EngagingCities

To plan for the transition to automated vehicles, cities and county governments should develop building and zoning codes that not only accommodate adaptable parking but encourage it by design. This can include amending building codes to require infrastructure that makes transforming garages into inhabitable buildings possible. As automated vehicles begin to enter the marketplace, cities should consider incentives and other programs to begin the conversion of ground level parking to commercial uses.

Toronto is becoming a test bed for new smart-city technology, but some observers are concerned about the privacy of the data the city would be collecting.

"We thought hard about how could make the most flexible and unique design that everyone could build.”

Despite many cities experiencing droughts, data on water availability, storage and use is surprisingly sparse — even in tech-forward states like California. 

World Town Planning Day, celebrated on four continents each November, is a special day to recognize and promote the role of planning in creating livable communities.

When Civic Eagle, a platform that allows users to track specific legislation, didn't see engagement as a B2C company, they pivoted to a B2B model.

“What’s your superpower?” asked my mentor Seamus Kraft, the Executive Director of The OpenGov Foundation, on our very first phone call. I paused for ten seconds and hesitated to answer the question…

Plus, CityLab hosts largest-ever gathering of local gov CIOs; Brooklyn, N.Y., welcomes new hub for VR and AR tech; and Louisville, Ky., publishes new Bird Scooter data.

November 3, 2018 Instead of reliving the rage that put me in a Looney Tunes cartoon depiction of steam coming out of my ears reading the misguided missives of PoliSci majors who have never cast a vote, or disaffected youth choosing to step off vs step up for the 2018 Midterms, I’m going to ditch rhetoric …

Love your Block is a high-impact service strategy that connects city leaders with community residents to help revitalize their neighborhoods one block at a time. Typically, city officials provide small grants that support volunteer-fueled solutions developed by the community. Whether turning vacant lots into community gardens, removing graffiti, or helping elderly neighbors with simple home repairs that allow them to keep their homes, citizen volunteers are making their neighborhoods — and their cities — better places to live.

Smart cities have long been discussed as conceptual ideas for how cities should be and what they could do. Rarely is the concept broken down into something that provides substantive meaning to the average city-dweller. Indeed ‘smartness’ for many, is far removed from their everyday life, rather just a hidden network of sensors and connectors.

The upcoming 2018 NCDD conference in Denver seeks to “catalyze the catalysts” by asking how we can work together to broaden the use and amplify the impacts of dialogue and deliberation efforts locally and globally.

In Canada’s largest city, a new Civic Innovation Office is doing procurement differently. They’re inviting entrepreneurs, innovators and other from outside of City Hall to participate in the process.

In a city changing under our feet, holding onto the past can be an existential endeavor. But what gets preserved? Historical buildings associated with minorities are less likely to get landmarked—so some are working to set the record straight. [...]Rea

While the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox fight on the field the latest version of a long hallowed city rivalry that includes names like Ruth, Magic, Bird, Pierce, Bryant and many more, we…

While federal and state governments take a back seat, cities are driving the regulation of autonomous vehicles.

“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say, ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.” —Fred Rogers

I envision a blended “future of work” that includes automation and augmentation — with the latter in the form of “decision support” tools that speed up and improve human performance, rather than compete with it. Computers are good at computing, surfacing potential decisions – and humans are good at context, or understanding the situational environment. When these two attributes are combined, it results in good judgement.

The City Observatory is a study of modern-day cities and urban development practices.

The City of Greensboro, North Carolina used public requests for information to help build an open data portal that was responding directly to residents’ needs. The City took a resident-informed approach to open data, and as a result, has seen public records requests drop off in comparison to nationa

Plus, Philadelphia selects internal innovation grant recipients; The New York Times maps every building in America; and the Durham, N.C., iTeam looks to use human-centered design to improve city forms.

Facebook live, citizen surveys, virtual meetings, oh my! From the newsroom to YouTube, jurisdictions face a maze of social media when they want to engage with the community. The Institute for Local Government explains that cities and counties are trying to connect with residents through nontraditional methods in order to reach community members where they are.

You may have heard that online surveys are dead. Even though you’re constantly being bombarded with emails and website pop ups requesting your valuable input in the form of an online survey. How ma…

In Akron, Ohio an alternative-news monthly called The Devil Strip serves to identify, connect and inspire people throughout the community. The newspaper helps bring Akronites together to envision and shape the city’s future.

A small town in Mexico was down to be one of the country’s first smart cities – but residents saw it as an attempt to westernise and leave tradition behind