Blog Post Ben Hecht on Jan 7, 2016

#BensTake: Can Local Government Innovation Stick?  

A municipal innovation movement is gaining steam across the U.S. From the work of our City Accelerator's first cohort, Living Cities CEO, Ben Hecht, outlines three trends that he sees as critical to …

Blog Post Nigel Jacob & Trip Carpenter on Dec 21, 2015

Human-Centered Design for Government 

How can thinking from the design world help cities improve the way that residents experience and interact with government?

Blog Post Alyssa Campbell on Nov 19, 2015

Four Lessons on Relationships, Trust and Shared Learning in Cohorts  

How can multi-site cohorts build relationships and trust, and facilitate shared learning? One intern shares four lessons from Living Cities seven year history of working with cohorts across cities an…

Blog Post Alyssa Campbell on Nov 18, 2015

What Living Cities Has Learned from Working with Multi-Site Cohorts 

As "cohorts" become an integral part of Living Cities work, one summer intern interviewed staff to surface key themes and lessons from across Living Cities' different initiatives.

Blog Post Eric Gordon on Nov 18, 2015

Improving Public Engagement: 5 Cities Get to Work 

At the end of October, leaders from five cities convened in Baltimore with representatives from Living Cities, the Citi Foundation and Governing to share learnings from their respective City Accelera…

Governing

Breaking Through Barriers to Innovation in Local Government 

Blog Post Ben Hecht on Sep 10, 2015

How Can We Recapture the Spirit of Community Engagement that Built America? 

Our CEO Ben Hecht asks what it will take to effectively engage people and communities in order to dramatically improve results for low-income people, especially people of color, faster.

Blog Post Ron Littlefield on Aug 31, 2015

Mayors Come and Go, But Good Ideas Should Stick 

Upcoming elections will test the sustainability of mayors’ innovation initiatives.

Blog Post Elizabeth Vargas on Aug 13, 2015

What We Learned from Launching the City Accelerator Guide 

In January 2015, we packaged our early lessons from the first City Accelerator Cohort into a Guide for Embedding Innovation in Local Government, and learned "what works" about sharing knowledge in r…

Topic

Big Data 

Harnessing the unprecedented amount of data being created and trends in public sector data transparency to dramatically improve the lives of low-income people.

Blog Post Ron Littlefield on Aug 12, 2015

The City of No-Frills Innovation 

Ten years after Katrina, New Orleans is solving municipal challenges and improving lives.

Blog Post Ron Littlefield on Jul 9, 2015

Bringing Back ‘Baltimore is Best!' 

No stranger to hard times, Baltimore looks to new ideas to rise from the ashes.

Blog Post Ron Littlefield on Jul 7, 2015

Seattle's Next Experiment in Urban Planning: Inclusive Engagement 

Seattle is tapping technology to reach previously unheard from -- and often culturally diverse -- citizens.

Person Living Cities

Ben Hecht 

Ben Hecht is the President and CEO of Living Cities, a collaborative of 18 of the world’s leading foundations and financial institutions who work together to boldly fight poverty in America’s cities.

Blog Post Ron Littlefield on Jul 2, 2015

From Popsicles to Pop Music: Albuquerque Bets on Small-Scale Entrepreneurs 

Supporting diverse businesses is the cornerstone of the city’s plan to spark economic mobility.

Blog Post Ron Littlefield on Jun 30, 2015

A Laboratory for Social Change 

After being devastated by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is creating a more effective, equitable health system and reinvigorating all segments of its community.

Blog Post Ron Littlefield on Jun 25, 2015

Building on a Proud History of City Planning and Civic Engagement 

Atlanta is a city experiencing rapid growth. Through the City Accelerator, Atlanta aims to implement new methods of community engagement to make the city even better.

Blog Post Ron Littlefield on Jun 23, 2015

From Civic Engagement to Meaningful Engagement 

With the launch of Cohort 2 of the City Accelerator, we have an opportunity to examine how cities work in terms of social interaction in a very unique and powerful way.

Blog Post Nigel Jacob on Feb 19, 2015

Making City Hall Leaner 

Urban-Technologist-in-Residence, Nigel Jacob, suggests that local governments use Lean (or Agile) methodologies to create services that their residents actually want to use.