9 Cities Selected as 2018 Bloomberg ‘Mayors Challenge’ Winners
Durham, North Carolina Shutterstock
Each of the cities, part of “a coast-to-coast civic-solutions laboratory,” will receive $1 million in funding.
The Bloomberg Philanthropies announced the winners of the 2018 Mayors Challenge during CityLab Detroit on Monday.
Of the 35 champion Mayors Challenge cities for 2018, nine were selected as winners: Denver, Colorado; Durham, North Carolina; Fort Collins, Colorado; Georgetown, Texas; Huntington, West Virginia; Los Angeles, California; New Rochelle, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and South Bend, Indiana.
Each of the nine winning cities will receive $1 million in funding. Earlier this year, the 35 champion cities were awarded up to $100,000 to test and refine their ideas, creating “a coast-to-coast civic-solutions laboratory.
”Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement: “Mayors across the country are tackling the big issues that Washington is ignoring. This competition is designed to help them do even more, by incentivizing and supporting big—and achievable—new ideas.”
In Durham, the city’s Mayors’ Challenge problem was how the “city’s parking capacity and budget for street maintenance can’t keep pace with residents’ dependency on single-occupancy vehicles, negatively affecting more than 34,000 downtown employees and residents.” Durham’s solution involves incentivizing changes in behavior to shift single-occupancy vehicle drivers to alternative modes of transit, including using prizes.
In South Bend, the city’s Mayors’ Challenge problem was the “lack of reliable, affordable transportation is a primary barrier to finding and maintaining employment for approximately 10,000 South Bend residents.” The city’s solution: help low-income and part-time workers with unreliable transportation by “partnering with ride-share companies and employers, who will help offset the cost.”
CityLab, like Route Fifty and the Government Executive Media Group, is part of the Atlantic Media Company.
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive's Route Fifty and is based in Seattle.
NEXT STORY: The Tech Lessons of Westworld for Our World