City Of Miami: Bloomberg Recognizes City Of Miami For Using Data To Improve Lives

Miami FL

16 December, 2021

12:35 AM

Description

Press release from the City of Miami: December 15, 2021 View Vaccine, Reopening and General Information You can still find all of our content by using the search bar. Help us improve by giving us your feedback Help us improve by giving us your feedback Published on December 15, 2021 The City of Miami is proud to announce that it is one of 10 new cities to have achieved What Works Cities Certification, in recognition of its exceptional use of data to guide organizational decision-making and improve residents' lives. What Works Cities Certification - the national standard of excellence in data-driven city governance - evaluates how well cities are managed by measuring the extent to which city leaders incorporate data and evidence in their decision-making. What Works Cities is a national initiative launched by Bloomberg Philanthropies to help cities use data and evidence more effectively to tackle their most pressing challenges. This new cohort of cities joins 16 cities honored earlier this year, bringing the total number of U.S. cities certified for outstanding data practices to 50. 16 cities "Miami is a burgeoning tech hub and we're proud that our city government is leading by example by making data a centerpiece of its decision-making, as we build a Miami forever, for everyone," said Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. "Thanks to What Works Cities for elevating the importance of data in governance and congratulations to all of the cities being recognized in this new cohort." "The most effective mayors use data to define problems and craft bold new solutions, and this milestone of 50 certified cities highlights the critical progress local governments are leading across the country," said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and 108th mayor of New York City. "By building a culture of data-driven decision-making, these cities will be more resilient and better equipped to fight climate change, protect public health, increase economic mobility, and much more." What Works Cities Certification assesses cities based on their data-driven decision-making practices, such as whether they are using data to set goals and track progress, allocate funding, evaluate the effectiveness of programs, and achieve desired outcomes from contracts with outside vendors. The program also measures whether cities are publicly and transparently communicating about their use of data and evidence. Over the past year, the City of Miami has demonstrated measurable progress on these foundational data practices. Miami's Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT), with the support of City leaders, has led the way on the deliberate move to make data an integral part of the decision-making process, and that effort is now evident across the organization. Some notable examples of the city's use of data include: ●      Equipping City leaders with reliable and authoritative data on the possible economic impacts of the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown through weekly Economic Recovery Reports: DoIT staff aggregated data in the data warehouse from the City's Parking Authority, Business Licensing, Google Covid open data, real estate data and Mastercard spending data. These datasets offered a glimpse of economic indicators that helped leaders understand areas within the City that had seen a significant reduction in economic activity due to the pandemic and shutdown. ●      Leveraging business licensing data to gauge the economic resilience of the City: During the Summer of 2020, DoIT staff noticed an uptick in applications to open new businesses. Since then, this dataset has continued to be a reliable indicator of interest in opening new businesses in Miami. ●      Empowering Miami residents by releasing datasets on the City's Open Data Portal on business licensing and building recertification: These datasets increase service transparency and allow the community to have an extra tool when making decisions around the City's economic landscape and properties in compliance with recertification requirements. ●      Partnering with climate nonprofit iSeeChange to engage residents in the process of planning resilient infrastructure: using the IseeChange app, Miami residents are now reporting local flooding and other storm damage to the City in real time, creating a trove of data for staff from the City's Department of Resilience and Public Works and Office of Capital Improvements. That community-sourced knowledge and data is in turn factored into the City's climate-focused infrastructure planning. The Certification program launched in April 2017, and U.S. cities with populations of 30,000 and higher are eligible to participate. Cities are awarded Silver, Gold, or Platinum Certification depending on their level of data sophistication. Miami is among the 10 new cities achieving Certification at the Silver level this fall, which include: Durham, NC; Chicago, IL; Rochester, NY; Buffalo, NY; Salinas, CA; Long Beach, CA; Denver, CO; Baltimore, MD; and Evanston, IL. Earlier this year, 16 new cities achieved Certification. A list of all 50 cities that have achieved Certification is available here. "These cities are harnessing the power of evidence and data to accelerate progress in their communities," said Michele Jolin, CEO and Co-Founder of Results for America, the lead partner in the What Works Cities initiative. "As local governments begin investing billions in American Rescue Plan Act funds to meet urgent needs, these certified cities offer a roadmap for how local leaders can use evidence and data to increase the impact of these investments and deliver better results for residents." "Cities that are investing in building their data skills and capacity are seeing the results," said Jennifer Park, founding director of What Works Cities Certification. "As the movement grows, we will see even more cities delivering better results through faster 911 response times, increased small business support, reduced waste and emissions, and greater civic engagement with residents." A report released earlier this year by the Monitor Institute by Deloitte, in collaboration with What Works Cities, detailed the growing movement of cities using data to drive decision-making and the benefits of this approach for residents. Since 2015, the percentage of cities tracking progress toward key goals has more than doubled (from 30% to 75%), the percentage of cities engaging with residents on a goal and communicating progress has more than tripled (from 19% to 70%), the percentage of cities with a platform and process to release data to the public has more than tripled (from 18% to 67%), and the percentage of cities modifying their programs based on data analytics has more than doubled (from 28% to 61%). These are several of the data practices assessed as part of What Works Cities Certification. Certification was developed by a team of experts from Results for America in close consultation with the What Works Cities Certification Standard Committee and with support from the other What Works Cities partners - The Government Performance Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School, The Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University, and The Behavioral Insights Team. Over 200 cities have completed a Certification assessment, benchmarking their practices against the national standard. To learn more about the program and how to participate, visit https://whatworkscities.bloomberg.org/certification/.  Dial 311 or 305-468-5900 Miami Riverside Center (MRC) 444 SW 2nd Ave Miami, FL, 33130 This press release was produced by the City of Miami. The views expressed here are the author's own.