Making Cities Smarter Than Their Bankers

A paper by Bruce Cahan on how smart cities can use the banking system to better advantage innovation policies and incentives for livability.

Abstract

As complex organisms, modern cities monitor their financial health and longevity, like Olympic athletes and hospital patients. The banking system encircles and ensnares people, buildings and environments defining cities, credit rating some higher, no matter their quality of life, disaster mitigation, infrastructure buffers or exposures. This paper explores technologies for smart cities to use the banking system to better advantage, through more coherent measures, innovation policies and incentives for livability. Municipal banking, credit ratings, sustainability bonds, crowd-sourcing and crowd-funding solutions for smart cities are also discussed.

Access the full original publication by Bruce Cahan on his blog