NEW YORK, April 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Bloomberg
Philanthropies today revealed the 21 European cities that have
emerged as final contenders in its 2013-2014 Mayors Challenge, a
competition to inspire cities to generate innovative ideas that
solve major challenges and improve city life, and that ultimately
can spread to other cities. One grand prize winner will receive €5
million for the most creative and transferable idea. Four
additional cities will be awarded €1 million, and all will be
announced in the fall. The finalists' proposed solutions address
some of Europe's most critical
issue areas: youth unemployment, aging populations, civic
engagement, economic development, environment and energy concerns,
public health and safety, and making government more efficient.
"European cities in this year's Mayors Challenge stepped up with
bold and creative ideas that have the potential to improve
lives across the continent and globe," said Michael R. Bloomberg, philanthropist and 108th
Mayor of New York City. "Cities
face many urgent challenges – from climate change to social
isolation to youth unemployment. We need city leaders to
continually reach for innovative new ways to address urban
challenges – and then share what's working with the world. That's
what the Mayors Challenge is all about."
The 2013-2014 Mayors Challenge is Bloomberg Philanthropies'
first in Europe after the
inaugural competition in the United
States. Cities with populations of at least 100,000
residents were invited to participate. The finalist cities have
populations ranging from fewer than 250,000 residents to more than
1 million, and represent 11 countries across Europe. They were selected from 155 applicants
and their proposed solutions (see following list) illustrate both
complex challenges and common urban issues across cities and
regions.
Finalists will next attend Bloomberg Ideas Camp, a two-day
conference convening municipal leaders from each city as well as
leading innovation, policy, and programming experts who will
partner with and push teams to strengthen their ideas. Ideas Camp
is planned to occur in Berlin in
June.
James Anderson, head of
government innovation for Bloomberg Philanthropies, said: "While
the ideas are very diverse, we identified key themes. The ideas
tended toward networked, distributed solutions as opposed to costly
centralized ones. There was a lot of interest in citizen engagement
as both a means and end. Technology that concretely and positively
affects the lives of individual citizens – from the blind person in
Warsaw to the unemployed youth in
Amsterdam to the homeowner in
Schaerbeek -- also played a significant role."
Bloomberg Philanthropies staff and an independent selection
committee of 12 members from across Europe closely considered each application
over multiple rounds of review, culminating in feedback and
selection earlier this month, resulting in 21 cities' ideas moving
forward for further development. The submissions will be judged on
four criteria: vision, potential for impact, implementation plan,
and potential to spread to other cities. The finalists and their
ideas are:
- AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Youth
Unemployment: Tackling widespread youth unemployment by equipping
young people with 21st century skills and connecting them with jobs
and apprenticeships across Europe
through an online game
- ATHENS, Greece – Civic
Engagement: Empowering citizens with a new online platform to
address the large number of small-scale urban challenges
accelerated by the Greek economic crisis
- BARCELONA, Spain – Aging:
Improving quality of life and limiting social isolation by
establishing a network of public and private support – including
family, friends, social workers, and volunteers – for each elderly
citizen
- BOLOGNA, Italy – Youth
Unemployment: Building an urban scale model of informal education
labs and civic engagement to prevent youth unemployment by teaching
children aged 6-16 entrepreneurship and 21st century skills
- BRISTOL, United Kingdom –
Health/Anti-obesity: Tackling obesity and unemployment by creating
a new economic system that increases access to locally grown,
healthy foods
- BRNO, Czech Republic – Public
Safety/Civic Engagement: Engaging citizens in keeping their own
communities safe to build social cohesion and reduce crime
- CARDIFF, United Kingdom –
Economic Development: Increasing productivity little by little in
residents' personal and professional lives, so that a series of
small improvements add up to a much more productive city
- FLORENCE, Italy – Economic
Development: Combatting unemployment with a new economic
development model that combines technology and social innovation,
targeting the city's historic artisan and maker community
- GDANSK, Poland – Civic
Engagement: Re-instilling faith in local democracy by mandating
that city government formally debate local issues put forward by
citizens
- KIRKLEES, United Kingdom –
Social Capital: Pooling the city and community's idle assets – from
vehicles to unused spaces to citizens' untapped time and expertise
– to help the area make the most of what it has and do more with
less
- KRAKOW, Poland –
Transportation: Implementing smart, personalized transportation
incentives and a seamless and unified public transit payment system
to convince residents to opt for greener modes of
transportation
- LISBON, Portugal – Energy:
Transforming wasted kinetic energy generated by the city's
commuting traffic into electricity, reducing the carbon footprint
and increasing environmental sustainability
- LONDON, United Kingdom –
Public Health: Empowering citizens to monitor and improve their own
health through a coordinated, multi-stakeholder platform and new
technologies that dramatically improve quality of life and reduce
health care costs
- MADRID, Spain – Energy:
Diversifying its renewable energy options by finding and funding
the best ways to harvest underground power, such as wasted heat
generated by the city's below-ground infrastructure
- SCHAERBEEK, Belgium – Energy:
Using proven flyover and 3D geothermal mapping technology to
provide each homeowner and tenant with a personalized energy audit
and incentives to invest in energy-saving strategies
- SOFIA, Bulgaria – Civic
Engagement: Transforming public spaces by deploying mobile art
units to work side-by-side with local residents, re-envisioning and
rejuvenating underused spaces and increasing civic engagement
- STARA ZAGORA, Bulgaria – Economic Development: Reversing the
brain-drain of the city's best and brightest by helping young
entrepreneurs turn promising ideas into local high-tech
businesses
- STOCKHOLM, Sweden –
Environment: Combatting climate change by engaging citizens to
produce biochar, an organic material that increases tree growth,
sequesters carbon, and purifies storm runoff
- THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Civic
Engagement: Enabling citizens to allocate a portion of their own
tax money to support the local projects they most believe in
- WARSAW, Poland –
Transportation/Accessibility: Enabling the blind and visually
impaired to navigate the city as easily as their sighted peers by
providing high-tech auditory alerts which will save them travel
time and increase their independence
- YORK, United Kingdom –
Government Systems: Revolutionizing the way citizens, businesses,
and others can propose new ideas to solve top city problems,
providing a more intelligent way to acquire or develop the best
solutions, thus enabling greater civic participation and saving the
city both time and money
Further detail and related elements for this year's Mayors
Challenge can be found via:
http://mayorschallenge.bloomberg.org/
More information about the Mayors Challenge competition is
available through
http://www.bloomberg.org/initiative/mayors_challenge.
About Bloomberg Philanthropies
Bloomberg Philanthropies' mission is to ensure better, longer
lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses
on five key areas for creating lasting change: Public Health,
Environment, Education, Government Innovation, which includes the
Mayors Challenge, and the Arts. Bloomberg Philanthropies
encompasses all of Michael R.
Bloomberg's charitable activities, including his foundation
and his personal giving. In 2013, Bloomberg Philanthropies
distributed $452 million. For more
information, please visit bloomberg.org.
For more information on Bloomberg Philanthropies, media should
contact Meghan Womack,
meghan@bloomberg.org.
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SOURCE Bloomberg Philanthropies