The paper focuses on two major urban capacities to which citizen participation policies are expected to contribute—the capacity to represent diverse interests and the capacity to sustain conflict. The comparative strengths and weaknesses of two different citizen participation structures are considered—single‐purpose, appointed advisory boards and multiple‐purpose, elected neighborhood councils. Drawing from both the literature and original data from Wichita's innovative citizen participation approach, the paper suggests ways in which each participatory form contributes to urban representation and the avoidance of rancorous c