There has been a revolution in urban transportation over the past five years, set off by start-ups across the US and internationally. Sleek, legible mobility platforms are connecting people to cars, trains, buses, and bikes as never before, opening up a range of new transport options while improving existing ones. While many large city governments, such as Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C., have begun to embrace creative forms and processes of government, most still operate under the weight of an unwieldy, risk-averse bureaucracy. With the advent of self-driving vehicles and other technological shifts upon us, Gabe Klein asks how we can close the gap between the energized, aggressive world of start-ups and the complex bureaucracies struggling to change beyond a geologic time scale. From his experience as a food-truck entrepreneur to a ZipCar executive and a city transportation commissioner, Klein's career has focused on bridging the public-private divide, finding and celebrating shared goals, and forging better cities with more nimble, consumer-oriented bureaucracies. In Start-Up City, Klein, with David Vega-Barachowitz, demonstrates how to affect big, directional change in cities, and how to do it fast. Klein's objective is to inspire what he calls "public entrepreneurship," a start-up-pace energy within the public sector, brought about by leveraging the immense resources at its disposal. Klein offers guidance for cutting through the morass and a roadmap for getting real, meaningful projects done quickly and having fun while doing it. This book is for anyone who wants to change the way we live in cities without waiting for the glacial pace of change in government.

An innovative leader in both the public and the private sector shows how to get things done, even in local government! Inspiring new stories about successes and failures in driving change in cities. Beautifully designed to not just tell, but show how things can get done in cities.

About the Author
Gabe Klein is the former DOT director under Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration in Chicago and former Director of the District DOT under Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. Before working in local government, Klein worked at a few start-ups, including Zipcar. In 2015, in addition to his other roles, he joined Fontinalis Partners as an SVP (Special Venture Partner) on their new fund. Klein continues to advise a number of technology/transportation start-ups including Bridj, where he provides leadership on strategy. He is on the board of NACTO and Streetsblog. David Vega-Barachowitz is the former Director of the Designing Cities initiative at the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO). He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in urban planning at MIT.


Book Information
ISBN 9781610916905
Author Gabe Klein
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Island Press
Publisher Island Press