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New Urban Mechanics

We work across departments and communities to explore, experiment, and evaluate new approaches to government and civic life.

The Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics (MONUM) was formed in 2010 as the Mayor's civic research and design team (one of the first in the nation). We explore and tackle experiments and prototypes that cover a range of topics. This includes everything from the future of mobility to City infrastructure to collective well-being.

OFFICE HOURS

Have a creative idea to improve the City? Let us know through email, or schedule an in-person brainstorm during an upcoming office hours. We have two slots on Tuesdays, from 2 - 4 p.m., and one slot on Wednesdays, from 9 - 10 a.m.

JOIN OUR TEAM

Our summer fellowship application is open now through January 29, 2024. You can apply today!

Contact

2023 Year in Review

We've dropped a year in review with liner notes about some of our 2023 projects!

Read the Year in Review
We Are Public Space Cadets
Credit: New Urban Mechanics

Common questions

Common questions

Where do ideas for New Urban Mechanics prototypes come from?

All over! We are constantly keeping an ear out for interesting ideas to tackle. They come from:

  • the Mayor (we are, after all, the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics!)
  • Boston residents
  • researchers
  • our colleagues in other departments
  • other cities, and
  • our own travels around the City as residents ourselves.

From those ideas, how does New Urban Mechanics decide which prototypes to actually work on?

We’re generally looking for three roughly outlined criteria:

  1. Feasibility (is it possible, even in principle, to try this idea in a near-term, small-scale way?)
  2. Potential for impact (does the idea seem like it could, in theory, improve someone’s experience of the city?)
  3. Potential for scale (do we think the idea has life beyond the experiment? “Scale” can mean a lot of different things, of course.)

Can I or my organization work with New Urban Mechanics?

We’d love to find a way to collaborate! Check out our civic research agenda to see if we’re asking questions about a topic you’re an expert on. You can also sign up for an upcoming office hours (by sending us an email) to come chat with us about your ideas for improving civic experiences in Boston.

What are your impact measurements? Do you have innovation Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)?

Alas, we don’t have a standard set of metrics across projects. We use a mix of approaches — quantitative and qualitative — to determine if our prototype "worked." Generally, if we learn something that informs a future service or program the City can put in place, that’s a win. More broadly, we try to get a sense of whether people liked the prototype. If it brought delight or inspired wonder or built better trust with government. Or whether the prototype physically survived the experimental phase (sometimes they don’t!).

What is the governance model of the lab?

We sit in the Mayor’s office, literally and figuratively. We report to the Mayor’s Chief of Staff. We have no specific content-focused mandate, but rather a broad purview to work collaboratively across departments and topic areas. There are two co-chairs who guide and inspire the team, while also doing project work themselves.

Does New Urban Mechanics collaborate with startups? Universities?

Yes! See “Can I / my organization work with New Urban Mechanics?” above. Since 2010, we have been one of the “front doors” for startups and researchers who want to help Boston tackle some of its thorniest civic challenges. For example, we worked with Soofa while it was still a research lab out of MIT to field-test their solar-panel bench, which also charges devices via USB port. Additionally, our Autonomous Vehicle testing program, in partnership with the Transportation Department, is working with two local startups, nuTonomy and Optimus Ride.

Can you provide information on how your Fellows programs work?

Check out our summer fellowship website and our yearlong fellowship website for more information.

How does New Urban Mechanics work with the departments in the City?

As you can probably guess, it depends project by project. If you asked some of our original partners, they’d probably tell you they think of us as an extra member of their team. With our newer collaborators, we can sometimes be their partners who ask hard (or basic) questions like, “Who isn’t at the table for this conversation, but should be?” We can also connect them into our network of partners outside of City Hall. Sometimes we’re project managers, sometimes conveners, sometimes standing-out-on-the-street-asking-people-if-they-can-read-the-parking-sign (-ers), and always a little playful.

What are the sources of funding for New Urban Mechanics?

The most up-to-date information is always available in the Budget Book. Historically, we have had a mix of City funding and philanthropic funding. Some of the philanthropies we’ve received funding from in the past include:

  • Bloomberg Philanthropies
  • Knight Foundation
  • MacArthur Foundation
  • National Safety Council
  • Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University
  • Ash Center for Democratic Government and Innovation
  • Eos Foundation
  • The Boston Foundation
  • T.D. Bank, and
  • Arbella Insurance Foundation, among others.

What elements are key to ensure the sustainability of a civic innovation lab?

We think close collaboration with our partner departments who will ultimately own the experiment is key. Nurturing cultural change across the organization is also important for sustainability. After all, we are all Urban Mechanics. We are also relied upon as a talent pipeline for other departments through our various fellowships and university partnerships. And to get down to brass tacks — so to speak — we have to deliver. We have to learn, explore, fail, talk about the work, and share the work as much as we can, so it’s clear how the City benefits from keeping us around.

Why does government need to worry itself about innovation?

As Kris’s grandmother says, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” We don’t need to look much further than Amazon Prime’s service rollout in Boston in 2016, or Haystack’s 2014 attempt to turn public street parking into a private amenity to see why governments, particularly those at the local level, need to pull up a chair and get into the mix. We see our role as:

  • advocating for residents and real challenges being faced across our City
  • asking “what is the civic value” of a given technology, and
  • making sure we’re delivering the best services and experiences to our residents that we can.

Innovation isn’t always new and shiny, and it certainly isn’t always an app. It often occurs in the gray areas between two fields, departments, or existing ideas. Sometimes it’s as simple as combining a grape and a slice of cheese to create ... fireworks.

What advice would you give to an emerging lab or a place thinking about starting a civic innovation lab?

  • Be extremely intentional in your hiring processes.
  • Come in with an open mind about where your projects and prototypes could go.
  • Be pleasant (dare we say, fun?) to work with.
  • Let your portfolio develop a mix of projects, a few of which are very experimental and may likely fail, many of which are likely to succeed but may be of limited impact, and shoot for some high-visibility, high-impact projects, too. It is important to have a steady pace of “products” that provides validity for the work, delivers for residents, and allows government to learn in new ways.
  • Get out in front of people, early and often.
  • Find a healthy balance between skepticism and optimism.

What is human-centered design in a civic context, when city populations can be so diverse?

Simple: think about people first. Government is about helping people, not creating internal efficiencies, not cutting costs, not necessarily making things easier for internal staff (although those are always possible and good outcomes). Aim to design with, not for. When you can, co-create with the people closest to the challenge. Get out of your office and go to where people actually are experiencing the City. Simple doesn’t necessarily mean easy.

All Projects

Additional Dwelling Unit

We want to streamline the process for homeowners looking to create a rental unit.

Adopt-a-Hydrant

The tool allows residents to partner with Boston Fire to make sure a specific fire hydrant is cleared of snow.

Areaways

Getting around Boston, you might be above someone’s basement. We call these hollow sidewalks “areaways.”

Autonomous Vehicles: Boston's Approach

Our plans for testing autonomous vehicles and their potential future in the City of Boston.

Bank On Boston

Bank On Boston connects Boston residents with reliable financial products and services that can help them save, grow, and access their money.

Beta Blocks

We're challenging how Boston thinks about the "smart city" and building an equitable community around civic experimentation.

Block Party Permits + Kits

Can we make the block party permitting process easier, clearer, and more delightful?

Block Quotes

A public art initiative designed to inspire communities through inspirational quotations.

BOS:311 App

One of the first municipal reporting apps in the world.

Boost Bags

Boost Bags provide an opportunity to increase weekend food access for vulnerable student populations within Boston Public Schools.

Boston Area Research Initiative

The Boston Area Research Initiative connects university professors and students with community groups and city officials.

Boston Civic Media Consortium

Advancing civic media research, teaching, and practice in Boston.

Boston's Safest Driver

A mobile app that measures safe driving performance and turns it into a game.

Boston Saves

The children’s savings account program makes saving for college and career training available to all Boston Public Schools kindergarten (K2) students.

BPL Outdoor Spaces

We’re expanding the critical role of Boston Public Library (BPL) branches as community resource hubs.

Boston Public Schools (BPS) Air Quality Dashboard

We helped BPS install air quality sensors to and report real-time indoor air quality data through a public dashboard.

Browse, Borrow, Board

What new services could result from uniting public libraries with public transit?

Civic Research Agenda

A look into how we work with communities to build a civic knowledge base.

City Hall to Go Truck

Inspired by food trucks, our bright and friendly mobile City Hall truck is about serving City residents where they live, work, and play.

City Worker App

The City Worker App is a Public Works companion to BOS:311.

Clean Air in Boston

We’re working to improve the air quality in our neighborhoods.

Community Made

A partnership with civic crowdfunding platform ioby.org to support the creation of “third spaces” around Boston.

Community PlanIt

An online game for more engaging community planning.

Density Bonus Pilot

The program gives developers incentives in exchange for more affordable units.

Design Action Research with Government

Design Action Research with Government (DARG) is a guide for creating civic innovation projects.

Digital Trust for Places and Routines

What if you could learn about the technology around you just by scanning a QR code?

Discover BPS

A web app that helps parents find which available schools might be the best fit for their child.

Engagement Center

A safe space for people navigating housing insecurity and substance use issues.

enSALADamor

Turns out, students actually want to eat salad at lunch.

Housing Innovation Competition

An opportunity to identify creative design solutions to produce more middle-income and elderly affordable housing in Boston.

Housing with Public Assets

Could building housing on top of — or next to — City buildings, such as libraries and community centers, benefit our communities?

Hub2

A virtual reality game for engaging residents in community planning.

Kiddie Hall 2.0

We made a kid-friendly play space in the depths of City Hall. Did it make visitors and colleagues feel more welcome and connected?

Knox: The cargo e-trike

Can we now encourage employees to use a zero-emission vehicle for work trips?

LED Street Signs

To make streets safer for pedestrians at night, we experimented with the use of street name signs lit by LED lights.

Lunchbox of Sensors

We tested take-home sensing kits that can teach residents about about their indoor environments.

Lunch on the Lawn

Lunch on the Lawn was the first-ever youth summer meals site on City Hall Plaza.

Moving Through the Budget

We're using collaborative storytelling, dance, and movement to prototype a new form of engagement with Boston residents about the City Budget.

Numina Street Sensors

Is there such a thing as “healthy” data collection without surveillance?

Parklets

Parklets are sidewalk extensions which occupy parking spaces, creating community spaces to hang out on, much like front porches or stoops.

Participatory Chinatown

We built a character-driven virtual world that allowed residents to explore Chinatown for a master planning process.

Participatory Pokémon Go

A city-wide, youth-led challenge to create new PokéStops around Boston for the popular app, Pokémon Go.

Performance Parking Pilot

Circle less and park easier in Boston's busiest neighborhoods.

Pick up / drop off pilot for passenger cars

The pilot program in the Fenway dedicates curb space for pick-ups and drop-offs for all passenger vehicles, including rideshare vehicles like Uber and Lyft.

Play around the City

A public design competition for making Boston's spaces more playful for all.

Playful Boston Initiative

We believe playfulness is a vital part of thriving democracies, caring communities, and resilient cities. Presenting a series of playful programs.

Plugin House Initiative

The Plugin House demonstrates the possibilities of backyard homes and smaller living to provide housing affordable to all.

Project Oscar

Project Oscar is Boston’s 24-hour community compost pilot program.

Pulse of the City

A playful project at the intersection of public art and public health.

SafeBoard

A tap card system prototype for Boston Public Schools buses.

Sidewalk Delivery Robots

How can we have all the bleeps and bloops but fewer of the bloopers?

Smart City Playbook

We drafted a living "playbook" to align with tech, academia, and the media on what makes a city smart.

Smart Parking

Providing drivers with real-time parking information.

Smart Streets

Using technology — like cameras and sensors — to learn more about how people navigate and interact on and with the City’s streets.

Soofa

A solar-powered seat that can charge smartphones and collect data on the environment.

Streetcaster

We're bringing equity to street repairs in the City of Boston.

Street Bump

A mobile app that gathers data about Boston’s streets using a smartphone’s built-in sensors.

Streetscape Innovation Fund

Through this $1 million fund, we experimented with new ways of designing and equipping City streets.

Summer fellowship

Our Summer Fellowship is designed for civic entrepreneurs interested in working in public service.

Treetect

Can we use emerging technology to support and enhance our tree inventory?

Twitter Tree / Menorah

Our interactive tree and Menorah change color when people tweet a color using the hashtag #WickedCoolTree.

Urban Housing Unit Roadshow

Through our interactive exhibit, we heard from the community about what they think about smaller living.

Vehicle Side Guards

Protecting cyclists with vehicle sideguards.

What the Tech

We made a video series exploring the technology on Boston's streets.

Where’s my School Bus?

An app that allows parents to track the arrival and departure of their child’s bus.

Yearlong fellowship

We're giving those interested in civic entrepreneurship deep insight into working creatively in City government.

Youth Civic Design

Exploring ways to better collaborate with our younger generation of civic designers.

2017 Year in Review

A brief highlight of some of our work from 2017

2018 Year in Review

A brief highlight of some of our work from 2018

2019 Year in Review

A brief highlight of some of our work from 2019

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