What are the topics that most concern cities, today

In 2013, at the end of his eleven-year term as mayor of New York, magnate Michael Bloomberg wanted to offer recognition to the figure of maximum municipal representation (little valued until then in the United States) by launching an annual meeting where mayors from all over the country could exchange experiences and concerns with colleagues from around the world. Thus was born Citylab, which was added to the programs that, from his philanthropic organizations, he had launched two years earlier to finance urban improvement projects across the globe.

In the latest edition of Citylab, the tenth, held last month in Washington DC, there was talk, of course, of the widely known major urban challenges: climate emergency, inequalities, democratic crisis... The main interest, however, lay in how these great challenges were declined in the particular cases of cities, and in this sense, a series of topics of common interest for most participants could be identified. We will highlight three, in a compilation that allows us in some cases to confirm, in other cases to anticipate, issues that will surely occupy the agenda of our city of 5 million, the metropolitan region of Barcelona, in the immediate future.

Revitalization of urban centers

This is a primary aspect currently in the case of North American cities, but which we increasingly see in other places, including Barcelona. Thus, Washington DC itself has launched an ambitious program to attract 15,000 new residents to its downtown in the next five years. A similar case is that of Monterrey, Mexico, which seeks to recover part of the 80,000 inhabitants that its historic center has lost in recent decades.

In Barcelona, concern for the situation, particularly in Ciutat Vella, where there are more homes occupied by floating population than by residents and economic activity is moving towards tourist monoculture, began to be shown in the previous mandate. Some of the programs that have been presented at Citylab in this regard focus on the transformation of office buildings into housing, a proposal received not without controversy and which also brings us to the recent debate on the relationship between office space and housing in 22@.

Right to housing and homelessness

Regarding housing, precisely, the other major issue that has been put on the table is access to affordable housing and homelessness, with varying degrees of emergency depending on the case, but confirming that it is a growing reality in all major cities.

In the case of the United States, one of the main pressure vectors in this regard is the arrival of immigrants mainly from Latin America. An avalanche that has led New York to consider suspending its "Right to Shelter" ordinance, which establishes the obligation for the city council to provide accommodation to anyone who requests it. In the United Kingdom, more than a hundred mayors and council leaders have asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer for an urgent plan to address the crisis they are experiencing with the growing number of homeless people.

Cities around the world are also showing increasing interest in sharing innovative solutions to facilitate access to housing.

In terms of access to housing, cities around the world are also showing increasing interest in sharing innovative solutions to facilitate it. This is the case in Silicon Valley, where the serious situation many people face is well known, even workers from the most cutting-edge technology companies, where the deployment of a housing offer in adapted shipping containers is being considered, as Barcelona is already doing with the Aprop program.

The renovation of basic infrastructures

"We have built cities for climates that will no longer exist." With this phrase, Jeff Godell, author of books such as The Water Will Come, warned of the need to invest heavily in the infrastructures that must allow urban adaptation to climate change, an issue that was very present throughout Citylab, especially in the interventions of several representatives of the Biden administration following the multi-billion dollar investment package of the Invest in America plan.

The city of Baltimore, for example, has launched a working group made up of people from the scientific field and municipal government to identify priorities that aim at greater protection for the most vulnerable people against the effects of climate change. Glasgow, the city that hosted COP26 in 2021, has also promoted a substantial investment plan in this area. The plans of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area and the Barcelona Provincial Council, especially within the framework of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, also address these needs and try to make the most of the available European funds, framed in the Green New Deal strategy.

Multi-actor collaboration and community involvement in decision-making; innovation in solutions, and data-driven decision-making are the foundations of new urban governance

Finally, it is worth highlighting three omnipresent concepts in Citylab speeches and presentations, regardless of the theme or place of origin: first, multi-stakeholder collaboration and community involvement in decision-making; second, innovation and flexibility in solutions, and third, data-driven and evidence-based decision-making. The foundations of a new urban governance that, together with the metropolitan perspective, are also in the spirit of the Metropolitan Commitment 2030.