Copenhagen is ranked top in the fourth edition of the Safe Cities Index (SCI) from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), with Toronto taking second place and Singapore third. The index ranks 60 cities worldwide using 76 indicators across five pillars: personal, health, infrastructure, digital, and...
Most cities now recognise the importance of partnerships and collaboration to tackle pressing societal issues and the climate crisis. But handshakes, good will and scattered agreements can only get you so far. The municipality of Leuven in Belgium is pioneering a new governance model of...
Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a plan to roll out the city’s first participatory budgeting pilot programme. LA REPAIR (Los Angeles Reforms for Equity and Public Acknowledgement of Institutional Racism) will give nine communities impacted by high rates of poverty, COVID-19, pollution and other...
Auckland’s Mayor Phil Goff has proposed the introduction of a NZ$1 billion (US$680 million) climate action package to reduce carbon emissions and deliver more buses, ferries, cycling and walking and urban tree canopies across New Zealand’s largest city. The measures would be funded by a...
Two cities this week announced new initiatives to monitor and address air quality. French company Planetwatch is working with the City of Miami to launch a decentralised indoor and outdoor air quality monitoring network that offers rewards for sensor hosts. Data collected by the sensors...
As part of a series of interviews with mayors of leading global cities and regions, The World Association of the Major Metropolises (Metropolis) spoke with Montevideo Mayor and Co-President of Metropolis, Carolina Cosse, to find out how COVID-19 is affecting her city and its residents....
Cities are beginning to pay closer attention to blockchain, viewing it as a fundamental shift that they cannot afford to ignore. Sarah Wray explores the potential use cases and the implications for ethical governance. Blockchain is one of the most hyped technologies around but there...
A new tool which highlights how American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds are being used by local authorities has been released by non-profit organisation Results for America and policy research firm Mathematica. Priorities include COVID-19 response, public health, economic recovery and revenue replacement. Based on...
The pandemic has accelerated the rollout of digital services but a growing number of cities are also seeing the importance of physical spaces where residents, planners and technologists can meet and collaborate. Tallinn in Estonia has announced a new hub in the city centre which will...
The UK government has launched a new standard for transparency about how algorithmic tools are used to support decisions. Algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to help public sector organisations deliver services faster, more proactively and at lower cost. However, the results can...
