Bloomberg Cities

City leaders have always worked to save residents’ time and effort. But now, time use is emerging as a unifying guidepost across sectors, providing a focused way to assess how policies impact residents' daily lives. We took a closer look at how: https://lnkd.in/grQyu2yC

“Crafting effective applications for federal grants is a tough and time-consuming task. But I urge fellow mayors, in Iowa and elsewhere, to make the effort. To reach out to hear from residents. To engage unexpected partners. To forge smart collaborations. To break down barriers that have separated towns—and residents— for too long, even if it must happen brick by brick. And to tap into creative resources, like the Local Infrastructure Hub, for a leg up in building the infrastructure—and the ways of working—that Americans deserve.” Mayor Quentin Hart in The Des Moines Register on City of Waterloo Iowa's work with the Local Infrastructure Hub—a program supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Results for America, National League of Cities, United States Conference of Mayors, Ford Foundation, Waverley Street Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Emerson Collective, Delivery Associates, and Ballmer Group: https://lnkd.in/egZhCCgS

Working alongside their mayors, senior leaders play a leading role in building organizational muscle within their city halls to overcome governmental roadblocks and improve the lives of their residents. This week, 78 senior city leaders, like their mayors, took part in our Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, and spoke about their indispensable roles in addressing the biggest problems their cities face.

Universities have strong research skills and loads of data, and city halls need better information and ways to understand what works for their communities. Teaming up makes a lot of sense, but there’s frequently a disconnect—often because academic institutions are focused on research that can be published in journals, while city halls are looking for immediate, practical help with real-world issues. We spoke to City of Amsterdam’s Chief Science Officer Caroline Nevejan about how local leaders can harness city knowledge and partnerships to build promising futures for their communities: https://lnkd.in/et8_2cpR

Gov. Wes Moore in POLITICO with Christine Zhu on the Bloomberg Philanthropies Innovation Team coming to the State of Maryland: “That will create the kind of nexus that we think is necessary for us to accomplish our big goals, like ending child poverty, like creating cradle-to-career education for all of our kids, like having an economy that grows and sees everybody.” https://lnkd.in/eiUr_BVc  

“In 2022, I joined Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative with mayors from around the world to develop our ability to lead our cities to make better data informed decisions, to better collaborate across boundaries, and to be innovative in our leadership as we grow our teams and accept responsibility to drive change in an uncertain environment.” Mayor Matt Tuerk spoke to NPR’s WDIY 88.1 FM about how working with like the Local Infrastructure Hub—led by Bloomberg Philanthropies, National League of Cities, Results for America, Ford Foundation, Emerson Collective, United States Conference of Mayors, Waverley Street Foundation, Delivery Associates, The Kresge Foundation, and Ballmer Group—is helping to drive long-lasting change in City of Allentown that residents feel: https://lnkd.in/ec_XDhPb

“To date, 340 individuals have been admitted into addiction treatment through RealFix, not merely referred to. Some 217 have been housed, with most connected to treatment via teledoc, and some opting for transportation to impatient treatment. Of those housed, 122 had been homeless. More than 33 of these individuals have been placed into housing or reunited with family, achieving a 27% success rate compared to the national average of 15% for housing the homeless.” City of Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh in North Jersey discussing the success of RealFix—a Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge-winning initiative: https://lnkd.in/er4gaUGp

There are a record 120 million displaced people across the world, and a huge number of them are seeking to build their futures in cities.    The resulting impacts are prompting many local governments to lean on one capacity in particular: innovation.   From City and County of Denver to Freetown City Council to City of New York to City of Tulsa, this week’s Spark dives into the approaches mayors are taking to address these urgent needs: https://lnkd.in/eFSgYvGF

One of the best ways for mayors to achieve ambitious goals is by forging stronger connections with the people they serve. And one of the best ways they can do that is by learning how to effectively share more about themselves, their values, and why they care so much about the challenges faced by their communities. That's why a key offering of the Government Innovation programs at Bloomberg Philanthropies, which aim to strengthen city halls so local leaders can implement bold solutions that move us all forward, zeroes in on the power of public narrative skills. Here's how public narrative training has helped four mayors—Mayor Brett Smiley, Bruce Teague, Keisha Lance Bottoms, and Lauren Mcleann—deliver on local priorities and urgent challenges: https://lnkd.in/gBnfrJXD

Thumbs up or thumbs down? Mayor edition 👍👎 Last week, we welcomed our new class of 39 mayors, representing 11 countries and 5 continents, to the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. See what they had to say – thumbs up or thumbs down – about what city halls need to lead today.