Executive Insight

One of our top priorities is providing City leadership with performance data where and when they need it. We provide the Mayor, Cabinet Chiefs, and City leadership with dashboards and reports that provide up-to-date information so they can stay regularly informed about the effectiveness of programs, day-to-day operations, and progress toward accomplishing strategic goals.

Optimizing Process

Along with building the tools to understand how well the City is performing, we work collaboratively across 14 Cabinets to help identify pain points and develop immediate and potential long-term performance and process improvements. These direct engagements create lasting improvements for the City.

Engaging with the Public

The public plays a critical role in our work. To promote transparency, we publish City and departmental performance scorecards so people can see how the City is performing at delivering services, and to encourage innovation, we share our data so the public can create new tools and propose new ways for the City to deliver services.

What Works Cities Certification

Boston was one of nine U.S. cities awarded certification from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities program. The program recognizes our commitment to the use of data and analytics to improve residents’ quality of life.

Through What Works Cities, Boston will share insights with a community of peers, helping cities lead the way on big challenges ranging from equity to climate change.

EMS Community Assistance Teams

As part of our ongoing collaboration with Boston EMS, we assisted with the creation of a new Community Assistance Team to provide specialized care for residents dealing with issues such as substance abuse and homelessness.

Known as Squad 80, this team works in high-demand areas and can help connect patients with the long-term support and services they need.

Imagine Boston 2030

We designed a set of dashboards to visualize progress in implementing the City’s Imagine Boston 2030 plan. These visualizations use data to help illustrate where we stand on the goals set by the Imagine Boston 2030 plan, and will be updated annually. Going forward, the tool will help the public to understand long-term trends affecting quality of life in Boston, such as housing costs, economic opportunity, and public health and safety.

Our work this year has also contributed to the following improvements:

CityScore’s 22 metrics are monitored daily to get an understanding of the quality of life in Boston, and the performance of City government. Since inception, CityScore has prompted key process improvements, increased data-driven decision-making at all levels of city government, and informed the budget process.

The following list details the performance metrics and targets that currently make up CityScore. Daily scores and additional information can be found at boston.gov/cityscore.

The Mayor’s FY19 budget priorities highlight the vision to create an environment that promotes equity, builds community, and helps fulfill Boston’s great promise. The performance measures listed below reflect the City’s top priorities and the partnerships necessary to achieve these ambitious goals.