Last month, our colleague Ruth travelled to Madrid to attend the Bloomberg CityLab 2026, led by Bloomberg Philanthropies together with The Aspen Institute.
The event brought together more than a thousand leading mayors, policymakers, innovators and creatives from across the world. The conference offered a valuable platform to explore how cities are seizing any available opportunities to address crucial challenges. It provided a great showcase of the advancements being made globally to enhance the lives of residents, from Mozambique to Fukuoka.
From AI to housing access and affordability, we explored a range of topics at the top of cities’ agendas, many of which are key to shaping healthier and more liveable cities. Amidst the unsettling current context of climate emergency and conflict, cities were recognised as a beacon of innovation, inclusivity and brave, mission-based action. With a broad range of levers for making a difference, cities are going beyond hard infrastructure changes to embrace softer and more social approaches, too.
We heard from librarians, who are embracing digital technologies to create place-based rather than phone-based experiences. Singapore libraries are using AI to engage citizens to reimagine their future city. From New York to Aarhus and Bogotá, libraries emerged as a core part of social infrastructure, helping to build trust and strengthening local communities’ resilience.
Play and playspaces are a must-have of inclusive cities, but can also be a means to involve children in the act of transformation and creation, as demonstrated by the self-made Kodomo Yume Park in Tokyo. The design of public spaces around opportunities for play, such as Madrid Río or Philadelphia’s mega-swing, shows that this basic infrastructure can shape daily routines, fostering social interaction and imagination.
Lastly, addressing the needs of an ageing population – how can we rethink our cities so that people can age in place? Beyond necessary policies such as housing affordability and tenant security, from Madrid to Fukuoka, cities are exploring innovative business approaches that connect active retirees with unmet social needs in local communities, together with innovative design approaches to include people with dementia in day-to-day city activities and spaces.
As a key takeaway, we’ve adapted the Mayor of San Francisco Daniel Lurie’s call to “Govern out loud” to rethink how we can leverage health and wellbeing when communicating about the changes cities are achieving. This can help us build trust, but also stress the urgency, as the act of doing nothing also has a cost on our health. In the words of two-term Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo: “waiting means not doing!”
photo credit: courtesy of Bloomberg Philanthropies
