Mayor Bibb's push to build a 21st-century City Hall
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Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios; Photo: Matthew Busch/Bloomberg via Getty Images
As Mayor Justin Bibb closes in on a second term, he wants Clevelanders to feel the impact of modernization both in their daily lives and in their interactions with City Hall.
Why it matters: The millennial mayor campaigned in 2021 on creating a "modern, responsive" city government — one that would make long-overdue technological upgrades and use data to inform decision-making.
State of play: Over the past year, the city has rolled out a slate of digital tools — a revamped 311 system, an open data portal, and a new permitting portal coming soon — that Bibb says will make local government more transparent and easier to navigate.
Case in point: The city's new 311 service, launched in late 2024, lets residents report potholes, trash issues, or missed recycling pickups through a single online hotline.
- Requests are tracked like a package, complete with confirmation numbers and live status updates.
What he's saying: "When we did our safety walks this summer, any resident we talked to could put their name, address and complaint in the system, and we tracked those in real time," Bibb told Axios.
- "That technology didn't exist three years ago. We have one central repository now. You don't have two different phone lines or people calling the mayor's office to replace a trash can."
Zoom in: Bibb's modernization campaign also extends to permitting reform, aimed at fixing what he called the "unnecessarily difficult" process for builders and homeowners.
- Bibb signed an executive order last summer designating the Department of Building and Housing as the "front door" for all applications.
- The overhaul will rely on upgraded software that allows both applicants and city staff to track progress.
The bottom line: Bibb says digital innovations, like the live snowplow map launched in 2023, are about trust as much as efficiency.
- "These things go a long way to give residents confidence that we're moving in the right direction."