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Matt Mahan, the wildly popular mayor of San Jose, California, was recently reelected with a whopping 87 percent of the vote. How do you get to what Citizen Co-founder Larry Platt jokingly called (echoing The Daily Show host Jon Stewart) "Vladimir Putin numbers?"
As Mahan laid out on the latest episode of our podcast hosted by former Mayors Michael Nutter of Philadelphia and Kasim Reed of Atlanta, a major part of his success has been zeroing in on five main policy goals: "Until we become the safest big city in the country, end unsheltered homelessness, clean up our neighborhoods, and make it easier to start a business and build housing in our city," Mahan said, "the rest of it is kind of a moot point."
Before running for office, Mahan built and ran startups. "Tell us," Reed prompted, "how close running a city is to the startups you built."
"I would say they're very, very similar," Mahan replied. "After a decade of building two startups, that was really what I knew — put together a small, smart team that's intensely mission driven."
Under Mahan, San Jose has seen a 100 percent solve rate for murders — compared to the national average of 66 percent — and has become one of the 15 cities participating in a new housing initiative from Bloomberg Philanthropies and Accelerator For America, a partner on the podcast.
"I'm really excited about this," Mahan told the hosts. "Bloomberg Philanthropies does amazing things for mayors. They don't just bury you in papers and tell you what to do, they actually sit down with you, fund some additional staff capacity and help you overhaul the permitting process."
Mahan has shared his success in narrowing priorities and using technology to make city government more efficient for constituents in the nonprofit Results for America's new book Do What Works: Smarter Government, Better Results.
Join us for an in-depth discussion with one of the most effective and popular mayors in the country right now.
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As cities go, so goes the nation!
