[Durham INC] Durham Named as Top 20 Finalist in Bloomberg Philanthropies' Mayors Challenge

[Blalock, Amy]

CITY OF DURHAM

Office of Public Affairs

101 City Hall Plaza

Durham, NC 27701

 

 

News Release

 

News Media Contact:

Amy Blalock

Sr. Public Affairs Specialist

(919) 560-4123 x 11253

(919) 475-7735 (cell)

Amy.Blalock at DurhamNC.gov 

http://Facebook.com/CityofDurhamNC 

http://Twitter.com/CityofDurhamNC    

 

For Immediate Release: November 5, 2012

 

 

Durham Named as Top 20 Finalist in Bloomberg Philanthropies' Mayors
Challenge

City's Idea Selected from Over 300 Submissions to Compete for $5 million
Grand Prize

 

DURHAM, N.C. - City of Durham Mayor William V. "Bill" Bell today
announced that the City has been selected as a finalist for the
Bloomberg Philanthropies' Mayors Challenge, a competition created to
inspire American cities to generate innovative ideas that solve major
challenges and improve city life - and that ultimately can be shared
with other cities across the nation.

 

Durham was selected based on its innovative idea to create
entrepreneurship hubs in three distressed neighborhoods to positively
impact job creation, family stability, workforce training, and overall
economic growth in those areas. Submitted by the City's Neighborhood
Improvement Services Department's Urban Innovation Center, the proposed
project will now compete against 19 other cities across the country for
a $5 million grand prize as well as one of four additional prizes of $1
million each.

 

The City's Durham Urban Innovation Center partners with residents to
creatively solve community issues by using talent and support from
businesses, academic institutions, nonprofits and other health and human
service agencies.

 

"This project presents Durham with an exciting opportunity to be
transformative in a unique way which, if executed, could have a very
positive impact on Durham in general, and specifically for the people in
the selected neighborhoods," Bell said. "To be selected as a finalist
from more than 300 submissions across the country speaks volumes about
the potential value of this project to Durham and to other cities."

 

A team from Durham will attend the Bloomberg Ideas Camp, a two-day
gathering in New York City in November during which city teams will work
collaboratively with each other and experts to further refine their
ideas. Coming out of the Camp, the Durham team will have access to
additional technical support to prepare their ideas for final
submission. Winners will be announced in spring 2013, with a total of $9
million going to five cities to jumpstart implementation of their ideas.

 

"Congratulations to Mayor Bell and the City of Durham for becoming a
Mayors Challenge finalist. The response to the Mayors Challenge was
extraordinary: bold and innovative ideas were submitted from every
corner of the country. We look forward to welcoming the Durham team to
Ideas Camp," said James Anderson, who directs the Government Innovation
Program at Bloomberg Philanthropies.

 

The 20 finalist ideas were rated on four key criteria:
vision/creativity, ability to implement, potential for impact, and
potential for replication. A specially-assembled selection committee,
co-chaired by Shona Brown, senior vice president and head of Google.org,
and Ron Daniel, Bloomberg Philanthropies board member and former
managing partner at McKinsey & Company where he is still active, helped
select the finalist cities.

 

About the Mayors Challenge

Mayors of U.S. cities with 30,000 residents or more were eligible to
compete in the Mayors Challenge. 305 cities representing 45 states
across the country submitted applications by September 14, 2012. The
Mayors Challenge is the latest initiative of Bloomberg Philanthropies'
Mayors Project, which aims to spread proven and promising ideas among
cities. Other Mayors Project investments include Cities of Service,
Innovation Delivery Teams, and Financial Empowerment Centers. To learn
more about the Mayors Challenge, visit 
http://bloomberg.org/mayorschallenge. 

 

About the City of Durham Neighborhood Improvement Services Department

The Neighborhood Improvement Services Department works to preserve and
improve quality of life conditions for Durham residents, and to
encourage active participation in neighborhood redevelopment and public
policy and decision making dialogue. The department is responsible for
enforcement of quality of life ordinances and state statutes including
the City's Minimum Housing Code; Nonresidential Code; Weedy Lot,
Abandoned and Junk Vehicle ordinances; and the State of North Carolina's
Unsafe Building Statute. The department's rapid responders, known as the
Impact Team, remediate non-compliant housing properties; abate public
nuisances, such as litter, graffiti, illegal dumping, and abandoned
shopping carts; and conduct neighborhood service projects. The
department's Community Engagement staff provides outreach and education
to Durham residents and community organizations. Guided by the City's
Strategic Plan, the department helps ensure that Durham has thriving,
livable neighborhoods by providing the highest quality of services to
engage and educate the community, eradicate blight, ensure safer
neighborhoods, and enhance neighborhood revitalization. For more
information, visit http://DurhamNC.gov/ich/cb/nis/Pages/Home.aspx. 

 

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