As part of its effort to promote effective approaches to improving life in America’s cities, the Manhattan Institute's Center for Civic Innovation annually presents its Urban Innovator award. This non-partisan prize has been awarded since 2000 and is based in the Institute’s view that effective government is key to the safety and prosperity of our cities, historically the engines of the U.S. economy and the vehicles for upward mobility for their residents. The award has gone to Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels for his use of private financing to improve public infrastructure; Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz for securing the city's finances and for crime reduction, to Philadelphia (now New Orleans) school superintendent Paul Vallas and to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley for the dramatic improvement in the performance of their respective cities' public schools; to Florida Governor Jeb Bush for initiatives ranging from disaster preparedness to the use of vouchers for special education services. We seek not to reward those whose approaches fit some pre-conceived notion of what makes cities work. Instead, we look for "what works"—and try to spread the good news.

Urban Innovator Award Winners

2008
Mitch Daniels, Governor, State of Indiana to Receive Urban Innovator Award for Education Reform

On October 8, 2008, the Manhattan Institute presented Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels with our Urban Innovator Award, in recognition of his innovative policy initiatives which have led to improved services for Indiana's citizens. CCI Chairman Emeritus and former Indianapolis mayor Stephen Goldsmith delivered opening remarks and presented Governor Daniels with the award.

Governor Daniels has restored Indiana's fiscal health, created a business environment that has received top national rankings, and instituted creative policies such as leasing the operation of the Indiana Toll Road for $3.8 billion and using the proceeds to establish Indiana’s Major Moves program, the only fully-funded ten year statewide transportation infrastructure rebuilding program in the United States. This program, consisting of over 400 highway construction projects, has created jobs and will improve Indiana's standing as a logistics and transportation hub. Governor Daniels has also simplified laws to make brownfield development easier, proposed a plan to increase access and affordability for the state's high school seniors to pursue higher education by utilizing future growth of the state lottery, and he improved the prison and welfare systems, as well as the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, which has achieved a 97 percent overall customer satisfaction rate.

2007
Jeb Bush First Governor to Receive Urban Innovator Award for Education Reform

On November 13, it was the Manhattan Institute's great pleasure to honor former Florida Governor Jeb Bush with the Urban Innovator Award for his state's comprehensive and influential education reform program.

Over his two terms in the statehouse, Governor Bush instituted an array of government reforms with a noticeable impact on the quality of life in Florida's urban communicates. Today, Florida cities lead the nation both in job growth and in improving the educational attainment of the disadvantaged.

Before Governor Bush's tenure, in 1996, Florida was rated 29 out of 32 on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in fourth and eighth grade reading and math. Ten years later, in 2006, the state scored above the national average in reading and is at the national average in math.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced Governor Bush and presented the award. "Jeb and his team helped establish a culture of accountability throughout Florida, breathing new life into its schools, especially into its urban districts." Mayor Bloomberg outlined the approaches used by the Governor: empowering school leaders and holding them accountable; ending social promotion; increasing transparency; expanding school choice and building competition; and giving parents the tools to become more active partners in their children's education. "One of the most important of those tools was a report card that didn't grade students, but in fact graded schools," he said. "Last week we released our own version of the report card, which builds on Jeb's vision, giving more than 1,200 schools in our city a grade letter of A through F, based largely on not how students are doing at the moment, but how they are improving and the progress they are making." Mayor Bloomberg noted that he and Governor Bush have been working together on reforms to improve the No Child Left Behind law for reauthorization.

In Governor Bush's acceptance remarks, he explained how he developed education reform policies and suggested further ideas for improving education systems in other states and communities.

"In Florida, by trial and error, we've tried just about everything that the Manhattan Institute has been advocating or talking about over this last generation. And I'm here to tell you that most of it works," Governor Bush said during his remarks. "It starts with accountability," he continued. "At the core of reform has to be the recognition that there should be a different consequence for mediocrity and improvement. If you have rising student achievement you need to reward it. If you don't have rising achievement—if you are stuck in mediocrity—there needs to be a new strategy to organize yourselves around our children so that they gain the power of knowledge."

2006
Paul Vallas First Education Leader to Receive Urban Innovator Award

On September 21, CCI hosted a luncheon at the Four Seasons in Philadelphia to celebrate the accomplishments of Paul Vallas, Chief Executive of the Philadelphia School District, and presented him with the center’s Urban Innovator Award. Mr. Vallas is the first education official to receive the award, which is given annually to an urban leader for improving the quality of life in their city. Stephen Goldsmith, founding chairman of CCI, introduced Mr. Vallas and presented him with the award.

Mr. Vallas served as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools from 1995 to 2001 and was appointed CEO of the Philadelphia School District in 2002. In Philadelphia, Mr. Vallas has dramatically increased school choice, raised expectations and academic standards, and improved accountability in a once financially unstable, and largely ineffective, district.

"The city of Philadelphia has more school choice than any major urban school district in the country," Mr. Vallas said. "One-third of the children educated in our schools are educated in nontraditional schools, charter schools, privately-managed schools, or independent schools (...) and they are all performing splendidly."

Among the many other significant transformations in the Philadelphia school district, Mr. Vallas noted that, during his talk, it had:

• Created a district-wide early childhood education program.
• Standardized curriculum and instructional manuals.
• Restored Advanced Placement and Honors programs to most schools.
• Developed "accelerated academies" in elementary schools.
• Doubled the number of high schools in city in just five years.

The Philadelphia school district's smaller high schools are outperforming larger ones. "We've had small schools, but now we have small schools with high standards," he said. "And wherever you live in Philadelphia," he added, "you have multiple high school choices."

While in Chicago, Mr. Vallas introduced test-based retention policies, eliminated a projected four-year budget shortfall of $1.3 billion, oversaw the construction and renovation of hundreds of school buildings, and established the largest after-school and summer reading programs in the country.

2005
New York Police Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly Receives Manhattan Institute’s Urban Innovator Award

New York Post Op-Ed by Manhattan Institute President Lawrence Mone on Kelly's Achievements

For driving crime down to historic lows and for creating the first urban counterterrorism operation designed specifically to prevent terrorism in New York City, the Manhattan Institute awarded New York City Police Department Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly with its annual Urban Innovator award at a luncheon held on Tuesday, October 24, 2005.

"When Commissioner Kelly took office in January 2002, no one predicted that crime would continue to decline or that the city would not suffer from another terrorist attack. Yet, that is exactly what happened," said Manhattan Institute President Lawrence Mone. "The credit belongs in full measure to Ray Kelly’s extraordinary leadership.

Mixing innovation in technology, intelligence, communication, and policing strategy with New York determination, Commissioner Kelly has not only driven New York City's crime to historical lows, but he also created the first urban counterterrorism initiative in the world that treats terrorism as a preventable crime.

Some of Commissioner Kelly's Groundbreaking Policing Innovations:

• Premier Counterterrorism Operation - Commissioner Kelly hired David Cohen, a 35-year CIA veteran, to revamp and lead the NYPD's intelligence division and Michael Sheehan, former director of Counterterrorism for the National Security Council, to head up the new NYPD Counterterrorism Bureau. The NYPD now has 1,000 cops on a full-time anti-terrorism beat with detectives stationed across the globe gathering intelligence. The NYPD also hired scores of foreign language experts, tapping into New York’s immigrant communities. In addition, Operation Nexus was created so the NYPD could establish relationships with 20,000 businesses in New York City and create open communication between the police and businesses regarding the terror threat.
• Operation Spotlight - Expanding upon Compstat, NYPD now uses data to pinpoint specific individuals who are responsible for a disproportionate share of offenses.
• Operation Impact -The NYPD identifies high-crime zones and floods those areas with police officers. So far, those officers have made more than 20,000 arrests and issued 335,000 summonses in impact zones. Major felonies are down by 26% in Operation Impact zones since last year.

2004
Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz Receives Manhattan Institute's Urban Innovator Award

On October 26, the Center for Civic Innovation (CCI) at the Manhattan Institute honored Miami Mayor Manuel A. Diaz with its fifth annual Urban Innovator Award.

CCI recognized Mayor Diaz for his unswerving dedication to transforming Miami's government into a service-oriented organization, focused on improving quality of life and economic development citywide, rather than in just a handful of central business districts.

Before Mayor Diaz came on the scene, Miami was considered a city in decline. It was blighted by crime, hobbled by mismanagement, and saddled with a poor credit rating.

'Today crime is down and Miami is in the midst of a multibillion dollar construction boom," CCI Executive Director Henry Olsen noted. "Much of the credit for Miami's renaissance belongs to Mayor Diaz and his determination to retool the city's faltering administration, using sound business principles and a strategic vision for the City's future.'

After his November 2001 election, Mayor Diaz quickly developed a vision for Miami as an international city embodying diversity, economic opportunity and good government. To achieve his vision, Mayor Diaz, a former attorney and restaurateur, implemented a private-sector organizational structure throughout all city departments. This new system promoted effective goal setting and accountability through performance measures.

Just three short years after facing bankruptcy, Miami's bond rating soared from junk grade in 2001 to an A+ rating in 2004, the highest rating in the city's history. After its finances and management improved, Miami's private investment reached unprecedented levels. At least $16.5 billion in development is underway.

'In part, I have to credit the Manhattan-Institute for inspiring many of the steps we took as a city to bring about these innovative changes,' Mayor Diaz said in accepting the award. He added, 'the other thing that helped was The Entrepreneurial City, one of the Institute's landmark publications. The book was kind of a Bible for my campaign that we referred to often for guidance and expertise.'

2003
Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams wins Urban Innovator Award

On July 8th the Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan Institute honored Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams with its Urban Innovator Award for his support of school choice and for improving city administration in the District of Columbia. CCI Chairman and former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith served as the master of ceremonies at the event, held at the National Press Club. Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, a CCI Advisory Board member, presented Mayor Williams with the Urban Innovator Award.

Mayor Norquist, a vocal champion of Milwaukee's school voucher program (the nation's oldest and largest publicly-funded school voucher program) commended Mayor Williams for coming to the 'conclusion that the consumers—the parents of D.C.—needed more power in the equation so that quality would matter.' Mayor Norquist observed that voucher competition in Milwaukee improved all schools, not just private schools. 'We have better public schools, we have better parochial schools, and we have better and more private schools' because parents and students have more educational options.

Mayor Williams gratefully accepted the Manhattan Institute award and said that his efforts to improve education were part of a long-term plan to revitalize the nation's capital. He said that he hoped to use education reform—including school vouchers—to draw D.C.'s depleted middle class back into the city. 'You can't have a city that's going to survive, let alone prevail, if you don't have a solid middle class,' Mayor Williams said. 'To me, introducing and injecting choice and competition [into the D.C. public school system] is the only way we're going to start reversing that tide and reversing that trend and bringing back on a long-term sustainable basis that middle class.'

2002
Mayor Martin O'Malley Receives CCI's Urban Innovator Award

It was CCI's great pleasure to present Martin O'Malley, Mayor of Baltimore and a member of the CCI Board of Advisors, with our highest honor, the Urban Innovator Award. On July 16 th , in a luncheon ceremony at the Admiral Fell Inn, CCI Executive Director Henry Olsen presented Mayor O'Malley with the Award, in recognition of the tireless efforts to revitalize his city that have captured the imagination of the people of Baltimore, and earned plaudits from around the nation by those who care about the future of urban America.

The youngest Mayor in Baltimore's history, Martin O'Malley was elected in 1999 with an overwhelming 91% of the vote, after a campaign that emphasized accountability, change, and reform. From his first days in office, Mayor O'Malley has shown a commitment to innovative approaches to solving his cities problems, and Baltimore has reaped the benefits.

O'Malley's introduction of 'broken windows' policing strategies and a crime fighting program modeled after the New York Police Department's famed CompStat system has resulted in the city, America's most violent big city in 1999, experiencing the nation's largest violent crime reduction, 23% in the first two years of his term. Rather than rest on that laurel, his administration has pressed on, applying the tenets of CompStat to all municipal services through the revolutionary approach to city management known as CitiStat, with similarly impressive results.

During his tenure, Baltimore, which saw nearly 100,000 jobs vanish during the 1990s, created 8,200 more jobs than it lost in 2000. Meanwhile the city's first graders scored above the national average in reading and math for the first time in 30 years. With his term not up until 2004, we look forward to accomplishments in the coming years that mirror the stunning successes of the last few.

2001
CCI Delivers Urban Innovator Award to Norm Coleman

On December 4, 2001, it was CCI's great pleasure to honor Norm Coleman, the former Mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota and a member of the CCI Board of Advisors, whose efforts to enhance the economic development and improve the educational opportunities of his city garnered attention nationwide.

In a luncheon ceremony at the St. Paul Hotel, CCI Chairman Stephen Goldsmith, Special Advisor to the President for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, presented Mayor Coleman with CCI's Urban Innovator Award in recognition of his tremendous accomplishments during his two terms as Mayor. Coleman was elected Mayor of Saint Paul in 1993 as a Democrat, but left it to join the Republican Party in 1996. He was then reelected in 1997, becoming the city's first elected Republican mayor in over a quarter century.

In those eight years, Coleman presided over a remarkable resurgence in St. Paul. The private sector created 18,000 new jobs, the value of taxable property in the central business district more than doubled and the city's bond rating improved dramatically. At the same time, the school system grew increasingly responsive to the needs of the city's students. Educational choices have been multiplied by a variety of new alternatives, including twenty new charter schools.

Throughout the impressive economic expansion, Coleman rejected the potentially dangerous temptation to increase city revenue by raising taxes, maintaining his publicly-stated commitment to a 'zero percent increase' in property taxes. Instead, he forged new ground in the use of public-private partnerships to strengthen the city. The Capital City Partnership, through which the region's top twenty CEOs promote, market and develop Saint Paul, helped win Coleman recognition from the United States Conference of Mayors for Excellence in Public/Private Partnerships.

Mayor Coleman was the third mayor, and the first Republican, to receive the Urban Innovator Award. The previous recipients were Richard Daley of Chicago and Jerry Brown of Oakland.

2001
Mayor Brown Receives Urban Innovator Award

On May 11, CCI bestowed on Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown our highest honor, the Urban Innovator Award. Former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith introduced Mayor Brown and presented him with the award in a ceremony at Oakland's Lake Merritt Hotel. The event was underwritten by the William H. Donner Foundation.

Long known as a maverick for attacking special interests, Mayor Brown has pursued major reform initiatives in policing, education, and quality of life. As Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Heather Mac Donald noted in the Autumn 1999 issue of City Journal, Mayor Brown embodies 'an emerging national consensus regarding what cities need in order to flourish—public safety, order, decent schools, and respect for private creativity.'

In his introductory remarks, Mr. Goldsmith touched upon another of Mayor Brown's contributions to solid urban governance. Upon arriving in Oakland, he had asked a taxi driver how things seemed to him under Mayor Brown. The first thing the cabbie mentioned was that 'honesty had returned to city government.'

In accepting the award, Mayor Brown spoke about his vision of 'what cities should be.' Extolling the benefits of local control, he described the many improvements Oakland has made without assistance from federal or state government. He also criticized the failed compact of the Great Society, praised the work of urban ministers, and hailed City Journal for changing way people think about cities.

2000
CCI Honors Mayor Daley, Chicago Leader is an 'Urban Innovator'

The ongoing revival of America's great cities is one of the most compelling stories of the last decade. Just as there was no shortage of blame to go around when our urban centers were in decline, the leaders who have guided the resurgence of our cities deserve recognition.

It was therefore CCI's great pleasure on August 9, 2000, to honor Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, whose singular focus on improving his city's schools has created an example for other large urban districts around the nation. CCI paid tribute to Mayor Daley in a breakfast ceremony at the Chicago Union League Club, before an audience of Chicago's business leaders. The event was underwritten by Beth Coolidge of Lehman Brothers and Ambassador Robert Stuart, Jr.

Mayor Daley outlined what he views as the seven keys to the revival of Chicago's schools: giving the city's top elected official direct responsibility over the system through governance reform; establishing accountability by articulating and enforcing academic standards for each grade, and having real consequences when schools fail to meet those standards; eliminating social promotion; making capital improvements to schools; expanding educational options; promoting partnerships with the community— especially cultural institutions and businesses; and being unafraid to bring new approaches to bear on seemingly entrenched problems, whether that means implementing a longer school day, a zero-tolerance policy for weapons possession, or a systemwide anti-truancy initiative.

Given the abysmal state of his city's schools in 1996—a dropout rate of over 50 percent, an average daily attendance rate of about 86 percent, and math and reading scores placing about three-quarters of Chicago public school students below the national average—no turnaround could possibly have happened overnight. But Chicago's strong progress over the last four years proves that no school system can be written off, no matter how daunting the challenge may seem.

Today, Chicago's test scores are rising in every category, at virtually every grade level. Attendance rates are 90 percent for the first time in fifteen years. And systemwide enrollment is up 30,000—indicating that parents' confidence in neighborhood schools is growing. That is why Daley's blueprint for improving urban education is included as one of the reform plans outlined in CCI's recently published how-to handbook for urban innovators, The Entrepreneurial City.

CCI Chairman Stephen Goldsmith, himself introduced by one of Mayor Daley's most important partners in this resurgence, Chicago School Board President Gery Chico, introduced Mayor Daley. The significance of Goldsmith, former Republican Mayor of Indianapolis and a lead domestic policy advisor to President George W. Bush, praising a Democratic mayor with close ties to former Vice-President Al Gore, should be unmistakable. The best solutions to the problems faced by America's cities defy simple ideological labels, and the most effective leaders are those who put aside narrow-minded partisan politics and instead embrace promising new ideas—no matter what their source.