http://fundbook.org/bloomberg-announces-mayors-challenge-finalists/

Bloomberg Announces Mayors Challenge Finalists

Bloomberg Philanthropies recently announced the 20 cities selected as finalists for the Mayors Challenge, a competition created to inspire American cities to generate innovative ideas that solve major challenges and improve city life – and that ultimately can be shared with other cities across the nation. [Press Release]

The ideas include an urban homesteading initiative that transfers foreclosed properties to community members who put the land into productive use, a citywide effort to close the word deficit of children born into low-income households, and an online system that streamlines city permitting processes in the way that online tax software streamlined filing personal taxes.

The grand prize winning city will receive a $5 million prize, while four runner-up cities will receive $1 million each. Finalist cities were selected from among 305 cities that submitted ideas in the competition. Click here to view the finalists.

Teams from the finalist cities will attend a two-day ideas camp in New York City November 12-13. The teams will work collaboratively to refine and strengthen their ideas in preparation for final submission next January. Winners will be announced in spring 2013. To learn more about the Mayors Challenge, visit bloomberg.org/mayorschallenge.