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Test-driving micro-apartments in Boston; housing for homeless university students in Georgia; and, partnering with Lyft in a Denver suburb
Government Innovators Network 
 
September 15, 2016
In This Issue

What's New

In the News

Data-Smart City Solutions

Better, Faster, Cheaper

 

WHAT'S NEW


Aerial view of river winding through rainforest

New Finance Model Brings Extraordinary Conservation Measures to Life

Innovators Insights Blog

In our most recent blog post, Magdalena Seol discusses a new financing strategy called Project Finance for Permanence that enabled large-scale conservation efforts in Costa Rica and Brazil. Read more>>

Placard on building that reads

City Leadership Initiative Announced

Bloomberg Philanthropies and Harvard University

Through a $32 million initiative, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Harvard University are collaborating to provide hundreds of city leaders customized executive education focused on leadership and innovation in governance. Read more>>

IN THE NEWS


Boston Taking 385-Square-Foot Apartment for a Spin

Boston is making good on its promise to create more “innovation units” to address local affordable housing shortages. The city’s Housing Innovation Lab has unveiled the Urban Housing Unit, or uHu, a 385-square-foot living complex that will serve as an example of the type of low-cost tiny apartments that could one day be distributed throughout the city. The uHu, which contains a place for sleeping, bathing, storage, and entertaining, will be taken on the road to different Boston neighborhoods over the next few months to gauge interest and garner support.

LADOT’s First Artist-in-Residence Captures Agency’s Evolution

The city of Los Angeles has recently hired its first “Creative Catalyst Artist in Residence” to work with the Department of Transportation on outside-the-box solutions to help achieve the department’s goal of no traffic fatalities by 2025. The city’s Department of Cultural Affairs created the program to embed artists within different city departments to develop innovative ways to engage residents and to meet goals. The current artist, who will receive a $20,000 stipend for one year, has already started recording oral histories with longtime department workers to foster institutional memory.

Kennesaw State Opens First-of-Its-Kind Housing for Homeless Students

Kennesaw State University, part of the University of Georgia system, has opened a dedicated apartment on campus for the temporary housing of homeless students and those at risk of losing housing. Under the plan, students needing assistance are allowed to stay in the unit for up to 14 days while the university works to find them permanent affordable housing. Officials note that there are currently between five and seven enrolled students who will immediately benefit from this emergency housing. Kennesaw University is also the first in the state to have dedicated staff tasked with addressing the needs of this population.

Centennial Teams Up with Lyft for Free Rides to Light Rail Station

To tackle the “first-mile/last-mile” issues that often inhibit public transportation usage, Centennial, Colorado, has partnered with the ride-sharing app Lyft to help people get to and from its Regional Transportation District train station. The Denver suburb will offer subsidized Lyft rides through a six-month pilot program to users already in the current Call-n-Ride service area. Officials say the program will also help with overcrowding at the train station's over-capacity parking lot. Ride-sharing competitor Uber has partnered with other cities on similar initiatives.

Illegal in Massachusetts: Asking Your Salary in a Job Interview

In part to close the gender pay gap, Massachusetts has become the first state to forbid prospective employers from asking about a job candidate’s pay history. At the final stage of the hiring process, employers will often peg salary offers to someone’s previous salary, perpetuating systemic unequal pay practices that may have been carried through the candidate’s employment past. The law will likewise bar companies from prohibiting workers from discussing their respective compensation with each other, and require equal pay for jobs that are of comparable character. The legislation’s sponsors hope that the law becomes a model for other states.

Detroit Seeks ‘Pink Zones’ to Revive Neighborhoods

Detroit is looking for ways to help developers and designers avoid unnecessary regulatory obstacles in order to quickly rebuild and repurpose neglected areas using specially designated “pink zones.” Funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, pink zones will allow public officials and businesses to experiment with economic development initiatives without going through the formal, expensive, and time-consuming rezoning process. The city’s Planning Department is recruiting multidisciplinary teams to create ideas for mixed-use activity at three commercial sites in Detroit, which will then be compared against the current regulatory environment to see which hurdles can be eliminated. Detroit hopes to pilot the pink zones by next summer and that the project will serve as a model for other cities.

DATA-SMART CITY SOLUTIONS


SimCities: Designing Smart Cities through Data-Driven Simulation

In cities across the world, governments use data — about infrastructure, health and safety, and citizen satisfaction — to improve services. But data also has a critical role in shaping the very space of the city, informing the design of new buildings, infrastructure, and neighborhoods. With the help of big data and analytics, urban planners can now use simulations to anticipate the impact of urban development programs. Using these tools, cities can become more sustainable and strategic, while the planning processes become ever more inclusive.

Restoring Trust in the Responsive City

Local governments are in a prime position to drive change, but change is difficult when a trust differential persists. Given these challenges and limited resources, we ought to turn our attention to closing the trust deficit by removing the barriers to government responsiveness.

BETTER, FASTER, CHEAPER


Managing Marijuana: the Role of Data-Driven Regulation

When Colorado voters approved a ballot measure to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana in 2014, state officials knew they would have to quickly develop a robust system to safely and securely control the flow of marijuana across the state, and they managed to do just that with the help of advanced tracking and data analytics. What Colorado is doing provides an impressive example of an emerging, more effective regulation model.

Why We Need to Move Away From Jailing the Mentally Ill

Today, after decades of deinstitutionalization of all but the most critically ill patients from state mental hospitals, America's jails are the central address for the mentally ill. As a society, we pay an extremely high financial and human cost for criminalizing behavior better addressed by diversion into mental health treatment. For low-level, nonviolent offenders, who constitute the vast majority of those with mental illness in our justice system, incarceration is expensive and inappropriate.

ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER


Innovators Insights is the news digest from the Government Innovators Network on the latest in government innovations. This digest is sent out every two weeks and is compiled and written by the editorial staff of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School. In each issue, the editorial team identifies top policy and programmatic news that is related to government innovations so that you can stay informed about creative government at its best.

Editor: Jessica Engelman
Researcher & Writer: Brendan St. Amant
Note: The stories in this newsletter link to source articles on other websites and may not be available after a certain length of time.



ABOUT THE ASH CENTER


The Roy and Lila Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation advances excellence in governance and strengthens democratic institutions worldwide. Through its research, education, international programs, and government innovations awards, the Center fosters creative and effective problem solving and serves as a catalyst for addressing many of the most pressing needs of the world's citizens. The Ford Foundation is a founding donor of the Center. Additional information about the Ash Center is available at http://ash.harvard.edu.

 
 
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