The how-to hub for urban innovators
We are the brainchild of Anthony Williams, former president of the National League of Cities. Our mission: to get city officials across America literally to pick up the phone and talk about best practices. So if you see an innovation that intrigues you (or even the music someone likes), look at the bottom of the story for contact info, and CONNECT!
How to Prepare Your City for Climate Change
Kate Johnson, Program Analyst, Department of Energy and Environment, Washington, DC
An App to Communicate with Police
T.J. Smith, Chief, Media Relations, Baltimore Police Department, Baltimore, Maryland
An App for Safer Driving
Tim Cox, Deputy Director of Public Works, Marietta, Georgia
How to Get Your Residents Eating Healthy Food
Breanna Hawkins, Policy Director, Los Angeles Food Policy Council, Los Angeles, California
How to Use Data Analytics to Fix Your Potholes
Bob Bennett, Chief Innovation Officer, Kansas City, Missouri
Finding Jobs for Panhandlers
Aaron Geyer, Program Coordinator, City of Portland, Maine
Another Way to Fund Public Housing
Rasmia Kirmani-Frye, President, The Fund for Public Housing, and, Director, Public-Private Partnerships, New York City Housing Authority
How to Make Your City Compassionate
Greg Fischer, Mayor, Louisville City and Metro, Kentucky
How to Create a Portal for Your G2G Tech Needs
Phil Bertolini, CIO, Oakland County, MI
How to Use Electric Powered Bikes to Improve Your Transportation
Alfred Knotts, Transportation Planning Manager, Park City, Utah
Moving Your Town to E-Permits
Chris Anaradian, Director, Development Services, Queen Creek, Arizona
How to Apply Science to Policymaking
David Yokum, Director, Lab @ DC, Washington, D.C.
How to Step Up Your Jail Diversion Efforts
David Schwindt, Police Officer, Iowa City, Iowa
How Sensors Can Improve Your Air Quality
Mike Lunn, Manager, Environmental Services Department, Grand Rapids, Michigan
How to Make Transport Easier for Seniors
Katie Knapp, Transportation & Mobility Coordinator, City of Evanston, Illinois
How to Make Your Capital Budget Understandable
Laura Larsen, Budget and Program Evaluation Manager, City of Madison, Wisconsin
How to Move Your Criminal Trials Faster
Mark Thompson, Assistant County Administrator, Department of Public Safety, Hennepin County, Minnesota
How to Bring Your Tech Training In-House
Sherman Luk, Project Manager, Controller’s Office, City and County of San Francisco
How to Curb Your City’s Daily Commuting Mess
Caroline Chapman, GO Redmond Program Administrator, Redmond, WA
How to Find Other Cities Like Yours
Susan Longworth, Senior Business Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
How to Become a “Second Generation” Smart City
Bill Peduto, Mayor, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
How to Use Tech Firms to Improve Your City’s Life
Jeremy Goldberg, Deputy CTO, NYCx, Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation, City of New York, NY
How to Find Out Amazing Things by Putting Sensors on Your Street Lights
Danielle DuMerer, CIO and Commissioner, Department of Innovation and Technology, City of Chicago
How to Go Paperless
Babila Lima, Operations Officer, Fiscal & Administrative Division, Department of General Services, Baltimore, Maryland
How to Engage Your Residents About the Future
Natalia Urtubey, Executive Director, Imagine Boston 2030, City of Boston, MA
An App for Getting Your City to Access More Transportation Options
Cindy Patton, Acting Manager, Parking and Mobility Services, Denver Public Works - Transportation and Mobility, City and County of Denver, CO
How to Measure Your City’s “Wellbeing”
Ted Winterer, Mayor, City of Santa Monica, CA
How Smart Street Lights Can Help Your City
David Graham, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Neighborhood Services, City of San Diego, California
How to Detect E. Coli in Your Water
Nick Lucius, Data Scientist, Department of Innovation and Technology, City of Chicago, Illinois
How You Can Collect Data to Reduce Asthma
Grace Simrall, Chief of Civic Innovation and Technology, Louisville Metro Government, Louisville, Kentucky
How to Get People to Read Your Data
Tim Moreland, Director of Office of Performance Management and Open Data, City of Chattanooga, TN
How to Improve Foster Care by Linking Pay to Performance
Karen Anderson, Pay for Success Coordinator, Department of Children and Family Services, Cuyahoga County, Ohio
How to Co-ordinate Your Smart City Projects
Kate Garman, Smart City Coordinator, IT Department, City of Seattle
How to Use a Chatbot as Your City’s Eyes and Ears
Ryan Johnson, Department of Economic Development, North Charleston, SC
How to Improve Public Safety—and Get the Money to Do It
Mary Salas, Mayor, City of Chula Vista, CA
How to Help Underserved Kids During the Summer
Nate Hinkel, Senior Communications Specialist, Department of Transit, City of Wichita, Kansas
How to Build an Innovation District
Allen Joines, Mayor, City of Winston-Salem, NC
How to Know When Your Bike Trails Need Repairs
Marcus Coenen, Senior Transportation Planner, Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, Des Moines, Iowa
How to Shift Cannabis Use to Legal Dispensaries
Ron Galperin, City Controller, Los Angeles, CA
How to Modernize Your Water Meters—and Save Your Customers and City Lots of Money
Heather Pohl, Project Manager, Public Utilities Commission, City of San Francisco
How to Know if Remotely-Located Officers Need Help
Hank Partin, Sheriff, Montgomery County, Virginia
How to Help Your Downtown with a Driverless Shuttle
Joanna Wadsworth, Program Manager, Department of Public Works, City of Las Vegas NV
How to Get New Energy Systems Without Spending a Dime
Neal Pugliese, Director of Public Projects & Facilities, City of Beaufort, SC
How to Decide What Smart Tech You Should Have
Terry Yates, Infrastructure and Network Manager, Town of Cary, North Carolina
How to Revitalize Older Neighborhoods Inexpensively
Harry LaRosiliere, Mayor, Plano, TX
How to Modernize Your City’s Water Meters
Jakeh Roberts, Operations & Maintenance Division Manager, Department of Public Works, Monroe, WA
How to Engage Your Millennials
Kirby Clark, Communications Specialist, Police Department, Arlington County, VA
How to Curb Opioid Overdoses
Eric Guenther, Chief of Police, City of Mundelein, IL
How You and Your Tech Startups Can Help Each Other
Annia Aleman, Civic Innovation Specialist, City of Pittsburgh, PA
How to Help Your Residents Keep Up Their Homes
Jim Lane, Mayor, Scottsdale, AZ
How to Predict Flooding
Dr. Samantha Danchuk, Assistant Director, Environmental Planning & Community Resilience Division, Broward County, FL
How to Show Your City’s Culture, in a Cool Way
Claudia Castro Luna, Civic Poet, City of Seattle, WA
A Better Way to Keep Your Roads Repaired
Andrea Klopfenstein, Project Engineer, Peoria, IL
How to Use Data To Stop Overdoses
Brandon Crowley, Chief Data Officer, City of Cincinnati, Ohio
How to Give Businesses a Better Experience Dealing with the City
Hillary Schieve, Mayor, Reno, Nevada
How to Use Smart Bike Racks to Stop Thieves
Steve Beroldo, Bike Program Manager, Bay Area Rapid Transit ("BART"), Oakland, CA
How to Make Diverse Schools More Successful
Shannon McParland, Principal, Sioux Trail Elementary School, Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District 191, Burnsville, MN
An App for Affordable Housing
Erica Leak, Manager of Housing Policy and Planning, City of Austin, Texas
How to Save Fire Trucks for When You Really Need Them
Andres Mercado, Firefighter/Paramedic (overseeing the Mobile Integrated Health Office), City of Santa Fe, NM
How to Improve the Safety of Your City’s Night Life
Buddy Dyer, Mayor, Orlando, FL
How to Offer Your Citizens Job Training That Also Fills City Jobs
Hollie Lee, Chief, Workforce Development Strategies, City of Charlottesville, Virginia
How to Tackle Homelessness Better
Shelley McKittrick, Homelessness Director, City of Aurora, CO
How to Dispose of Restaurant Grease
David McNeil, Environmental Services Manager, City of Tempe, Arizona
How to Digitize Your Libraries
Laura Cole, BiblioTech Administrator, Bexar County, TX
How to Improve Your Efforts to Curb Overdose Deaths
Lt. Detective Commander Patrick Glynn, Special Investigations and Narcotics Units, Quincy, Massachusetts
How to Upgrade Your Broadband—and Comply with State Laws
David P. Young, Manager, Fiber Infrastructure and Right of Way Construction Management, Department of Public Works and Utilities, Lincoln, Nebraska
How to Get “Reefer Revenue”
Don Stevens, Mayor, North Bonneville, WA
How to Share Data to Improve Policing
Brandy Carney, Director, Public Safety & Justice Services, Cuyahoga County, Ohio
How to Use Tesla SUVs to Ease Traffic and Parking
Cesar Hernandez, Government Relations Specialist, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (“HART”), Tampa, Florida
How to Finance New Streetlights
Deanna Venker, Commissioner of Traffic, City of St. Louis
How to Save Lots of Money, Without Firing Anyone
Brian Elms, Director of Peak Academy and Analytics, City and County of Denver
How to Get More Citizen Feedback
Carrie Peterson, Resource Development Manager, Department of Parks and Open Space, Eugene, Oregon
How to Retain City Employees
Nick Kittle, Former Chief Innovation Officer, Adams County, Colorado
How to Improve Your City’s Energy-Efficiency with One Simple Trick
Chris Castro, Director of Sustainability, City of Orlando, FL
How to Expand Your Community Outreach
Christopher Koontz, Advance Planning Officer, City of Long Beach, Long Beach, California
How to Open a Public Drug Injection Facility
Jeff Duchin, MD, Health Officer and Chief, Communicable Disease Epidemiology & Immunization Section, Public Health Seattle and King County, Washington
How to Make Business Tax Filings Easier
Jamie Carnell, Assistant Finance Director, Business Systems, Project Director for the Summit Re-Implementation Project, Seattle, Washington
How to Get Your Agencies to Love 311
Jean Ann Lawson, Chief Performance Officer, Office of the City Manager, Kansas City, Missouri
How to Make Your Seniors Safer with Smoke Detectors
Dan Hoffman, Former Chief Innovation Officer, Montgomery County, Maryland
How to Handle the Last-Minute Rush for School Immunizations
Tiffany Wilkinson, MPH, Division Manager, Communicable Disease Prevention and Public Health Preparedness, Kansas City, Missouri
How Your Schools Can Teach Kids Better
Pete Piccolo, Executive Director of Innovation, Denver Public Schools, Denver, Colorado
How to Deal with an Angry Public
Lori Lightfoot, Chairman, Mayor’s Task Force on Police Accountability, City of Chicago
How to Right-Size Fines for Your Low-Income Residents
Anne Stuhldreher, Director of Financial Justice Project, City of San Francisco
How to Find Loans for Your Neighborhood Shops
Jon Snyder, Director, Business Financial Resources, Department of Commerce, City of Philadelphia, PA
How to Map Your City’s Trees
Jacqueline Lu, Director of Data Analytics, City of New York Parks & Recreation
How to Maximize Green Lights at Your Intersections
Alex Pazuchanics, Policy Coordinator, Office of the Mayor, Pittsburgh, PA
How to Get Ideas to Improve Your City
Eric Espinosa, Co-leader, Mayor’s Cup, Los Angeles, CA
How to Budget Better
Andrew Kleine, Budget Director, City of Baltimore, MD
How to Use Alexa for City Services
Rick Virmani, Development Services Systems Manager, City of Las Vegas