Code for America

I'm your host, Amanda Renteria.

I've worked on Capitol Hill, in the classroom, on Wall Street, and now I'm the CEO of Code for America, an organization focused on using tech to improve public services and make government work well for everyone.

This season, I wanted to sit down with experts and experienced leaders to get really specific about ideas that have become true fixes for big problems.

It's no secret that there is an extreme and growing wealth gap in America.

And here at Code for America, we are always looking for ways to level the playing field and make that gap smaller.

We ask questions like who is getting left behind? What roadblocks stand in the way of families meeting their basic needs? When does this cycle of inequality start and how can we disrupt it? Today, we're going back to the beginning, speaking with someone who is thinking about how we can work to close that wealth gap even before someone learns to talk or walk.

This week, we're exploring baby bonds.

But it was so fundamental to, and now being a parent, so fundamental to how you think about as your kid gets older or thinking about their future and trying to teach that at a much younger age of, you know, there's something you're working towards.

And so much more.

I'm your host, Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America, an organization focused on using tech to improve public services and make government work well for everyone.

Episodes drop every other week starting September 8th.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or visit us at thegovernmentfix.org.

The, the, you know, city government had access to information about code enforcement and legal proceedings and whatnot, that it was really hard for members of the public to access.

And so we, we got together with Code for America, and they, they came in and helped us build a tool that integrated all of the data that a property touches when it's in a code enforcement process.

And so it gave like a single point of v- of perspective into any given property, and it was really transformative.

And, and I remember my first city council meeting after this tool went live, and someone...

Uh, when I say natural data, it could be water, it could be habitat encroachment, it could be, uh, what other natural? Wind, weather, um, animal, uh, habitat encroachment is kind of an interesting thing to think about, uh, and, and how everything interconnects.

The Open Data project, which was where the original Code for Vegas entered the picture over a decade ago to work with Code for America and the City of Las Vegas to build this, which persists today.

The, uh, if you search for Open Data Las Vegas, you'll get there.

Uh, uh, we're not directly involved anymore, although I've had that conversation with the GIS people at City of Las Vegas.