From Competitiveness to Well-Being: Changing Priorities for Cities?

This panel will explore the challenges and opportunities cities face with a focus on the U.S./North American context from a variety of different perspectives—economic, social, and governance. Many cities are incredibly desirable and expensive places to live. However, they are struggling with perceptions about safety, quality of life, underlying and persistent inequities, the economic health of city centers, and balancing budgets. What are the major shared challenges cities are confronting and how are they grappling with them? What new opportunities does this moment present? New York City has returned to pre-Covid unemployment levels (as of September 2023) but is grappling with a deepening affordable housing crisis, strained municipal budgets, and long-term climate risks, among other challenges. Is there an emerging playbook for addressing this moment? How is NYC handling these challenges? And, more optimistically, where are the opportunities?