MY TURN-Now that almost everyone has finished with their review of 2014 and predictions for 2015, I bring you some potential good news for the City of Los Angeles. In November I wrote a CityWatch article on the City Lab Conference organized by Atlantic Magazine and sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Former NY Michael Bloomberg has used his personal fortune to fund many different activities.
Bloomberg Philanthropies started this program initially with five Cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Louisville, Memphis, and New Orleans. The five 2014 winners were judged on their results.
Bloomberg explained that innovation doesn’t always work and that is why Cities have a problem trying new things without guarantees. He emphasized that rather than use tax dollars -private public partnerships were the way to innovate. He also noted that leadership is deciding where to go and doing it ... not waiting for the polls and following public opinion.
Examples:
Memphis’ i-team needed to revitalize its retail sector, and by increasing the number of jobs- it put more money into the local economy. In sixteen months it was able to fill 53% of the empty storefronts in key commercial tracts of the city.
Chicago wanted to streamline the business permit process and managed to reduce the time drastically.
Atlanta wanted to solve the homeless program and managed to get more than 1000 people off the streets.
Louisville wanted to improve government’s services to its constituents and promote jobs, especially in the export sectors.
New Orleans also wanted to improve government services and increase public safety. They managed to streamline their 911 emergency system and reduce the number of calls by 25% which freed up the first responders to do emergency services. They also reduced the number of murders by 24%;
The major point stressed, was the idea that all of these ideas were transferable to other Cities. The Five Cities in the challenge worked with each other as well as the team, even though they were competitive.
All of these case studies make for interesting reading and are available at Bloomberg Philanthropies web site.
Based on the success of the pioneer cities, and growing demand from mayors around the country and around the world, in December 2014, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a significant expansion of the i-teams program. Including Los Angeles twelve U.S. cities were selected to participate in the $45 million expansion:
Albuquerque, NM; Boston, MA; Centennial, CO; Jersey City, NJ; Long Beach, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Mobile, AL; Minneapolis, MN; Peoria, IL; Rochester, NY; Seattle, WA; and Syracuse, NY.
Two non-U.S. cities also joined the program: Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel were also selected to participate. According to Bloomberg, funding will allow mayors in each of these cities to create dedicated i-teams to develop and deliver bold new approaches to issues such as affordable housing, public safety, infrastructure finance, customer service, and job growth.
Innovation Teams are based in city hall and report to the mayor. The i-team members serve as in-house consultants, using the Innovation Delivery approach to help the mayor and other partners solve the city’s biggest challenges.
First, the i-team and its partners investigate the problem by gathering information and data and researching how the problem affects other cities. The goal of this phase is to break down a problem into challenges, and to carefully asses the causes of each challenge.
Second, the i-team assesses possible solutions by leading their partners through a robust and collaborative idea generation process using best-in-class techniques.
Third, the i-team and its partners select the most promising ideas and create a plan for implementing them. In the fourth and final step, the plan is put into action and the i-team begins monitoring results.
What makes the Innovation Delivery approach so powerful? According to Bloomberg, it creates the space for city staff to step away from their daily work and to rethink issues, reimagine outcomes, and capitalize on bold new possibilities. It gives governments the tools they need to combine transformative ideas with targeted delivery methods to produce real impact.
In Los Angeles, the new i-team will initially focus on neighborhood revitalization across the city. LA's winning proposal envisioned creative thinking and collaborative implementation of new data-driven approaches to neighborhood revitalization. It minimizes displacement and maximizes the economic and social benefits flowing to low-income residents of Great Street and Promise Zone neighborhoods … including opportunities for starting or expanding local businesses and generating new and better jobs for local residents.
Now if the LA Innovation team is made up of diverse and knowledgeable people and not just more political appointees, this could prove a real benefit. So many so-called philanthropists contribute to causes, but few do what Bloomberg has done by actually getting down to practical approaches to help cities. It is a good lesson for those that sit back and criticize but don’t help to make changes.
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I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the killing of the police and cartoon/journalists at Charlie Hebdo in Paris on Wednesday. It looks like it had the opposite effect to what the terrorists wanted to accomplish. Instead of backing down out of fear…the civilized world is standing up and saying, ENOUGH. You don’t have to be a linguist to understand “Je suis Charlie.” Let’s hope this reaction has a lasting effect!
Journalism can be a dangerous profession. Look at the beheadings by ISIS, freak accidents, and war casualties in the last year. Many professions have dangerous consequences … from window washers to aircraft crew. There is nothing completely safe. There is however, a big difference between the perfectly coiffed TV talking heads and those in the field.
When I was an aspiring journalist I had visions of myself wearing sun glasses and a raincoat traveling to exotic places. When I found myself in that position …getting caught in wars, getting out of countries on strike I must admit … the rush of adrenalin was addictive.
Journalists do not go into it for the financial remuneration. Getting a scoop is akin to a religious experience. They have this need to make a difference and to inform their readers and … in some cases be part of history.
We would be in a sorry state without their talent, curiosity, and bravery. Whether it is forcing us to look at the world calamities, investigating wrong doing or satirizing institutions … a civil society cannot not live in a vacuum. There are too many areas in the world today that want to take that right away.
As always comments welcome.
(Denyse Selesnick is a featured CityWatch columnist. She is a former Publisher/journalist/international event organizer. Denyse can be reached at: [email protected])
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 3
Pub: Jan 9, 2015
