October 11, 2011Robert Weissbourd

City Vitals: How Do We Measure the Success of Cities?

CEOs for Cities 2011 Fall National Meeting

Strategic - driven by desired outcomes

Quality not Quantity - “answers, not data”

User Driven - no ‘data dumps’; no ‘map madness’

User Friendly - task and market oriented

Customized - specialized to user needs and systems

Current - up-to-date, recurring

Standardized - broad coverage and usability

Translating Research to Practice: Determining the Right Information Resources to Drive Change

Leverage Points

for Sustainable and Inclusive

Prosperity

EnhanceRegional

Concentrations DeployHuman Capital

Aligned withJob Pools

DevelopInnovation-

EnablingInfrastructure

Increase Spatial

Efficiency

Create EffectivePublic & Civic

Culture &Institutions

Similar view of importance and function of innovation; many overlapping metrics

Possible additional factors

Business Dynamics

Metrics: Churn, employment turnover

Research and Development

Metrics: Academic R&D expenditures

DEGREE OF OVERLAP( %)

Heavy overlap, more exclusive emphasis on networks/connections rather than broader efficiency of moving people, goods, ideas

Possible additional factors:

Transit Accessibility

Jobs-Housing Mismatch

Density

Except for citizen engagement, less focus on the institutional environment for economic success

Possible additional factors:

Government Fragmentation

Tax-Value Proposition

Governance

Agreement on importance of human capital; different understanding of drivers/practice

Possible additional factors:

Alignment with Job Creation/Market Demand

Labor Market Efficiency

Job Structure (middle skills) and Mobility

Different view of role, and particularly cause and effect, with respect to amenities.

Additional factors important on margins (and intra-metro): Good Housing and Safety Proposition Retail Services Access to Job Centers

Limited focus on the production side of the economy (harder to reduce to metrics); some similar top line metrics

Possible additional factors:

Productivity and GRP

Growth in Concentrated Industries and Functions

Specializations in Emerging Knowledge Sectors

October 11, 2011Robert Weissbourd

CEOs for Cities 2011 Fall National Meeting

DISCUSSION

High HC Occupation

s

Productive Industries

Knowledge Functions

It’s not the Chicken or the Egg –

It’s the Incubator

Active Human Capital Industry

IT’S ABOUT PRODUCTIVITY

To Attract Knowledge Workers, Build an Economy Characterized by High-Human Capital

Occupations and Functions

Knowledge Workers