Rohit Aggarwala 

Senior Urban Tech Fellow

Jacobs Institute Urban Tech Hub at Cornell Techh

 

Rebooting NYC: An Urban Tech Agenda for the Next Administration

 

New York City's elections in November 2021 will usher in a huge change in the personnel of the city's government, as the mayor, the comptroller, nearly 80% of the City Council, and 4 of 5 borough presidents will leave office at the end of this year.  Rebooting NYC is an effort to offer a practical set of wide-ranging recommendations for how the new administration can harness technology.  It includes recommendations on privacy, organization, broadband access, expanding public engagement through technology, delivering services, and enforcement.  Released as a draft for discussion, the team will be taking feedback and engaging with New Yorkers in order to produce a final report later this year.

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Co-Authors: 

1. Michael E. Bloomberg

2. Victoria M. Woo

3. Rebecca Lassman

4. Adrian Silver

5. Phillip D. Ellison

6. Matt Stempeck

7. Michael M. Samuelian

 

Bio

Rohit T. “Rit” Aggarwala is an executive-in-residence at Closed Loop Partners, an investment firm focused on the circular economy, and a Senior Fellow at the Urban Tech Hub at the Jacobs Cornell-Technion Institute at Cornell Tech.  He also teaches urban policy at Columbia University, and recently chaired the Regional Plan Association’s Fourth Regional Plan for the New York metropolitan area.
 

Until 2020, Rit was a member of the founding team at Sidewalk Labs, where he was Head of Urban Systems and led its mobility and sustainability work.  Prior to that, Rit spent five years at Bloomberg Philanthropies, where started the foundation’s environmental grantmaking program, served as President of the Board of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, and led the sustainability practice at Bloomberg Associates.
 

From 2006 to 2010, Rit served as Director of New York City’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability where he led the creation and implementation of “PlaNYC: A Greener, Greater New York.” PlaNYC has been hailed as one of the world’s best urban sustainability plans, leading New York City to a 19% reduction in its carbon footprint since 2005. Prior to joining City Hall, he was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.
 

Rit holds a BA, MBA, and PhD from Columbia University, and an MA from Queen’s University in Ontario. He serves on the boards of the Regional Plan Association, the Urban Green Council, and the Design Trust for Public Space.  He was born in New York City, where he now lives.