Michael Bloomberg: Cities Drive Innovation

Albert Einstein once said that if he was given an hour to solve a problem, he'd spend the first 55 minutes thinking about it and five minutes coming up with solutions.

But in government, there is a tendency to reach immediately for the first available solution, without spending any time thinking about different ways to approach the problem. It's understandable, because there is enormous public pressure do something -- anything -- quickly.

But very often, that leads to throwing good money after bad -- and watching old problems get worse. That's standard operating procedure in Washington, but mayors around the country are increasingly starting to challenge it.

More and more cities are becoming engines of policy innovation, searching for bold new solutions to tough problems that Washington has failed to address. Coming up with innovative new ideas requires creative thinking based on rigorous data analysis. And then, once the best ideas are selected, the hard work begins -- implementing them.

View the rest of the article at CNN Money

Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. He is the UN secretary-general’s special envoy for cities and climate change.

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