United States
John Hamilton
84,981 (2019)
Devta Kidd
Improve internal government operations
Improve service delivery
Engage residents by soliciting and analying feedback on pilot projects
Dedicated funding
Focus on measurement
Culture of innovation in city
Engagement with partners
Support from outside city administration
Leadership from Mayor
strong data collection and analysis skills within the organization
Bloomington’s innovation strategy focuses on building a culture that is comfortable with risk, engages residents, and brings efficiencies to public service. Bloomington has installed smart water meters that allow residents to monitor usage in real time, lowering both waste and costs. The city has also partnered with a civic coding group to set up a “Twitter Bot” that automatically pulls animal profiles from the city shelter database and publishes them on social media. The bot requires no maintenance from shelter employees, and has led to a 7% increase in furry friends finding happy homes.
Along with 50% of cities surveyed, Bloomington, IN has an explicit innovation strategy. Similar to more than half of cities surveyed, Bloomington, IN approaches innovation capacity both from a holistic/macro level, as well as in specific policy areas.
See examples of Smart water meters (Water); Pavement Condition Survey and Sign Assessment Project to subjectively evaluate road, sidewalk surfaces and street signs (Public Works); diverting compostable waste from the landfill and using it to generate compressed natural gas for use in city-owned vehicles (Climate change); and establishing Bloomington as a community development financial institutions friendly city (Economic Development)
Situated within the Mayor’s office, Bloomington’s dedicated innovation staff currently consists of a Director of Innovation.
Taking risks or testing new ideas
Data-driven analytics/public data management
Engaging residents in new ways
Developing new solutions based on digital technologies
Organizational change within the municipality
Human-centered design
Rethinking your city’s approach to financing partnerships
Like 81% of cities surveyed, Bloomington, IN has dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.
Similar to 61% of participating cities in the 2020 survey, Bloomington's funding for innovation capacity is also directed towards training staff and building capacity*.
*"Training staff and building capacity" is not an option in the 2018 survey, while "Launching or sustaining a project" is not an option in the 2020 survey.
Bloomington has developed partnerships to promote innovation capacity with other public agencies, private firms, not-for-profit organizations, and city residents/resident associations.
To improve data use, the city has also developed data partnerships with private philanthropy, academia and think tanks to collect and analyze data.