Lead for Bloomberg Philanthropies' global public sector innovation programs | dad of twins | swimmer | Brooklyn | 🏳️🌈
Brooklyn, New York
Joined July 2009
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James Anderson retweeted
AIs are not conscious. They do not feel, experience, or suffer. They do not have innate preferences or underlying motivations. They are sequence completion engines, internally hollow, designed to follow instructions, and accomplish goals set by humans. -- @mustafasuleyman
mustafa-suleyman.ai/a-warnin…
James Anderson retweeted
The Cross-Bronx is, of course, everyone's favorite example of this, but the city and state can take the Cross-Bronx down starting today if they want to. Moses is dead. He can't stop you.
James Anderson retweeted
For years, the naysayers have counted Baltimore out. But the numbers across the board are telling a different story.
At our peak, Baltimore had 16,000 vacant properties citywide. Through hard work and the right investments, we’ve brought that number down to fewer than 12,000. Eliminating 1 in 4 vacant properties across our city.
And we’ve reduced homicides and nonfatal shootings to the lowest levels our city has seen in 50 years.
The progress our city is seeing is real. And is proof of what happens when we commit to doing things differently, despite what others may say. While we still have work to do, I am proud of how far our city has come.
James Anderson retweeted
City leaders have an incredible opportunity to make a difference in people’s everyday lives.
I was glad to welcome @BloombergDotOrg board members Admiral Mike Mullen and Emma Bloomberg, Founder & CEO of Murmuration, to the @BHcityleaders classroom, where they shared learnings from their leadership journeys with our tenth class of senior officials.
James Anderson retweeted
Tesla received billions in government loans, tax credits and subsidies, making Elon Musk the world's richest person. The public? No equity stake, no profit-sharing, no guarantee of affordable access.
My working paper with @rodrikdani has now been published in Industrial and Corporate Change. It explores the conditionalities—profit-sharing, reinvestment requirements, knowledge transfer—that can ensure industrial policy delivers public value, not just private wealth. [LINK IN NEXT POST]
James Anderson retweeted
✍️ How Do Cities Adapt to Tackle Grand Challenges?
Catch up on our 2025 @IIPP_UCL #RethinkingTheState Forum panel with @cityofsound in conversation with @MazzucatoM, @JamesAnderson, @RPuttick & Bridgette Morris.
📷 Read our recap & watch the recording: buff.ly/sKqsT82
James Anderson retweeted
Terrible News for Congestion Pricing Naysayers: It not only works, even drivers who never enter NYC congestion toll zone see quicker trip times, a new paper finds: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
James Anderson retweeted
Vanderbilt University—one of the great research universities in the world—has chosen San Francisco as the home for a full-time academic campus.
Beginning in 2027, Vanderbilt plans to bring students, faculty, and all the energy that comes with academic life into the heart of our city.
If we want San Francisco to lead the future, we must compete for the institutions that shape it.
Today shows what happens when we stay focused, work together, and aim high.
San Francisco is on the rise.
And we’re just getting started.
Exclusive: Vanderbilt University plans to open a new campus near downtown San Francisco, a boost to the city’s turnaround efforts on.wsj.com/3LDA2TI
James Anderson retweeted
As James Anderson, head of the Government Innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, says: “Local government is the first line and the last mile in solving almost every major challenge that we face today.”
James Anderson retweeted
Inspired by the success of Bridge Meadows' intergenerational housing, city leaders, as finalists of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge, will tackle high costs & restrictive zoning. The goal: clear the way for more walkable, commuity-led developments. More of this, pls!
James Anderson retweeted
Our team at @BloombergDotOrg has been proud to support @MayorBMScott in using data and innovation to get results for residents—from historic reductions in crime to tackling vacant housing. We look forward to helping more mayors learn from this work and Baltimore's inspiring example.
James Anderson retweeted
✍️ How Do Cities Adapt to Tackle Grand Challenges?
Catch up on our recent @IIPP_UCL #RethinkingTheState Forum panel with @cityofsound in conversation with @MazzucatoM, @JamesAnderson, @RPuttick & Bridgette Morris.
📷 Read our recap & watch the recording: buff.ly/UI9mkKT
James Anderson retweeted
For cities to proactively meet 21st-century challenges, they need to invest in their dynamic capabilities. This means building coalitions, navigating politics, and learning from experimentation and co-creation, which differs by context. Thank you to @JamesAnderson, @RPuttick, @cityofsound, and Brigette Morris for sharing lessons from developing our Public Sector Capabilities Index with over 40 cities at @IIPP_UCL’s #RethinkingTheState
Read ➡ ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/publicati…
James Anderson retweeted
Small businesses and homeowners in San Francisco: permitting is about to get easier.
Today, we announced reforms and legislation that will make permitting faster, simpler, and more transparent.
These ordinances will cut red tape, save time and money, and finally make our permitting system work for the people it’s supposed to serve.
Here are some examples of what this means in practice:
➡️ No more permits for sidewalk tables and chairs—putting $2,500 back in the pockets of small businesses and saving them valuable time.
➡️ No more permits and fees to put your business name in your store window or paint it on your storefront.
➡️ No more trips to the Permit Center to have candles on your restaurant’s table.
➡️ No more rigid rules about what your security gate must look like so businesses have more options to secure their storefronts.
➡️ No more long waits or costly reviews for straightforward improvements to your home, like replacing a back deck.
➡️ And we’re getting rid of outdated rules to give downtown businesses more flexibility with how to use their ground-floor spaces—because if adding childcare centers and gyms will help bring companies and employees back downtown, we should support it.
In addition, every city department involved in permitting will track timelines and publish them online. We’re building one system—simple, accessible, and focused on the customer.
And we’re not done.
In the coming months, we’ll roll out a consolidated permit application and bring more of the process fully online.
When we make it easier to open a business, improve a home, or invest in our city—we don’t just support individual success. We fuel our city’s economic recovery.
We attract more customers, more residents, more small business owners—and with them, the revenue and energy that San Francisco needs to thrive.
Learn more about the initiative at sf.gov/permitsf
James Anderson retweeted
“Sit with the child, open the book and read”
Grab a small bit of the “embodied” life while there’s still some left.
@DouthatNYT with the secret history. Masterful essay. nytimes.com/2025/04/19/opini…
James Anderson retweeted
"It’s hard to keep track of the upheaval in Washington since President Trump’s inauguration, and even harder, amid the media freakout, to distinguish important changes from trivial ones.
But what’s happening at the National Endowment for Democracy is a very big deal, and has not been previously reported.
NED, a key U.S. instrument for supporting grassroots freedom movements around the world and founded under Reagan, is under siege. An order from DOGE to the U.S. Treasury that blocked disbursement of NED funds has crippled the organization—which received $315 million for fiscal year 2025—and its affiliates, The Free Press has learned.
'It’s been a bloodbath,' one NED staffer said. 'We have not been able to meet payroll and pay basic overhead expenses.'
NED’s dismantling would be far more than a cost-cutting measure. It would symbolize a major change in U.S. foreign policy, undercutting the notion that democratic ideals foster U.S. global strength and influence. Instead, the Trump administration would be signaling that it no longer believes that promoting democracy around the globe is in the national interest.
James Anderson retweeted
"If Trump wants to show that government exists to serve the public, not to impede progress, and that it can work not just in theory, but in practice, this is his opportunity," @JamesAnderson writes. wapo.st/3Qe0Bxr
James Anderson retweeted
Bienvenidos a México! #CityLabCDMX
Follow along as @JamesAnderson, who leads our Government Innovation team and our annual Bloomberg CityLab summit, takes us along to Mexico City for an inside look at this year's conference where we convened mayors, policymakers, and innovators from around the world to discuss the biggest challenges facing cities today and bold solutions to tackle them.
Learn more about our work to support municipalities in charting their cities’ future: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
James Anderson retweeted
I voted for @KamalaHarris without hesitation. When it comes to policy and personal integrity, the contrast could not be clearer, and I hope undecided voters with a history of supporting candidates in both parties join me. bloombg.org/4ecs0cX
