Wilmington’s tech scene is growing. With low rents, low cost of living and close proximity to larger metro regions, Wilmington offers more than enough strategic advantages to attract innovative startups that could bring talent, investment and well-paying jobs to our neighborhoods.
Unfortunately, progress has stalled as more and more new businesses are putting down roots just outside the city limits, and some businesses that used to be located in Wilmington have left the city, according to a 2015 Wilmington News Journal report. In that same report, business leaders warned the city that they may leave town unless something is done to improve public safety and city services.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We need to change the culture of city government and embrace data-driven policies that will help our city to strategically address the serious challenges facing our neighborhoods and solve problems before they get out of hand.
Here are three initiatives I’d like to see the city adopt.

Data for city services

Governments can use a program like CitiStat to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of city services. Baltimore implemented CitiStat in the early 2000s, tracking response times for quality of life issues, and within one year saved the city $13.2 million, including $6 million in overtime.
Much of the data that would make CitiStat so useful will come in through a 311 non-emergency call center. According to the Center for American Progress, when calls come into the center the complaint or request is registered, given a tracking number and “referred to the responsible city department for action.”

Data for economic growth

Wilmington can jumpstart economic growth by sharing information that will help support small businesses, such as a one-stop web portal to help connect small businesses to financial or training resources.
The First State Community Loan Fund, with funding from JPMorgan Chase, is already doing this by developing a support system to help small businesses within the central business district access capital, find skilled workers, provide managerial training, identify supply chains, and access markets. Since 1992, First State CLF has distributed $27 million to over 1,100 small businesses and community organizations.
Additionally, the First State Community Loan Fund has a nationally recognized Women’s Business Center that is a great example of a nonprofit organization bringing federal dollars to Wilmington for the purpose of engaging women in entrepreneurial and small business development and expansion.
Wilmington should also set up a one-stop web portal that maintains a current inventory of the city’s available commercial property and industrial buildings and sites. It is time we started collecting and maintaining this data so that we can make it available to residents and businesses alike.

Data for transparency

Lastly, Wilmington needs to embrace a serious open data initiative.
Open data can change our city. When residents have access to some of the data that leaders use to make decisions, it fosters an atmosphere of transparency and accountability that in turn will improve public trust in government. The City of Philadelphia, home to one of the region’s largest open data initiatives, claims that “open data is increasingly the metric by which a city’s transparency is measured.”
Making data available is important, but it is just the first step. Open data has a trickle-down effect on local communities. Open data empowers communities and opens the door to greater civic activism.
By their very nature, open data initiatives require governments to think of residents as partners who have a vested interest in improving their communities. All around the nation open data initiatives are allowing residents and nonprofits to build platforms that aim to improve quality of life and government services. In Kansas City, for example, open data allowed citizens to build a Parcel Assessment Tool that “would allow citizens interested in a piece of real estate to assess whether a piece of land is suitable for a building project using zoning and parcel size specifications.”
Open data can help civic associations to more closely examine and analyze crime patterns within their own neighborhoods, or to visualize building and violations permits as has been done in Seattle. There are so many talented people in Wilmington, and I think we can expect the same level of activism and creativity if we pursue an open data initiative. (Editor’s note: He’s not the only one.) Louisville forged community partnerships to improve air quality by working with residents to enhance pollution monitoring with open data from air sensors embedded in asthma inhalers.
An open data initiative also holds the potential to attract innovators and tech startups that will use these resources to build mobile apps and other platforms to serve city residents. And we can safely bring more information into the public eye while ensuring responsible controls are in place to guarantee no one’s privacy is ever violated.
Wilmington needs to embrace evidence-driven governance if it is to continue to attract new businesses and diversify its economy. We need to be able to learn from the data and adapt to ensure our city responds quickly to the needs of all. But we need to always remember that technology is just the tool. We need city leadership that is committed to sustaining these investments through regular training and evaluation. All of this is within our reach.