What Cities Actually Need from Partners
It’s not the idea—it’s the public benefit and who it serves
A lot of people approach cities with ideas.
Some of them are good.
Some of them are even great.
But most of them go nowhere.
Not because cities don’t care.
Not because the idea isn’t interesting.
Because the proposal isn’t aligned with what cities actually need.
Cities Don’t Think Like Businesses
This is where most people get it wrong.
They walk into a conversation with a city the same way they would with a private company:
Here’s the opportunity
Here’s how it makes money
Here’s why it’s innovative
That’s not how cities evaluate anything.
Cities aren’t driven by profit.
They’re driven by responsibility.
Every decision gets filtered through a different set of questions:
Who benefits from this?
Does this serve the public?
Is this equitable?
Is this politically and publicly defensible?
If your idea doesn’t answer those questions clearly, it doesn’t matter how good it is.
It won’t move.
The Idea Isn’t the Selling Point
One of the biggest misconceptions is that the strength of the idea is what gets a city’s attention.
It’s not.
You can have the most innovative concept in the room, but if it’s not clearly tied to public benefit, it feels like a distraction.
Cities are dealing with real issues every day:
housing
workforce development
small business stability
public safety
infrastructure
So when something new comes in, the immediate question isn’t: “Is this exciting?”
It’s: “Does this help us solve something that matters?”
Public Benefit Isn’t a Slide, It’s the Strategy
A lot of proposals mention “community impact” somewhere in the deck.
Usually toward the end.
That’s a mistake.
Public benefit isn’t a section.
It’s the foundation.
It should be obvious from the start:
Who exactly does this serve?
How does it improve outcomes for residents?
Why does this matter right now?
If you can’t answer that clearly, the conversation stalls.
Not because people aren’t interested.
Because they can’t justify moving it forward.
Who It Serves Matters More Than What It Does
This is where things get even more specific.
Cities care deeply about who benefits—not just what is being built.
Two ideas can look similar on paper.
But if one clearly serves:
underserved communities
local small businesses
youth or workforce pipelines
And the other doesn’t—
The decision is easy.
Because cities are accountable to people, not just outcomes.
If they can’t point to who benefits, it becomes hard to defend the project publicly, politically, and internally.
What This Looks Like in Practice
When I’m working on anything that involves cities, the conversation always starts here:
Not:
“What are we trying to build?”
But:
“Who does this serve, and how does it help them in a real, tangible way?”
Because once that’s clear, everything else becomes easier:
who to involve
how to position it
how to move it forward internally
Without that, even strong ideas struggle to gain traction.
Final Thought
Cities aren’t looking for more ideas.
They’re looking for partners who understand how to create real, visible public benefit.
If you can make that clear—
and make it easy to see who wins—
You’re already ahead of most people walking into the room.
Let’s Move Something Forward
If you’re trying to work with cities and not getting traction, it’s worth asking:
Are you leading with the idea?
Or are you leading with who it serves—and why it matters?
Because that’s usually the difference.
