The Bloomberg Philanthropies certification program has added 16 cities to its growing list of cities committing to the use of data for improving municipal programs and services.
Sixteen cities earned "What Works Cities" certification last week, recognizing efforts to use data "to improve city services, increase transparency and improve civic engagement," reports Chris Teale.
"Austin, Texas; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Detroit; and Gilbert, Arizona with gold certification. Meanwhile, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Bellevue, Washington; Fort Collins, Colorado; Glendale, Arizona; Irving, Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Madison, Wisconsin; Minneapolis; Norfolk, Virginia; Portland, Oregon; San Antonio; and Syracuse, New York, all received silver certification," reports Teale.
What Works Cities is a project of Bloomberg Philanthropies, launching in 2015, quickly growing to 100 participating cities (40 cities currently have achieved certification), and making the Planetizen news feed with previous rounds of certification in 2018 and 2019.
Teale includes this useful piece of information while reporting the story: "The number of cities that use data to help in areas like performance management and public engagement jumped dramatically over the past five years, a report published last month by Deloitte's Monitor Institute in collaboration with What Works Cities, found."
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