Cities, Foundations Build Up Innovation to Tackle Breakdown in Urban Infrastructure
In the recently released 2015 Menino Survey of Mayors, local leaders noted they are receiving little funding and support from the federal government, and are increasingly taking the challenge into their own hands. That’s why Living Cities and the Citi Foundation have designed the third cohort of City Accelerator — an initiative that is helping 11 select U.S. cities foster innovation and collaboration among urban leaders — to test, innovate and codify new ways of building, repairing and maintaining much-needed infrastructure. […] The City Accelerator is focused on standardizing emerging state-of-the art practices in the municipal innovation field and encouraging others to adopt them. In the first cohort, for example, Philadelphia is helping low-income residents through the application of behavioral economics or ‘nudges.’ By testing what impact changes to envelope sizes and handwritten letters make when communicating with taxpayers about rebates and subsidies, the city is gaining a new understanding about what motivates people to enroll in these programs. By providing the resources and structure for cities to work together in new ways, City Accelerator helps cities experiment more rapidly and effectively to develop scalable solutions to systems-level hurdles.