In an effort to tap the brainpower of its citizens, the city is rolling out an online submission form for New Yorkers to offer their suggestions on how NYC can save money. Currently, the website—which can be reached via NYC.gov or here—is only accepting suggestions, but Deputy Mayor of Operations Stephen Goldsmith says the city eventually aims to build a more vibrant website that's a "transparent marketplace" of ideas to make the city run more efficiently.
No idea is too small to suggest: In recent weeks, Goldsmith has been meeting with various community boards and business improvement districts, "Every person has had ideas" on how to make city resources work better, whether it's fixing a hole in the street or moving garbage can to make trask pickup easier. By fielding—and then organizing, sharing and implementing— constituents' ideas, he explains the city will be able to "show that it appreciates taxpayers' ideas and their tax dollars."
Goldsmith, who was the mayor of Indianapolis between 1992 and 1999 and joined the Bloomberg administration earlier this year (he's been tasked with pinpointing government inefficiency), says that ultimately residents are the most familiar with the issues that plague their neighborhoods: If the city can translate their ideas and save money at the same time, it's win-win.
As for big ideas, we asked Goldsmith how pension reform was going: He explained that a group has been working on the issue for many months and it'll still be some time before their findings can be shared. But, in the unlikely event that any pension reform proposals come through the Save NYC Money website, he says, "I'd be happy to see them."
