United States
Kate Snyder
66,882 (2017)
Lena Geraghty
Improve internal government operations
Improve service delivery
Improve resident outcomes
Focus on measurement
Dedicated innovation team
Support from outside city administration
Culture of innovation in city
Engagement with partners
Leadership from Mayor
Portland‘s first innovation project involved the installation of new LED street lights across the city. The transition to LED lighting has reduced Portland’s electrical use by 2.7 million kWh per year, while yielding more than $1 million in savings. Through higher quality LED lighting, the switch also creates safer streets while reducing light pollution.
Along with 50% of cities surveyed, Portland, ME does not have an explicit innovation strategy. Similar to 24% of cities surveyed, Portland, ME approaches innovation capacity in specific policy areas/domains.
Transport/mobility: Portland has installed adaptive traffic signals that react to real-time traffic on the road, instead of traffic schedules, in 22 key intersections to reduce travel times and vehicle emissions.
Environment/climate change: The city is also developing a joint climate action and adaptation plan with a neighboring city to reach their citywide goal of reducing community wide greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050 and transitioning to 100% clean energy for municipal operations by 2040.
Situated in the City Manager's office, Portland’s innovation work is led by one dedicated staff member who also serves as a Director of Innovation and Performance Management.
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 19% of cities surveyed, Portland, ME does not have dedicated funding to support innovation capacity.
Portland, ME has no reported sources of funding.
Portland, ME does not fund any specific activities.
*"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.
Portland has developed partnerships to promote innovation capacity with other levels of government and public agencies.
To improve data use, the city has also developed data partnerships with the private sector to collect and analyze data.