The Economy of Urban Replication: Why Cities Need to Be Sharing Ideas

[M II A II R II K]

The Economy of Urban Replication: Why Cities Need to Be Sharing Ideas


October 18, 2023

By Michael R. Bloomberg

Read More: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...r?srnd=citylab

.....

One of the central challenges facing cities isn’t money. It’s management — and more specifically, managing innovation. That’s not a knock on mayors — so many of them are doing exceptional work. But the reality is that the pace of technological and social change is accelerating, and an increasingly important part of an effective city is having the organizational capacity to discover, adapt and implement ideas that have been proven to work in other places. The trouble is, this kind of program and policy replication is difficult and complicated, and few cities have the resources to engage in it.

- Even big cities struggle with adapting and replicating ideas from other cities. When we introduced bike share to New York, for instance, it required several years of intensive research and outreach to vendors, sponsors and communities. It’s easy to forget now, but success was hardly guaranteed. --- There are a number of coalitions and networks that work to spread good ideas, including one Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Aspen Institute are convening in Washington, DC, this week, CityLab. Together, they have helped change city-to-city dialogue from the exception to the rule. But the spread of ideas among cities is still mostly ad-hoc and word of mouth, based on informal conversations and occasional convenings. As a result, cities are too often left to reinvent wheel, with little or no help from outside experts.

- What’s needed is a coordinated set of resources that mayors can draw upon. That includes data on the performance of programs that other cities have adopted, insights from those who brought the original idea to life, support on how to quickly adapt it to local circumstances, and tools to assist with evaluating and improving it after implementation. In other words, cities need a unified initiative squarely focused on accelerating city-to-city replication — and soon, they will have it. --- Whether it’s improving sustainability around waste management, accelerating language development for young children, or digitizing paper-based construction permits to promote government transparency, our foundation’s Mayors Challenge has helped ideas like this spread from 38 cities to nearly 350. That level of policy replication has benefitted more than 100 million residents around the world. And hopefully, this exchange will help us reach even more people, much faster.

.....

[mhays]

Also, many people are offended at the idea that a city should "bring in the same ideas from elsewhere." This is a populist idea that doesn't withstand scrutiny but sounds good on a campaign flyer.