.

What most city texting gets wrong

The city broadcasts, residents receive, and there is no way to reply. So people opt out, or never opt in. Aventura wanted the opposite: a line residents would actually use.

The default

One-way alerts. The city broadcasts, no one can reply, and residents tune out.

Aventura

Two-way texting. Residents text back, and the city answers.

What we set up

We built the program around choice. Residents and members of the public opt in and pick the topics they care about, so no one is buried under messages they never asked for. And when someone texts the city, a real person reads it and answers when the message calls for it.

Opt in by topicResidents choose the updates they want, from events to public safety, and skip the rest.
Text the cityAnyone can text a question or concern straight to the city. No app to download.
A person answers City staff read incoming messages and respond when a reply is warranted.

Not an auto-reply. Not a dead end. A conversation.

Featured coverage
· News

You can now text the city of Aventura

Deirdra Funcheon & Martin Vassolo

Read the full story

What it powers

A channel residents actually read becomes a tool the city can use. Since launch, the line has put real city services in front of residents, and helped fill them.

City events
Invitations and reminders go out by text.
Infrastructure projects
Project announcements and updates go out by text as work progresses.
Condominium Ombudsman monthly visitsWith the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
Monthly appointment slots booked by text.
Mobile DMVWith the Miami-Dade Tax Collector
Visits booked by text.
Critical citywide updates
Urgent notices go out by text as events unfold.
Summer 2024 · Severe rainstorm
Updates sentPublic safetyCity servicesPrice gouging

When a severe rainstorm hit Aventura and the surrounding cities, the texting line carried the city’s updates while residents needed them most. In under 72 hours, subscribers grew by more than 1,000.

That is the real test of a communications channel. Not how it performs on a quiet week, but whether residents turn to it when a storm is bearing down. Aventura’s did. Today, thousands have signed up to hear from the city, and to be heard by it.

In their words

From kids to seniors and everyone in-between, text messaging is part of daily life. Aventura’s first-of-its-kind texting system was a brilliant addition that PCG brought to our city. It has proven endlessly valuable for reaching our residents with the information they want.
Howard WeinbergMayor · City of Aventura
Communicating with our residents is key to everything we do. The texting system that PCG implemented has proven to be the single fastest and most effective way we communicate with our residents.
Cindy OrlinskyCommissioner · City of Aventura
During a crisis, the ability to communicate quickly and accurately is critical. The texting system PCG established for Aventura delivered critical information to the public at the most important and sensitive time.
Bryan PeguesCity Manager · City of Aventura
I’ll never forget the day a woman stopped me in the grocery store to tell me about the text exchange she had with the city. She thought it was the greatest thing she’d ever seen from a city. Texting delivers people information where they are already looking.
Rachel S. FriedlandCommissioner · City of Aventura