In the news
A quick look at news stories this week featuring Bloomberg Cities’ programs and partners.
Mayors from Paris, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Helsinki, Finland, were among dozens of mayors from around the world who convened in Paris earlier this week for the annual CityLab Summit. The two-day conference served as an opportunity for global city leaders to convene and discuss urbanism, city planning, and education, among other topics. You can view all the highlights via Atlantic LIVE’s YouTube “CityLab Paris” playlist. (Atlantic LIVE)
Dayna Bennett, chief of staff to Gary, Ind., Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, and Jane Slusser, chief of staff to Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, share their key takeaways after participating in the launch of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative this summer. “If our experience with the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative shows us one thing, it’s that that one ‘step back’ for programs like this really can mean two — or more — steps forward,” they wrote. (Governing)
Having a better procurement process can help city leaders drive better outcomes and achieve goals, just like it did in Seattle. The city joined forces with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Government Performance Lab through @WhatWorksCities with a focus on tackling homelessness. In a three-step process, easily replicable by other cities for a wide variety of program areas, Seattle dramatically reformed its contracting for homeless services by consolidating contracts, establishing key metrics for monitoring and paying for performance, and establishing monthly meetings for active contract management. (Governing)
The innovation team (i-team) in Anchorage, Alaska, is tackling unpaid fines in the city by sending letters and encouraging people to pay their dues. David Moore, city treasurer, says his office has projected a total revenue boost of nearly $1 million in 2017 compared to last year. Funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies with a $1.5 million grant to use in the span of three years, the team is also looking to address other items on the city budget, from reducing the cost of living to cutting health care costs. (Alaska Dispatch News)
