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Video: Innovation and the City - Cities as the Nation’s Drivers of Policy Innovation

Event - June 2013

Video: Innovation and the City - Cities as the Nation’s Drivers of Policy Innovation

In June 2013, the Center for an Urban Future and NYU Wagner hosted a forum featuring prominent urban experts and policymakers to discuss why cities from New York to Seattle have recently emerged as the primary laboratories for government innovation and experimentation, what mayors are doing to unleash innovative ideas within their administrations, how to make new policy initiatives scalable, what policy areas could still benefit from major policy innovations and whether there are downsides to the current focus on policy innovations.

Tags: economic growth economic opportunity

INNOVATION AND THE CITY
Cities as the Nation’s Drivers of Policy Innovation
Friday, June 14, 2013, 8:00am to 10:30am


With Washington trapped in budget battles and partisan gridlock, cities have emerged as the best source of government innovation. Nowhere is this more visible than in New York City. Since taking office in 2002, Mayor Bloomberg has introduced a steady stream of innovative policies, from a competition to recruit a new applied sciences campus and a far-reaching sustainability plan, to micro-apartments and a first-in-the-nation Office of Financial Empowerment. Some reforms have been more successful than others, and some more widely embraced by New Yorkers, but these policy innovations have undeniably reshaped city government, improving service delivery and sparking economic growth.

Today’s forum, hosted by Citi Community Development, features prominent urban experts and policymakers discussing why cities from New York to Seattle have recently emerged as the primary laboratories for government innovation and experimentation, what mayors are doing to unleash innovative ideas within their administrations, how to make new policy initiatives scalable, what policy areas could still benefit from major policy innovations and whether there are downsides to the current focus on policy innovations. The symposium will also feature the launch of a major new report from the Center for an Urban Future and NYU Wagner, funded by Citi Community Development, that provides New York’s next mayor with 15 innovative policies that have proven effective other cities which have significant potential for replication in New York.

8:00am – 8:30am
Breakfast and Registration

8:30am – 8:40am
Welcoming Remarks

  • Bob Annibale, Global Director, Citi Community Development and Microfinance
  • Gifford Miller, Board Chairman, Center for an Urban Future

8:40am – 8:50am
Presentation of Innovation and the City Report

  • Neil Kleiman, Director, NYU Wagner Innovation Labs

8:50am – 10:30am
The Role of Cities as Drivers of Policy Innovation

  • Moderator: Jonathan Bowles, Executive Director, Center for an Urban Future
  • Vishaan Chakrabarti, Partner, SHoP Architects
  • Linda Gibbs, Deputy Mayor, New York City
  • Ben Hecht, President & CEO, Living Cities
  • Hon. Angel Taveras, Mayor, Providence