City of Boston Challenge

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• Created on Tuesday, 14 August 2012 14:39

Mayor Thomas M. Menino is putting out a call for all of Boston’s urban mechanics to propose ideas for Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayor’s Challenge. The challenge is a competition for U.S. cities to develop ideas to solve problems and improve cities’ quality of life. The city with the most innovative idea will win $5 million. Four other cities will receive $1 million.

Knowing that Boston’s residents, business owners, and university scholars have great ideas for how to improve the city, Mayor Menino is asking for bold ideas the City can consider for its submission.

“This is a terrific opportunity to propose creative solutions for our city,” Mayor Menino said. “We are all urban mechanics. If you have an inventive idea that can make our city better, I want to hear it.”

The City has created and adopted innovative ideas to offer services like Citizens Connect, Renew Boston, and the Hubway bikeshare system. Like these services, the idea submitted by the City must address a social or economic problem or improve the city’s customer service, level of efficiency, or accountability to and engagement with the public. Mayor Menino is particularly interested in ideas that can increase access to technology, expand affordable energy solutions, provide for Boston’s growing senior population, or support the diversity of languages spoken in the city.

Share your idea at http://www.cityofboston.gov/mayor/challenge_ideas.asp. The deadline for submissions is August 20, 2012. The Mayor’s Office will review ideas submitted by outside individuals and City departments and select one to submit to the competition in mid-September. Bloomberg Philanthropies will announce the winners in spring 2013. For more information about the Mayor’s Challenge, go to www.bloomberg.org/mayorschallenge.