Having kicked off in Los Angeles, California, yesterday, my US counterparts and I are looking forward to hosting exchange delegates (including mayors, councillors and business leaders) in each city and providing introductions to local civic leaders and case study projects that demonstrate \u201cbest practice\u201d funding and financing methods for infrastructure and urban renewal projects.<\/p>\n
As a firm advocate for government reform and innovation in procurement practices for critically needed infrastructure, I\u2019m really excited at the potential for knowledge sharing during the exchange, and for positive action in and around our cities after it.<\/p>\n
When I introduced this year\u2019s exchange delegates to US funding and financing mechanisms in April and May during the Mayors\u2019 Forum \u2013 a central component of the Future Cities Program held during the lead up to the exchange \u2013 I could sense a real enthusiasm among Australian government leaders to be bold in meeting the country\u2019s infrastructure backlog. We all recognise the need to leave a legacy, not a liability, for the future. Well planned and appropriately funded infrastructure will be an important part of that legacy.<\/p>\n
The cornerstone of the Future Cities Collaborative \u2013 the Future Cities Program \u2013 is to support both regional and metropolitan city leaders from New South Wales and provide them with the knowledge, skills, and resources to build sustainable and liveable communities.<\/p>\n
With what we\u2019ve got planned over the coming 10 days or so, I think we\u2019re in great shape and, following the City Exchange\u2019s conclusion on 3 July in New York City, we look forward to the release of a 2015 City Exchange report featuring case studies and \u201clessons learned\u201d to share with NSW state and local government partners, US host city sponsors, and other supporters.<\/p>\n
Follow our journey as we make our way across the US. Daily posts and images will be uploaded to the Future Cities blog<\/a>, while AECOM\u2019s respective city leads will be sharing their own thoughts throughout the week, right here on Connected Cities.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As an American having lived Down Under for 12 years, I always like coming back to the US; my \u2018spiritual home\u2019 is \u2013 like Australia \u2013 changing so much (and fast), and each return visit uncovers another layer of development, innovation and progress that leaves me amazed, intrigued but, above all, confident in the successful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":264,"featured_media":4102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[251,191,250,229,185,211,252,200],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chicago","tag-connected-cities","tag-dallas","tag-funding","tag-los-angeles","tag-new-york","tag-phoenix","tag-sydney"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/264"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4101"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"JCK_6453\"](\"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/JCK_6453-2.jpg\")
<\/a>Joe Langley is a technical director, Infrastructure Advisory, for AECOM, based in Sydney. <\/em>His Value Capture Roadmap<\/em><\/a> is being released by Consult Australia in July.<\/p>\n