Why cities are the laboratories of public impact

Urbanisation is the story of the 21st century. Cities are the modern engine of innovation and productivity. At the same time, the challenges of our time are driven by cities' social issues, inequalities, pollution, and the regional disparities caused by urban growth.

The Centre for Public Impact reviewed 24 urban case studies contained in our Public Impact Observatory for policy themes and lessons. We found cities are laboratories of public impact. Urban leaders have more freedom than national politicians to build legitimacy of ideas, propose policy, and learn whilst doing. However, city leaders are more constrained than their federal counterparts by scope, scale, and funding pressures.

Successful urban policy embraces our Public Impact Fundamentals - legitimacy, policy, and action - at a local level. On legitimacy, cities win when they default to open data and decision-making and prioritise citizen engagement. On policy, feasibility is achieved by ambitious incrementalism. Long-term vision is accompanied by short-term, evidence-based objectives. On action, good cities learn and adapt whilst doing. Their programmes improve when they have the management and measurement in place to understand what is working and what is not.  These themes come from our urban case studies, which are explored below and relate to infrastructure, innovation, education, the environment and housing.

Infrastructure

The creativity of cities is easily eroded by the chaos of congestion. Leading cities set ambitious transportation goals alongside incremental targets, they open their data, and they experiment with transport modes.

Barcelona and London launched bold digital transformation strategies for their transport networks whilst London's cycle hire scheme achieved one million journeys in its first 10 weeks. Copenhagen met its goal of 40% of residents cycling to their place of work or study by thinking carefully and incrementally about what makes a safe and efficient cycling experience.

Innovation

Cities are most successful when they link ambitious innovation agendas to immediate action.

Stuttgart aims to become a hub for social innovation. It started by launching the Stuttgart Marketplace, an arena for forging partnerships in which services, skills and facilities are traded - but not money.

Barcelona's Urban Lab selects promising smart city initiatives, from intelligent lighting to locating empty parking spaces, and quickly trials them on the city's streets. Seoul's Sharing City initiative encourages citizens to share resources such as accommodation, books and parking spaces. Developers use San Francisco's open data to create apps for identifying and learning about the city's trees, finding planning information, parking spaces and tennis courts, and reporting crime, whilst Boston and Baltimore use data to improve emergency and non-emergency services.

Education

Complex policy areas like education and training benefit from long-term thinking and a mayor's political commitment.

San Francisco's Kindergarten to College programme attempts to overcome the lack of funds many students face when they decide to attend college. The programme opens a children's savings account for each new student, encouraging families to save enough money to help put their child through college over a decade later. Denver mayor, Michael Hancock, created Peak Academy as a place to introduce employees to “lean” methods. His personal involvement meant the academy met its goal of saving US$10m in operational spending within its first full year of operation.

Environment and Housing

Strong planning and clear commitments help drive successful urban environment and housing policies.

San Francisco set itself the target of achieving zero waste to landfill by 2020. Through a series of legislative measures that encourage citizens and businesses to recycle their garbage and compost, the city believes it will achieve its goal. Copenhagen's “Finger Plan” has been instrumental in creating the city's clean, ecologically sound environment. Vancouver and many North American cities address property shortages by amending planning and other laws to encourage the construction of self-contained buildings on the lot of an existing house. This enables more efficient use of existing housing stock and infrastructure.

Our case studies show cities succeed when they embrace openness, set agendas of ambitious incrementalism, and invest in their capacity to learn and adjust. The dangers of failing to follow this prescription can be witnessed in congestion, slums and urban pollution. More than ever, as national governments struggle with legitimacy and gridlock, it is vital for cities to avoid such perils and achieve their promise. To unlock modern and inclusive growth, cities must continue - and enhance - their role as the laboratories of 21st century public impact.

FURTHER READING

• Sizing up San Diego: a chat with Mayor Kevin Faulconer. San Diego is on the move. Its mayor, Kevin Faulconer, tells Danny Acosta about the challenges of leading California's second largest city into a prosperous future

• Making change real: Vancouver's vision. Vancouver has achieved global acclaim for its natural setting and standards of ‘liveability'. The city's mayor, Gregor Robertson, tells us why he is focused on helping citizens today - and those of tomorrow

• City limits.  How did a city mayor persuade his community to go on a diet? With the citizens of Oklahoma City now a million pounds lighter, Mick Cornett tells Adrian Brown about how he helped create a healthier future

• Houston, lift off. Houston's Mayor, Annise Parker, oversees America's fourth largest city, one with a booming population and jobs market.  But she's not about to take her foot off the gas

• City, slicker. Few cities can rival Cape Town for natural setting but its strengths are by no means limited to geographic location. The city's mayor, Patricia de Lille, tells us about her action-based approach to governing

• Pitching for Perth. Lord Mayor of Perth Lisa Scaffidi reflects on her experiences running one of the world's fastest-growing cities and making a real impact - Aussie styl

• Wired up and fired up. Few cities have embraced the digital revolution as successfully as Kansas City. Its mayor, Sly James, tells us how technology is transforming public services and opening up new opportunities for his community today - and tomorro

• Smartening up Stockholm. Today, wireless technology increasingly crackles from classroom to boardroom. But even somewhere as advanced as Stockholm there is always more to do. The city's chief information officer, Ann Hellenius, tells us about delivering on digital