An industry group ranked Los Angeles first in digital innovation among cities with at least 250,000 residents, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Wednesday.
Los Angeles came out ahead in the e.Republic Center for Digital Government survey, which looked at digital programs in cities nationwide. Among the California cities that made it to the top 10 were Riverside, which came in fifth, and Long Beach, which was in sixth place.
Los Angeles beat out second-place finishers Kansas City and Seattle. Large cities that have previously taken first place in the survey include Boston and Honolulu.
“In the 21st century, digital must be the default for cities. It’s already the norm in our private and personal lives,” Garcetti said. “Los Angeles is committed to being a world class digital city, and this recognition speaks to the important strides we have made in this administration.”
e.Republic judges, who reviewed the city’s answers to 22 survey questions, said they gave Los Angeles the top rating in the 250,000 or more category because of the city’s expenditure data portal, its 311 service platform, its program for providing refurbished computers to the public, the utility department’s digital platforms, the city’s “open data architecture” and the Cyber Intrusion Command Center, which launched in 2013.
The expenditure data portal was launched by the city Controller’s Office and developed by Socrata, a software-writing firm. The city’s Chief Technology Officer Steve Reneker said the city’s open data efforts were modeled after New York City’s.
The Cyber Intrusion Command Center, which was created under an executive order by Garcetti, protects the city against cyberattacks. Last December, the center defended the city against CryptoLocker, a Trojan horse that infected one of the city’s computers, Reneker told Government Technology magazine.
CryptoLocker steals files and requires payment of a ransom before the infected computer can get the files back. The city was able to avoid having to pay a ransom, Reneker said.