7
Moving Beyond Short-Termism
Decision makers must balance urgent needs with long-term goals for sustainability. Speakers broke down the risks of short-term thinking and identified practical tips for investing in and planning for the future.
7.1 MOVING BEYOND SHORT-TERMISM IN THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
Kimberly Walker LaGrue, City of New Orleans, explained that New Orleans is working to build a tremendous amount of resilience into its infrastructure because the city constantly faces threats. The city’s long-term resilience planning journey began as part of the short-term work to recover from Hurricane Katrina, which included the development of a strategic plan to rebuild the city. This strategic plan was key to receiving federal funding, which required prioritization and commitment to reporting outcomes. She described New Orleans as one of the pioneering “smart cities” that built a culture around data-driven decision making and adopted new tools to measure outcomes and visualize data. She noted that the community had more data about recovery than the city government at one point in time, and this community input was integrated into data visualizations for reporting purposes.
LaGrue indicated that to enable continued evolution as a smart and connected city, New Orleans incorporated digital infrastructure into its strategic planning (e.g., smart pumps for measurement and for information about assets and systems). The digital infrastructure of its “Smart
City 2.0” includes open data portals, Internet of Things and supervisory control and data acquisition networks, public Wi-Fi and broadband, and smart data centers and cloud migration. She underscored that public–private partnerships are critical to fund smart city projects, and the longer funding periods that private partnerships require to manage return on investment prompted long-term planning for the technology infrastructure. However, when New Orleans was unable to manage risks associated with one of its partnerships, the project ended, and the city will now use its own resources and learn to tap new funding sources.
LaGrue shared four lessons learned during this process of strategic planning:
- Multiple approaches are best. All infrastructure should have short- and long-term plans, and digital infrastructure is a key aspect of infrastructure planning.
- Short-term planning “keeps the lights on.” Short-term projects attract support from legislators and the public, and short-term funding maintains day-to-day technology operations.
- A resilient city requires sustainable infrastructure. Because environmental challenges threaten the safety of the city and its residents, public safety infrastructure should be considered as part of long-term planning.
- Long-term planning should include digital infrastructure, with infrastructure and digital teams educating one another about the needs of and available tools for long-term planning. LaGrue emphasized the importance of responding to public needs first (e.g., broadband in community centers), and scaling up those projects using other funding streams.
LaGrue commented that, currently, the city’s short-term approach includes IT’s management of short-term projects through the city’s budget, development of small projects to improve digital footprint and respond to public safety threats (e.g., communications platforms, digital education and literacy, and sustainable power and Internet access in under-resourced areas), and redevelopment of a broadband strategy to meet the changing needs of the city and its communities as well as to submit capital project requests to build key fiber segments in underserved areas. The city’s long-term strategy is now in sync with other parts of city government: IT engages with finance, capital projects, and federal grants teams. LaGrue noted that, as part of its long-term strategy, the city is acquiring new enterprise systems to continue to support data-driven decision making on a large scale and to manage small capital improvement
projects. For example, an asset management system will provide tools for a proactive approach to capital improvement programs, develop maintenance and operations plans, and streamline implementation of capital improvements programs. The construction management system, ProCore, has the capability to approve, track, and document project-related files as well as provide project management tools to make better informed decisions. Lastly, the city now coordinates infrastructure projects across multiple agencies and its own divisions to prevent overlap in the scope of work to be completed.
In closing, LaGrue said that New Orleans has mitigated many threats and is focused on sustainability and resilience as well as keeping its residents safe by prioritizing public safety and health as key aspects of infrastructure planning. She reiterated the value of developing a long-term strategy for both digital and physical infrastructure.
7.2 HOW INNOVATION ENABLES PROGRAM SUSTAINABILITY
Alex Pudlin, Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University, stressed that public innovation uses a combination of research, data, civic engagement, and design thinking to set projects up for long-term success. Since late 2021, the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation has initiated work in 40 cities in 9 countries across 3 continents. He further noted that innovation sets the stage for sustainability, and the Innovation Method provides several strategies for the continued success and evolution of city projects using data for evidence of how to proceed and scale; for testing viability; and for learning how to establish, transition, and scale pilots. He discussed Amsterdam as a case study on the Innovation Method; the city is using a digital twin of its Zuidoost neighborhood to model improvements and new infrastructure and to test viability in a virtual setting before initiating a pilot.
Pudlin noted that an important part of achieving success over the long term is creating the right culture. He detailed the path to successful innovation in cities. First, it is critical to frame the city’s problem and consider what attempts to address it have already been made. Second, one could use a “sandbox” to generate and test new ideas with the subset of the population in need of assistance as well as to measure their success. Third, because delivering initiatives is key, the next step is to launch programs, track their progress, and develop indicators to measure impact. He stressed that the path to innovation is an iterative process; at the end, data on successes and failures are available, which is key to capturing lessons learned and to scaling programs.
Pudlin provided an example from Los Angeles to demonstrate the use of innovation to enable sustainability. To address the city’s rental affordability crisis, the Los Angeles Innovation Team revitalized accessory dwelling units (ADUs: fully livable, affordable housing in the form of attached or detached secondary homes) over the course of several years, thus increasing density in neighborhoods without making changes to zoning. To achieve this, the team first had to understand the problem, which centered on permitting issues. The team built an ADU and documented all of the challenges encountered in the process—for example, the city did not have a way to track the ADUs built, so the team implemented a checkbox system in the city’s database. After streamlining the process and influencing state law, permits increased more than 2,000 percent in only a few years. ADUs are now the fastest growing new housing in Los Angeles, and the team secured more than $3 million to pilot a follow-on program to address the city’s homelessness crisis.
Pudlin encouraged city leaders to join the Bloomberg Cities Network,1 an important venue to share both success stories and lessons learned, and to discover resources, tools, and case studies for future use in improving the lives of residents.
Serving as session moderator, Samuel Labi, Purdue University, asked how to balance simulation with real-world pilots. Pudlin noted that both are valuable; however, simulation includes features that are not reflective of reality. Thus, simulations could be used to narrow 100 possible ideas to a few ideas, and piloting is essential to move these few ideas into a real-world scenario. He emphasized that to be useful these pilots should be carefully designed and representative of actual city conditions. Labi wondered how to convince city leaders to implement trials when they believe not enough data are available. Pudlin explained that it is important to compare to a baseline while piloting projects; however, early work is essential to create that baseline. Therefore, he encouraged city leaders to move projects forward while learning and adapting. For example, when people in Los Angeles were laid off during COVID-19, the city solicited private donations to give cash to residents in need within a matter of weeks. No previous models of such a program were available, so the city had to take action while committing to improve the program based on lessons learned (e.g., verifying household size was too difficult during the first round, so everyone received the same value in subsequent programs). He urged decision makers to “launch, learn, and improve.”
___________________
1 For more information on the Bloomberg Cities Network, see https://bloombergcities.jhu.edu/, accessed August 28, 2022.
7.3 DISCUSSION
Labi asked the panelists how they interpret the durations of “short-term” and “long-term” planning. LaGrue described short-term planning in the context of what a city can afford in the present time (e.g., over two or three budget cycles) and long-term planning in the context of multiyear federal programs with extended reporting outcomes. She further noted that generally, greater public need (e.g., safety) exists for the long-term planning than the short-term planning, so a focus on the next 5–10 years is critical. Pudlin agreed and added that the perspective of the time-frames could shift depending on the topic. Furthermore, the city council and mayor could change over the course of budget cycles, which affects planning. He emphasized that it should not take 10 years to respond to a community need; some short-term wins along the path to achieving long-term goals are crucial.
Labi inquired about the role that equity plays in balancing short- and long-term priorities. LaGrue emphasized that all plans should be viewed through an equity lens. She noted that although some groups of citizens are more vocal than others, underrepresented groups often have greater needs than those who are the most outspoken. Therefore, she stated that a multipronged approach is beneficial to understand what is most important to communities. Consulting experts and hiring staff dedicated to gathering information from groups around the city and uniting it with data advances equity. Most importantly, she encouraged honesty and transparency to serve the public fairly. Pudlin described two important components of equity: programs to address past inequities and programs that do not further harm certain communities. He explained that cities should ensure that the people who are receiving the benefits of improvements are the people who need them, as well as avoid creating further adverse conditions. In other words, leaders could “right wrongs” while creating cities where all residents are served and protected.
Labi posed a question about overcoming barriers to interdepartmental collaboration. Pudlin replied that although a city needs departments with distinct functions, most issues cross several departments. One department might have addressed issues differently than another in the past, so it is important to prepare for that conflict by building in time early in the process for stakeholders to exchange ideas and find a new collective approach. LaGrue underscored that collaboration is more difficult when departments are competing for the same funding. Silos emerge when perspectives on a problem differ, and she agreed with Pudlin that convening people for discussion at the start of project planning could reveal that everyone might be working toward the same goal. She cautioned that relationship-building for collaboration takes time.
