The Sweet Smell of $1 Million For Cities

Matt Mahan, the wildly popular mayor of San Jose, California, was recently reelected with a whopping 87 percent of the vote. How do you get to what Citizen Co-founder Larry Platt jokingly called (echoing The Daily Show host Jon Stewart) "Vladimir Putin numbers?" As Mahan laid out on the latest episode of our podcast hosted by former Mayors Michael Nutter of Philadelphia and Kasim Reed of Atlanta, a major part of his success has been zeroing in on five main policy goals: "Until we become the safest big city in the country, end unsheltered homelessness, clean up our neighborhoods, and make it easier to start a business and build housing in our city," Mahan said, "the rest of it is kind of a moot point." Before running for office, Mahan built and ran startups. "Tell us," Reed prompted, "how close running a city is to the startups you built." "I would say they're very, very similar," Mahan replied. "After a decade of building two startups, that was really what I knew — put together a small, smart team that's intensely mission driven." Under Mahan, San Jose has seen a 100 percent solve rate for murders — compared to the national average of 66 percent — and has become one of the 15 cities participating in a new housing initiative from Bloomberg Philanthropies and Accelerator For America, a partner on the podcast. "I'm really excited about this," Mahan told the hosts. "Bloomberg Philanthropies does amazing things for mayors. They don't just bury you in papers and tell you what to do, they actually sit down with you, fund some additional staff capacity and help you overhaul the permitting process." Mahan has shared his success in narrowing priorities and using technology to make city government more efficient for constituents in the nonprofit Results for America's new book Do What Works: Smarter Government, Better Results. Join us for an in-depth discussion with one of the most effective and popular mayors in the country right now. Remember to subscribe to the podcast to keep up on all the latest episodes. And watch for new episodes on YouTube and Piksel+ as they become available. As cities go, so goes the nation!

What does it take to be a full participant in your city's civic life? To bring the full weight of your work and personal experience to city planning or policy? To lead a city, as its mayor? This is what former Mayor Michael Nutter hopes to answer in The University of Pennsylvania's new Impact Scholars Program, which he launched last month along with the School of Social Policy. Under Nutter's guidance, Impact Scholars enlists former city leaders to mentor the next generation of civic talent. This first year, Nutter has recruited his How To Really Run A City co-host, former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, and former Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum, as the inaugural scholars. "I'm a public servant still, whether appointed or in my own head," Nutter told the room with a smile. "The idea is to match young people who want to go into public service with those who have served but are not yet finished. We should not leave that knowledge and expertise on the bench." They kicked off their work last week with a live taping of the podcast, a rousing introduction to the ideas they hope will shape the future of urban leadership in the U.S. "Cities are where hope meets the street," Reed said. "They're places where you can take serious problems and actually do something about them." In other words, a mayor's job, said Bynum, is "making sure clean water comes out of the tap, or making sure the police show up at the right time. Or if your father is having a heart attack, the ambulance gets there in time to save his life. There's an expectation of service delivery [at the local level]." "There's nothing like running a city," Reed said. "The joy that you get from running a city — the power of reshaping a city where everywhere you go, there's something you directly contributed to — don't let anyone fool you, there's nothing like it." Join us (and Penn Impact Scholars students) for a driving discussion about the power of today's leaders to lift the innovators of tomorrow. Remember to subscribe to the podcast to keep up on all the latest episodes. You can even watch on YouTube and Piksel+. As cities go, so goes the nation!

"The problems we have as a country don't go away because the federal government leaves the stage," says Mary Ellen Wiederwohl, CEO of Accelerator for America, on the latest episode of How To Really Run A City. "All this stuff lands on the front steps of City Hall." And then what? That's what hosts Kasim Reed (former mayor of Atlanta) and Michael Nutter (former mayor of Philadelphia), along with Citizen Co-founder Larry Platt, explore with Brown University Professor Marc Dunkelman, author of the new book, Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress — and How to Bring It Back. "We need to rethink the balance between our impulse to empower central authority and the attempts to ensure that power doesn't do damage," says Dunkelman. Dunkelman highlights the push and pull of centralized power in U.S. politics, tracing a line from the Progressive Era of the late 19th century to the destructive anger of modern MAGAism. Reed weighed in with his experience. "Fair is harder," he says. "I believe in action-oriented leadership. Move faster. Be decisive. Be more inclusive, yes, but by god, do something." Join us for an unvarnished discussion about why trust in both politics and infrastructure continues to be broken in this country, along with steps we can take to actually make things work. As Dunkelman says, "There's a fantasy that if you just get everyone around a table, they will eventually come to an agreement. The truth is, we need deciders. That's why we have elections." Remember to subscribe to the podcast to keep up on all the latest episodes. And watch for new episodes on YouTube and Piksel+ as they become available. As cities go, so goes the nation!

In a very special episode of the podcast, our hosts soak up the wisdom of renowned 92-year-old former California Speaker of the House and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, a player still at the top of his political game. From jelly bean power plays in front of Ronald Reagan to pressure campaigns to free Nelson Mandela to candid thoughts on how to navigate the Trumpian circus in Washington, D.C., Brown is a well of bipartisan optimism and moral clarity. "I was the guy," Brown told former Atlanta mayor and mentee Kasim Reed, "who could tell you what your bill would do if enacted. And I would support it because it was the right thing to do. And in government, you must always do what is right." "You've laid out so many different examples of doing the right thing," said former Philly Mayor Michael Nutter. "We seem to be somewhat, nationally, dysfunctional these days." "But when you think about Willie Brown," said Citizen Co-Founder Larry Platt, "you think of a happy warrior … someone who fights with a smile on their face. That's what people want." "There's no question, that is my approach," Brown said with a smile. "And besides that, I like to party. No matter where I am, if a party can happen, I'm a participant in that effort." Join us for one of the most memorable and smile-inducing episodes of the podcast, a true masterclass in the art of politics. Remember to subscribe to the podcast to keep up on all the latest episodes. And watch for new episodes on YouTube and Piksel+ as they become available. As cities go, so goes the nation!

A recent report by Harvard University's Opportunity Insights revealed a sorry statistic for Philadelphia: We are last in the nation for economic mobility. In other words, we have a lot to learn from other American cities. On this special episode of How To Really Run A City, Citizen Co-Founder Larry Platt and former Philly Mayor Michael Nutter and former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed pull out their favorite moments from the last year of the podcast that take on just this issue. From housing availability in Detroit to help for small business owners in Scranton, PA to 15-minute cities and unexpected employment programs in Cleveland, the mayors and changemakers from this episode are demonstrating how cities can unlock their immense power, and how city leaders can become facilitators while spreading goodwill along the way. Remember to subscribe to the podcast to keep up on all the latest episodes. And watch for new episodes on YouTube and Piksel+ as they become available. As cities go, so goes the nation!