Three American mayors on the local imperative of economic mobility
When it comes to helping residents move up the economic ladder to achieve the “American Dream,” nobody understands better than mayors that City Hall has a big role to play. Mayors Lovely Warren (Rochester, N.Y.), LaToya Cantrell (New Orleans), and G.T. Bynum (Tulsa, Okla.) recently sat down with Bloomberg Philanthropies’ James Anderson to discuss how local governments can advance economic mobility. Here’s what they had to say.
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MEET MICHELLE THONG
 Title: Digital Services Lead
City: San José, Calif.
Michelle Thong's role in San José is to make sure that the city’s services are easy to find, easy to use, and accessible to everyone. “It’s about creating online interactions that work really well the first time for our residents and businesses,” she said. “We want them to have a good experience so they can get on with whatever they’re actually trying to do. If they’re applying for a permit, their goal isn’t to apply for a permit—it’s to open a restaurant or build an addition to their home.” For Thong, that means being intentional about designing and delivering services in a way that’s centered squarely on user needs. That can be harder than it sounds. For example, when Thong led an upgrade to the city’s 311 mobile app, called My San José, she wanted to give residents a better sense of when the city would respond to their requests. Adding that capability required partnering with a number of operations teams to establish agreeable time targets and hold themselves accountable in this way. “In this era of Amazon Prime delivery and Uber, people expect that if they report a pothole, it will be fixed within an hour. So it’s really important to set expectations,” Thong said. “Great customer experiences don’t happen by accident. They happen by design.”
Pro tip: “It can feel lonely to be one of the people in your organization who are trying to advance change. Reach out and connect with your peers in other cities to feel like you’re part of a community.”
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WHAT WE’RE READING
BOLD LEADERSHIP: Millennials and Generation Z are stepping up to work in civil service, and have learned that the fight for what they believe in “starts right here in local government.” (The Fulcrum) Meanwhile, new surveys show Americans view local officials more favorably than members of Congress or state elected leaders. (Axios)
TRANSPORTATION: After suffering declines, public transit ridership in the U.S. is back on the rise, with gains in Minneapolis, New York City, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. (Washington Post)
RESIDENT ENGAGEMENT: Participatory budgeting in Paris allows residents to spend 5 percent of the city’s capital budget on public toilets, cycling infrastructure, and other items voted on by more than 140,000 people. (The Guardian)
TECHNOLOGY: Cities want technology vendors to listen to their problems and come back with solutions—not the other way around. (State Scoop)
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NETWORK NEWS
JOB POSTING: The city of Alexandria, Va., is hiring a Smart Mobility Program Manager.
JOB POSTING: Results for America is hiring a senior manager to lead communications efforts for the What Works Cities initiative.
Contact us to share events and job postings with the Bloomberg Cities network.
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