Tell us about your city’s needs!

This is a breakdown of the issues urban communities most commonly flag as urgent for systemic innovation, along with cities frequently cited in connection with each.

A future post will be asking about the needs of rural communities as well.

1. Housing affordability & supply The gap between wages and housing costs, restrictive zoning, and slow permitting are pushing residents out of the cities they work in.

San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Vancouver, London, Sydney, Toronto

2. Public transit access & reliability Many cities are grappling with underfunded or aging transit systems, “transit deserts” in lower-income neighborhoods, and car-dependency that raises both costs and emissions.

Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Nairobi, Jakarta

3. Climate resilience & extreme heat/flooding Aging infrastructure not built for today’s climate extremes — heat waves, flash floods, sea-level rise — is a growing systemic risk.

Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Phoenix, Jakarta, Manila, Lagos

4. Water infrastructure & access Lead pipes, aging systems, and drought stress are driving calls for infrastructure overhaul.

Flint, Jackson (Mississippi), Cape Town, Chennai, Mexico City

5. Energy grid modernization & renewable transition Grids built for a different era struggle with demand spikes, extreme weather, and the shift to renewables/EVs.

Austin, Los Angeles, Berlin, Tokyo, Mumbai

6. Homelessness & the affordability-to-crisis pipeline Rising housing costs combined with weak social safety nets have made this one of the most visible “systemic failure” issues in many Western cities.

San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, London

7. Food deserts & food system equity Lower-income neighborhoods often lack access to affordable, healthy food, prompting calls for policy and infrastructure fixes (urban agriculture, distribution reform).

Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia

8. Waste management & circular economy gaps Overflowing landfills and limited recycling infrastructure are pushing cities toward “zero waste” or circular economy models.

Mumbai, Manila, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Seoul

9. Digital and broadband inequity The “digital divide” is increasingly treated as a core affordability/access issue tied to jobs, education, and city services.

Detroit, Baltimore, rural-adjacent U.S. metro areas generally, parts of the UK (“not-spots”)

10. Childcare and care infrastructure Often overlooked but increasingly framed as core urban infrastructure — cost of childcare affects housing and labor decisions.

New York City, Washington D.C., London, Toronto

A note on method: this list reflects patterns commonly discussed in urban planning literature, city policy reports, and think-tank analyses (e.g., Brookings, McKinsey Global Institute, C40 Cities) rather than a single ranked survey.