2020

Newark Connected City

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New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in partnership with the City of Newark and Invest Newark engaged Econsult Solutions to craft a connected city plan for Newark, New Jersey. By becoming a connected city, Newark can leverage smart technologies to further interconnect the local government and its citizens. The Connected Newark plan serves as a framework for future policy and investment as Newark progressed along its connected city journey.

Newark is seeking to achieve economic, environmental, and social sustainability. With the growth of urbanization, cities are struggling to balance growing populations, increases in expenditures, shrinking housing supplies, depreciating infrastructure, and environmental concerns while competing with other cities to secure investments, jobs, and talent. Now more than ever, cities must turn to rapidly improving technologies to implement the best solutions for their residents.

The Strategic Plan for Newark’s Connected City Future prioritizes opportunities as well as highlights best practices, and defines implementation steps to help Newark realize its full technological potential. The plan reflects the values of Newark and their alignment with Mayor Baraka’s strategic goals for the city. The strategic plan provided a business case for adapting connected cities strategies through smart technologies to help shape the future of Newark.

ESI compiled information and then undertook a SWOT analysis and a review of COVID responses undertaken by the city. Those then informed a four-part plan for future City action.

Strategic Management Planning Program Five-Year Financial Plan: Newtown Township

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ESI was selected to assess Newtown Township’s financial condition and develop a five-year plan in conjunction with McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC and SRW Strategies. A five-year plan including recommendations to improve operational efficiency and promote fiscal stability in Newtown Township was developed in collaboration with the Township staff and Board of Supervisors. It is important to note that this analysis was commissioned prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has significantly impacted the Township’s finances and operations. Historically, revenue has failed to increase more than expenditure in Newtown. The practice of funding deficits with reserves is unsustainable as the General Fund reserve has continued to deplete.

The five-year financial report includes how Newtown Township could increase its revenue and decrease its operating expenses. Furthermore, it proposed potential multi-municipal collaboration opportunities and economic development strategies for consideration.

The baseline projections established the framework used to develop the recommendations, which are designed to build a stronger financial position and promote structural budgetary balance.

ESI found a range of measures and recommendations that could be taken to improve Newtown Township’s fiscal position under the STMP program. The Township was given these recommendation to implement with variations to the magnitude, timing, and combination of recommendations that are adopted.

2021 State of North Broad

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ESI in partnership with The North Broad Renaissance (NBR), released the 2021 State of North Broad report, which highlights demographics and development within the North Broad census tracts, and the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic had on the corridor.

According to the 2021 State of North Broad report, North Broad Street performs the core roles of anchoring adjacent neighborhoods throughout North Central Philadelphia, supporting businesses and community mainstays, and connecting residents to entertainment, retail, and jobs. The North Broad Renaissance will use the data in this year’s report to help create equitable and inclusive development along North Broad Street, which includes strategically attracting and helping to retain Black and brown businesses along the corridor.

Managing the Challenges of a Post-Pandemic World: Cities 4.0

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring a healthy, safe, and prosperous future for citizens has been a burning imperative for city leaders around the world. At the same time, the health crisis has raised the importance of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which many cities have adopted as a framework for achieving their social, environmental, and economic objectives. In a new survey of 167 cities conducted by ESI ThoughtLab for its study Smart City Solutions for a Riskier World, over a quarter of city leaders said that the pandemic had made the SDGs a higher priority. A third said the crisis had stimulated new thinking about their social priorities overall.

The pandemic also is accelerating the need for cities to adopt smart innovation and digital solutions, as it transforms citizen behaviors and expectations, and redefines how people work and live: for 63% of cities, the biggest lesson learned during the pandemic was just how crucial smart city programs were for their future. And it is underscoring the role of collaboration among business, government, and academia to address long-term urban challenges and to build resilience. Those cities that make the most progress on the SDGs while also leading in smart city innovation will be the most successful as we enter the post-pandemic world.

How Innovation Can Drive Sustainable Development Goal’s

A prime objective of this ongoing research is to assess how smart urban solutions can help cities achieve the SDGs. To measure the progress that cities have made in driving the SDGs, ESI ThoughtLab developed an SDG progress framework. Our framework categorizes cities into three groups: implementers, which are in an early stage of SDG adoption; advancers, which are making progress on a range of SDGs; and sprinters, which are making fast progress on most areas of sustainable development. Twenty-two percent are classified as implementers, 57% as advancers, and 21% as sprinters.

According to the research, nearly 8 in 10 cities have adopted the SDGs as part of their plans and around 60% have made considerable progress across all the 17 goals. Small cities with less than a million people are much farther along than larger cities in embracing the SDG framework. By region, North American and European cities are ahead, while those in Africa and Asia trail behind.

Our economists have also created a smart city maturity framework to assess which cities are ahead in using smart city solutions and technologies to achieve their social, environmental, and economic goals. A smart city leader was defined based on its maturity in the use of technology across the urban domains, its use of data, and the steps that it takes to ensure citizen and stakeholder engagement. Thirty percent of cities are classified as beginners, 49% as intermediates, and 21% as smart city leaders.

The Rise of Cities 4.0

To analyze the impact of smart city solutions on sustainability, we identified a subset of SDG champions that also lead in smart technology. These cities, which we call “Cities 4.0”, serve as models for the cities of the future. They continue the evolution of smart cities from Smart Cities 1.0 to Smart Cities 3.0 and go beyond, by showing how to effectively use technology, data, and citizen engagement to drive the SDGs. They are in step with new ways of working and excel at using an agile ecosystem of partners to spur change. They demonstrate how, with the expectations of citizens rising, and businesses gearing up for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the most successful cities will be digitally transformed, fully sustainable, and skilled in entirely new ways.

What sets Cities 4.0 apart?

Cities 4.0 are well ahead in all aspects of data management. They are masters at collecting, integrating, protecting, and making data accessible to citizens. Most of them have policies, resources, and budgets in place to manage and analyze data at a high level of excellence. They also tend to be more open in their use of data and integrate it across city departments.

Cities 4.0 also unlock greater value from their ecosystems. They are better at proactively managing their partnerships and they develop partnership skills across their city domains. They prioritize public-private partnerships more than others and are more open to new ideas. And they enjoy greater personnel, fiscal, functional, and regulatory independence from national, state, and provincial control.

Cities 4.0 also ensure that citizens are engaged and digitally connected. They use a combination of digital and traditional methods to communicate with citizens. They actively engage citizens and stakeholders when setting goals, demonstrate the value of projects, and ensure that disadvantaged populations, including the poor and handicapped, are involved in the decision-making process.

 

ESI ThoughtLab’s ongoing research program into sustainability and smart city solutions will serve as a roadmap for city actors across the world looking for best practices and to compare solutions. Our full findings will be available in March 2021, but readers can already visit our Smart City Solutions for a Riskier World program microsite for the latest articles, insights, program updates, and planned events.

Dr. Daniel Miles is the Chief Operating Officer for ESI ThoughtLab, Econsult Solutions’ thought leadership arm. As part of his work for ESI ThoughtLab, Dr. Miles specializes in assessing the impact of technologies on companies, cities, industries, and business performance. He has served as the research director on Smarter Cities 2025: Building a Sustainable Business and Financing Plan, Building a Hyperconnected City, and Smart City Solutions for a Riskier World, to name a few. He has also led studies on cashless cities, autonomous vehicle readiness, the economics of cybersecurity, the ROI of artificial intelligence, and digital transformation of small businesses.

 

What are the Potential Benefits of Universal Access to Retirement Savings?

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The Center for Retirement Initiatives (CRI) at Georgetown University engaged ESI to assist the Center in developing an analysis of national options to expand retirement savings coverage. The CRI study examines how characteristics such as account type (payroll deduction IRA vs. 401(k)), the employers required to participate, and default levels of employee contributions and any employer contributions will drive access, savings, asset growth, and retirement income over time. The approaches analyzed would result in significant expansions of access and participation among the estimated 57.3 million private sector employees who are not offered any workplace retirement plan today.

More than 57M Employees Lack Access to a Retirement Savings Plan in their Workplace (2020)

Modeling was undertaken on several policy scenarios, selected based on the range of state programs and national proposals, to under their impacts on retirement savings participation, savings, and government expenditures and revenues. Regardless of the model selected, the study concludes that the benefits to savers, retirees, and the nation’s fiscal and economic well-being can be enormous.

Depending on the design features, a national approach to universal access to retirement savings which would require some or all employers to offer their workers either an IRA or 401(k) could:

  • Increase the number of workers saving for retirement in the year 2040 by 28–40 million, with participation from about 50–70% of private sector workers who currently lack access;
  • Help a young worker with a modest income who starts saving early and follows savings defaults for 40 years to save enough to generate as much as $14,320 in additional annual income for retirement, increasing to $21,300 in annual income if eligible to take advantage of a refundable Saver’s Credit;
  • Increase cumulative total retirement savings between $1.4 trillion and $1.9 trillion by the year 2040; and
  • Accelerate economic growth, increasing national GDP by $72 billion to $96 billion in the year 2040.

This report draws from the experience of other countries and from the early state-facilitated retirement programs in the U.S. to make the case that universal access to retirement savings options can be achieved in a simple, cost-effective manner with private market providers ready to compete to offer options for workers.

William Jessup University 2020 Economic Impact Brief

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William Jessup University (Jessup) is a nationally-ranked Christian college awarding undergraduate, graduate, and associate degrees across 60 academic programs. The University integrates faith and academics, helping students become transformational and successful leaders in their careers, homes, churches, and communities.

ESI articulated Jessup’s impact in terms of annual operations, capital investments, ancillary spending, wage premium, and social and community impact. Each year, Jessup’s activity generates an economic impact of $113 million within California and supports 875 jobs.

As a leading regional non-profit, economic activity generated through William Jessup University increases state and local tax revenues. Jessup’s economic activity is estimated to generate $4.6 million in tax revenue for the State and increases the tax base for multiple municipalities.