Finalist Mad City

[John]

The U.S. DOT named seven finalists: Austin, Columbus, Denver, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Portland, and San Francisco. The seven finalists dreamed big: they planned to implement autonomous shuttles to move city residents, to electrify city fleets, and to collectively equip over thirteen thousand buses, taxis, and cars with vehicle-to-vehicle Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) technology. Over a three month period, these finalists worked closely with the Department, their residents, and each other to develop detailed plans to put their Smart City visions into action. Each received $100,000 for public outreach, the production of pitch videos, and intensive technical assistance from Federal experts and private partners to further concept development. Through this process, the finalists refined their vision for what a smart city could be:

The Strategy: Austin will create a Mobility Marketplace that will improve access to mobility services for unbanked users, older Americans, and those with disabilities. Multi-lingual Smart Ambassadors will partner with community organizations to demonstrate new technologies and mobility services and engage with citizens in underserved communities to understand their needs.

The Challenge: Each year in Franklin County, 150 babies die before their first birthday. And, twice as many African-American babies are likely to die as white children. In Columbus, these deaths are concentrated in neighborhoods in which there are lower levels of income, education and health. One neighborhood loses four times as many babies as in the neighborhood next door.

The Solution: Columbus will leverage a new central connected traffic signal and integrated transportation data system to develop a suite of applications to deliver enhanced human services to residents and visitors. The City plans to integrate an electronic appointments and scheduling platform for doctor visits with transit tracking so that rescheduling is automated and expecting mothers need not wait weeks to reschedule appointments. These applications include a multi-modal trip planning application, a common payment system for all transportation modes, a smartphone application for assistance to persons with disabilities, and integration of travel options at key locations for visitors. Columbus will establish a smart corridor connecting underserved neighborhoods to jobs and services. The smart corridor will enhance Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service by installing smart traffic signals, smart street lighting, traveler information and payment kiosks, and free public Wi-Fi along the route. Six electric, accessible, autonomous vehicles will be deployed to expand the reach of the BRT system to additional retail and employment centers.

The Solution: Establish a connected freight efficiency corridor with comprehensive freight parking and traffic information systems, freight signal prioritization, designated parking and staging areas.

The Challenge: Despite advances in transportation technology and urban planning, we still lack basic data on how cities work and how infrastructure affects the everyday lives of our citizens.

Make these data available through an open data architecture, to allow for unprecedented studies in transportation engineering, urban systems operation, planning, and the social sciences, promote entrepreneurship and empower citizens.

The Goal: Jump-start electric conversion to reduce transportation emissions by 50% by 2030. Through demonstration projects in street lighting, electric vehicles, and power generation.

The Challenge: People in underserved communities are at a higher risk of missing out on new technological advances; these citizens may lack access to new tools, and more significantly, their needs and issues may not feed into the data collection and study that guides development of those tools.

The Strategy: Make community members a part of the development and implementation of Smart City technologies from beginning to end through a public education campaign and a smart city video contest.

The Challenge: As the search for affordable housing continues to push people commuting into San Francisco further from the city, the roads into downtown experience ever growing congestion.

Last June, Mayor Duggan announced plans for the Neighborhood Solar Initiative at a community meeting in District 3. This was prompted by a challenge issued by President Joe Biden for cities to use more solar power and the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides federal tax incentives of 30% or more of the costs to renewable energy.

250 acres of would host 33 megawatts of solar arrays, which when connected to the electrical grid, would offset the electricity needed to operate 127 city buildings, including City Hall, police and fire stations, and recreation centers.

Community Benefits: In addition to having large, blighted areas converted to solar arrays, host neighborhoods will receive community benefits of $25,000 per acre. Based on the proposals of the 9 finalists, applicants are choosing to take those community benefits in the form of energy efficiency upgrades. Neighbors located in the footprint of the final sites will each get $10,000 - $25,000 of benefits per home, depending on the size of the solar array and the number of neighbors included. Each neighbor will choose to use these benefits to reduce their energy burden, for any of the following:

Final approval of the sites, contracts, and any land acquisition will rest with Detroit City Council. Because condemnation will be required by the process, Mayor Duggan has announced that homeowners will be paid double fair market value and no less than $90,000 for their home. Renters in proposed solar areas will receive 18 months free rent and will be moved at city expense.

The Mayor announced a January 31, 2024 deadline for the finalists to submit evidence of support. The city is already giving homeowners in the proposed areas firm dollar offers if their community is selected so they can evaluate whether to support the plan.

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As a next step in the nomination process, IDC invites the public to vote on the named finalists through Survey Monkey. Voting will remain open through Friday, March 8th. Winners will be announced March 27th and honored at Smart Cities Connect being held May 7-10 in Raleigh, NC. Finalists in the SCNAA illustrate best practice examples of how forward-thinking municipalities are effectively leveraging technology and innovation to offer new services and economic opportunities and to meet the needs and expectations of citizens and residents

The three candidates selected by the Yakima City Council to be included in the finalist pool for the Yakima city manager position will be in town next week for a community meet-and-greet event and interviews with the Council.

The finalist pool, in alphabetical order, includes Yakima Valley Conference of Governments Deputy Director Vicki Baker, Franklin County, Washington County Administrator Mike Gonzalez, and Wellton, Arizona Town Manager Richard Marsh, Jr.

In January of this year, the City Council terminated the contract of Bob Harrison, who had served as Yakima city manager since September 2020. The City Council appointed Dave Zabell as interim city manager in January of 2024. He will continue to serve until the installation of a new city manager. Zabell was not an applicant for the city manager position.

An image from"Yesternow", an original composition of animation, performance and sound at Saint Agnes Hospital in 2018 created by Phillip Bernard Smith, Andr Leon Gray, Lincoln Hancock, and Finn Cohen.

Raleigh Arts is thrilled to announce that Bloomberg Philanthropies has selected the City of Raleigh as one of 17 finalist cities in the running to receive up to $1 million as part of its Public Art Challenge. The Public Art Challenge invites mayors and artists to submit proposals to receive up to $1 million in funding for innovative public art projects designed to address local challenges.

Raleigh was selected as a finalist from more than 150 project proposals received from cities in 40 U.S. states. This fall, Bloomberg Philanthropies will select up to 10 winning cities to execute their projects over the next two years.

If not awarded the Public Art Challenge grant, Raleigh Arts will continue working with partners to develop capacity building symposiums for community public art as well as apply for funding from additional sources to support the initiative. While the scale might not be as large without this level of national funding, Raleigh Arts is committed to integrating equity work in all public art projects.

Kansas City Metropolitan Area, USA, KC Global Design - KC Design Draft, entered by Kansas City Area Development Council [Credits: Burns & McDonnell, JE Dunn Construction, BNIM, Spectrum Reach, Steel City Media, HNTB]

Ōtautahi,Christchurch, New Zealand, A city In Pursuit Of Balance, entered by ChristchurchNZ, [Credits: Resonance Consultancy, Creative Agent, Narrative, Fabriko, McCarthy, Ariki Creative, Resonate]

Switzerland, Swisstainable - Empowering Sustainable Travel In Switzerland, entered by Switzerland Tourism, [Credits: Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), Schweizerischer Tourismusverband STV FST, BOLD]

She also said the city most likely won't announce a new city manager for another two weeks because after making a selection, city government leaders will need to draft and negotiate the contract with the candidate.

Alan Howze is a public sector executive and has focused on building strong, financially sustainable communities and delivering high-quality public services. He's gained more than 20 years of governmental experience and currently works as the assistant administrator for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas.

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