As cities embrace a future permeated by technology, local leaders must continually reassert and revisit community values, while ensuring these values are the foundation of new plans, policies, and programs. 

This is particularly true in the areas of infrastructure, public safety and economic development, which are consistently identified as top issues of concern for city officials. 

NLC’s latest report, “The Future of Equity in Cities” takes these core issues and forecasts the opportunities and challenges to come in the near-term, and further out in 2030. Our findings include: 

  • An outlook on the future of mobility, including findings from the 50 largest cities’ long-range transportation plans and an analysis of how innovations like autonomous vehicles and policy proposals like road pricing will take shape in the near future (2020) and farther out (2030).
  • An examination of demographic shifts and how they will impact economic development in 2020 and 2030, including a graphical analysis of employment trends and an overview of how new technologies like blockchain will increase financial access and reshape urban economies.
  • A look at the use of data analytics and technology like body worn cameras in public safety agencies, as well as a graphical analysis of diversity in America’s police departments.

This report is the third in NLC’s City of the Future series. The first report covered technology and mobility (2015), and the second focused on the future of work (2016).