Civic. Fredericton.

Inspiration

Residents often notice damaged roads, broken lights, overflowing bins, and other problems before anyone responsible for fixing them does. Reporting an issue can be confusing, and residents rarely have a clear way to follow what happens next. We created Civic. Fredericton. to make that process visible.

What it does

Civic connects residents and city staff through one issue lifecycle:

Report: Submit a problem with a description, photo, and location.
Confirm: Other residents who have seen it can confirm the report.
Track: City staff review the issue and update its public status.

Residents can report anonymously. Optional Google or email-code sign-in lets them track their contributions.

How we built it

Frontend: Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS
Backend: NestJS, PostgreSQL
Data and maps: Snowflake, OpenStreetMap
Authentication: Better Auth
Development and monitoring: Docker, Sentry

Challenges we ran into

Our hackathon time was limited, while the problem covered many types of city issues. We focused on completing one useful flow, from a resident's report to a visible staff update.

We also had to design for two audiences. Residents need a fast reporting experience. Staff need enough information to review an issue and communicate progress. Both experiences had to work with the same report.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Built an end-to-end reporting, confirmation, and status workflow.
Kept reporting available without requiring an account.
Designed clear desktop and mobile experiences.
Connected location, issue data, and staff updates in one demo.

What we learned

Turn an open-ended problem into a testable MVP. We defined a complete issue lifecycle and prioritized the features needed to demonstrate it.
Integrate Snowflake into an application workflow. We connected it with our NestJS backend to work with issue data.
Build for reliability under a hard deadline. Docker helped keep services consistent, and Sentry helped us diagnose errors during integration and testing.

What's next for Civic. Fredericton.

Build a mobile app to make reporting issues and following updates easier on the go.
Gather feedback from residents and city staff to improve the reporting and review workflows.
Expand beyond Fredericton to support other cities and provinces.