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Editor's note: Next week, you'll be part of something special: CityLab. There's no better place to meet the world's most dynamic city leaders and changemakers. This week's issue of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Spark newsletter will give you a jumpstart on the week while also showing how our host city, Washington, D.C., is building capacity to deliver evidence-based local government policies and programs.

We'll be with you at CityLab too—you can expect special issues of
Spark on Monday and Tuesday (and you can also find us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn). If you like what you're reading, please forward this email to your colleagues and ask them to subscribe to Spark here. See you in Washington!
 
—The Bloomberg Cities team

How Washington, D.C., brings science into local government

If you associate Washington, D.C., with political dysfunction and government breakdown, you should think again. At the local level, at least, the city has become a hotbed of innovative thinking and evidence-based problem solving. A good example of this progress is The Lab @ DC, a City Hall-based team of data scientists, social scientists, and operations analysts who are applying science to the work of delivering better results for D.C. residents. As urban leaders from around the world prepare to gather in D.C. for next week’s CityLab conference, Bloomberg Cities caught up with some of the people behind The Lab @ DC to learn more about how they work and what other cities can learn from it.

Read more

STORIES FROM CITYLAB

When Matúš Vallo attended CityLab in 2015, he didn’t just pick up a few business cards and ideas to take back home. He got career advice that changed his life’s trajectory. At the time, Vallo was an architect and activist in Bratislava, advocating for better public spaces in Slovakia's capital city. At CityLab, held in London that year, he spoke with a couple of mayors who had also previously been activists. “There’s nothing bad about being an activist,” Vallo recalls them saying. “But to achieve what you really want, to change the city for good, you have to go into politics.” That’s when Vallo decided to run for mayor. He went on to win election last November, and true to his hopes as an activist, has already added seating to public squares and reclaimed street space for pedestrians. “I really believe cities are the future,” Vallo said. “They’re where we're going to make government responsive to the people.”

CITYLAB RESOURCES

  • Download the CityLab mobile app to see the latest schedule of events and connect with attendees: iPhone / Android
  • Watch the CityLab livestream here.
  • Follow @BloombergCities on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and use the hashtag #CityLabDC.
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