A few things that make civic engagement difficult

#1 -- is that everyone doesn't necessarily agree, and won't, ever, making consensus impossible. This can be "property rights" vs. "community concerns," "neighborhood-serving" vs. regionally attractive retail, height issues, traffic issues, car-centricity, etc.

#2 -- people think they know everything, that X or Y or Z is "common sense" and they don't want to spend some quality upfront time learning about the issues and backstory so that they can be more knowledgeable and have a more nuanced approach to the issue at hand.

#3 -- people aren't willing to spend the time that really needs to be spent in order to work through issues. You can't "resolve" a contentious issue in a couple hours...

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I have spent some time in some community planning iniatitives in different parts of the city recently, and besides the fact that I am still learning how to be a "facilitator" and so I could be a lot better than I probably am, the fact is that #1, #2, and #3 makes it an unfun process.