The City of Carlsbad was selected as one of seven new cities to receive the Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities Certification for 2023. The certification recognizes cities for exceptional use of data to inform policy decisions, allocate funding, improve services, evaluate program effectiveness and engage residents.
Some examples of the city’s effective use of data highlighted include:
Road collision heatmaps and other data used to inform engineering, education and enforcement efforts as part of the Safer Streets Together Plan to achieve a 19% decrease in all injury collisions.
Evaluation of the city’s staff telecommuting policy, which found it reduced employee commute time by 47,000 hours and saved between $300,000 – $400,000. It also helped improved traffic conditions for residents and eliminate 424 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, supporting the city’s sustainability and Climate Action Plan goals.
City budget and finance processes, which require data and alignment with the City Council’s 5-Year Strategic Plan, ensure funds are efficiently and effectively allocated to address the most important priorities of the community.
Following this achievement, the city will gain access to free resources and expert partners to continue to improve and grow its data practices and identify new and more effective ways to evaluate city services, programs and policies to improve performance.
“By earning this certification, the city is committing to continuous data-driven improvement to innovate and deliver better results for all who live, work and play in Carlsbad,” said the city’s Chief Innovation Officer David Graham.
Carlsbad joins 62 other cities that have achieved this distinction since the certification was established in 2017.
The What Works Cities Certification program, launched by Bloomberg Philanthropies and led by Results for America, is the first-of-its-kind standard of excellence for data-driven, well-managed local government.
More information
What Works Cities Certification Program
