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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.

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MEET DUSTIN HANSEN

Title: Streets Operations Manager
City: Sioux Falls, S.D.

Dustin Hansen didn’t know much about human-centered design last year when he joined a “Core Team” of leaders from across Sioux Falls city government. But he and a dozen colleagues from other departments picked up the problem-solving approach quickly, and began applying it to the question of how to improve transit service. They interviewed bus riders, employers, and other stakeholders to define the problem, engaged residents in developing and prototyping ideas, and are now hatching a pilot for an “on-demand” transit service. “I’ve been with the city for 10 years now, and I’ve been on projects where we’re trying to come up with a solution and it seemed like we were always stuck in our silos,” Hansen said. “With this project, we brought in people who were not involved in transit—out-of-the-box thinkers. We were getting feedback from everybody.” Hansen even asked designer Brianna Sylver, who coached the Core Team as part of an assignment with Bloomberg Philanthropies, to introduce human-centered design to his public works colleagues. And now they’re off and running, too. As the department assembles teams to work on projects like traffic calming, they’re looking outside the department for personnel and plan on engaging external partners and the public for input. “The biggest thing is the collaboration and reaching outside to get ideas,” Hansen said. “We usually go into these things thinking we know what the solution or the problem is, and oftentimes, we don’t.”


Pro tip: “You never want to be just running the machine the way you’ve always been running it. There’s always improvements to be had, but you don’t know unless you ask some questions.”

WHAT WE’RE READING

BOLD LEADERSHIP: Mayors Mike Duggan of Detroit and Bryan Barnett of Rochester Hills, Mich., write that “local leaders are getting things done across the country, despite the dysfunction in Washington.” (Detroit Free Press)

ENVIRONMENT: As Philadelphia eyes a ban on plastic bags, here’s a look at how similar policies are working in other cities. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

INEQUALITY: A study in California finds that cities with more black residents rely more on traffic tickets and fines for revenue. (The Conversation

URBAN PLANNING: As space grows tight in Hong Kong, city leaders plan to move waste treatment facilities, data centers, power stations, and other infrastructure underground. (Place)

TRANSPORTATION: A program in Gothenburg, Sweden, that gives residents temporary free transit passes is working to get people out of their cars. (Fast Company)

NETWORK NEWS

CITYLAB: The annual convening of urban leaders known as CityLab takes place in Washington, D.C., October 27-29. Follow the livestream here.

JOB POSTINGS: The city of Syracuse, N.Y., is hiring an Innovation Designer, Data Engineer, and Data Project Manager to accelerate the city’s culture of innovation.

JOB POSTING: The City of South Bend, Ind., is hiring an Operations Lead for its transportation-as-a-benefit program, Commuters Trust. The program is a result of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge. 
 
JOB POSTING: The CFE Fund is hiring an Associate to provide guidance and support to local governments and their nonprofit partners around the Financial Empowerment Center initiative.
 
JOB POSTING: The state of California is hiring a Chief Data Officer to lead change in how the state uses data to improve services to its people. 

JOB POSTING: Bloomberg Cities is seeking a Social Media Manager to build awareness of the public-sector innovation movement and, among other things, help produce the newsletter you are reading right now. Visit Freedman Consulting for the details.

Contact us to share events and job postings with the Bloomberg Cities network.

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