I propose a new way for thinking about the decisions that cities make to improve the quality of life for their citizens. I argue that cities differ in the amount of civic capital they possess. Cities with more civic capital are better able to make quality‐of‐life decisions than cities with less civic capital. I test this argument by providing measures of civic capital and quality‐of‐life resolutions, alike, and by analyzing the differences among five major cities. The final test, which assesses the impact of civic capital on quality‐of‐life resolutions over a long span of years, uncovers a strong and decisive relationship between civic capital and quality‐of‐life resolutions: where there is an increase in civic capital there is a somewhat later increase as well in the number of quality‐of‐life resolutions made by cities.
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