1. City Vitals:
How Do We Measure
the Success of Cities?
CEOs for Cities October 11, 2011
2011 Fall National Meeting Robert Weissbourd

2.  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

3. Enhance
Create Effective Regional
Concentrations Deploy
Public & Civic Human Capital
Culture & Aligned with
Institutions Job Pools
Leverage
Points
for Sustainable
and Inclusive
Prosperity
Develop
Innovation-
Increase Enabling
Spatial Infrastructure
Efficiency

4. DEGREE OF OVERLAP( %)
 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

5.  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

6.  Except for citizen engagement, less focus
on the institutional environment for
economic success
 Possible additional factors:
 Government Fragmentation
 Tax-Value Proposition
 Governance

7.  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

8.  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

9.  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

10. DISCUSSION
CEOs for Cities October 11, 2011
2011 Fall National Meeting Robert Weissbourd

11. It’s not the Chicken or the Egg –
It’s the Incubator
IT’S ABOUT PRODUCTIVITY
Knowledge Workers Active Human Capital Industry
High HC
Knowledge Occupation
Functions s
Productive
Industries
To Attract Knowledge Workers, Build an
Economy Characterized by High-Human Capital
Occupations and Functions