#143 Neuilly-sur-Marne: Citizen-Centred Leadership for a Cohesive City
In this episode of our mayoral series, Zartoshte Bakhtiari, Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Marne, France, and Vice President of the Greater Paris Grand East administration, explores citizen-centred municipal leadership, directing investment to improve daily life and long-term resilience. Themes include ROI-minded energy renovations, tree-planting and greening to reduce bills and mitigate flooding, alongside creating new revenues through a riverside nature-tourism hub that restores urban nature. He details the “Pass for Young Citizen”, which rewards 12–20-year-olds for civic missions and volunteering, and discusses balancing a strong national vision with local flexibility. Running through it all: protect core services without overburdening residents and define “smart” as enabling people to flourish and contribute.
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#142 Boulder, USA: Resilience from Front Door to Forest Edge
In this episode, Aaron Brockett, Mayor of the City of Boulder, Colorado, USA, explores how the city is tackling the pressures of being a highly desirable, outdoors-oriented university city. Topics include practical housing affordability tools alongside nature-based climate resilience and wildfire mitigation that prioritise healthy forests and restored ecosystems.
The discussion looks at inclusive community engagement through multilingual block parties and dedicated liaisons, protections for residents in manufactured-housing communities, and progress on unsheltered homelessness via permanent supportive housing. Mobility comes into focus with bikes and paths, bus rapid transit, and a long-sought regional rail link, while a people-centred view of “smart” highlights technology that quietly serves real needs.
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#141 Saratoga, USA: Revitalising a Community with Data
In this episode, Belal Aftab, Mayor of the City of Saratoga, California, USA, explores how data-driven leadership can shape more resilient and connected communities. The conversation covers traffic safety and neighbourhood priorities, breaking down data silos for better decision-making, and preparing a hillside city for wildfires, earthquakes, and other climate-related risks. Our guest reflects on revitalising a volunteer-spirited downtown, tackling housing affordability in an ultra-expensive market, and why genuine community engagement and stronger communication tools are essential for balanced change.
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#140 Vilnius, Lithuania: Greenest City in the Making
In this episode, Anton Nikitin, Chief Sustainability Officer at the City of Vilnius, Lithuania, shares how a “greenest city in the making” mindset guides practical climate action.
The conversation traces Anton’s path from cycling officer to city-wide sustainability lead, and dives into people-centred policy: citizen assemblies, street redesigns, and reframing mobility around real choices. We explore district heating shifts to renewables, creative energy efficiency (from flue-gas heat recovery to reusing data-centre heat), and the hard work of building social licence for change. A
nton reflects on lessons learned, especially around stakeholder engagement, and why investing now avoids higher future costs, all in service of a city where people simply feel good living their daily lives.
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Chapters
(00:01:08) - Teaser question: “describe Vilnius’s sustainability approach in just three words?”(00:03:16) - Guest background(00:04:45) - What sustainability means(00:06:02) - European Green Capital: recognition, process, and citizen understanding(00:10:15) - Avoiding exclusion(00:13:58) - Engagement toolkit(00:16:40) - Emissions focus and energy examples(00:23:01) - Efficiency wins: flue-gas heat recovery; capturing data-centre waste heat(00:25:04) - Misconceptions: “sustainability is expensive”(00:32:24) - Bottlenecks: financing vs. behaviour change; EV uptake, charging, and building renovation; political cycles(00:41:20) - Segment: "Trial and Error"(00:51:36) - Ending question: “To you, what is a Smart City?"
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#139 Wroclaw, Poland: Data, People and the Next Wave of Change
In this episode, Jakub Mazur, Deputy Mayor of Wroclaw, Poland, maps how the city is moving from pilots to performance: using nanosatellite imagery to enrich property data and support flood readiness, pairing AI with sensors to predict water-pipe leaks, and shifting from hundreds of disconnected systems toward an e-office standard that cities can share.
He reflects on data gaps around newcomers and why better public–private collaboration matters, the legal and procurement hurdles that slow local co-creation, and lessons from managing recurring crises such as floods.
Above all, he argues for a human-centred Smart City that honours heritage, builds resilience, and turns evidence into everyday improvements.
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And for more insights, visit our BABLE Smart Cities Knowledge Hub
Chapters
(00:01:23) - Teaser Question : “Imagine your city was a song. What genre would it be and why?”(00:03:45) - Guest background(00:05:51) - City snapshot(00:07:49) - From pilots to impact(00:08:55) - Nanosatellites (“minions”)(00:11:27) - Water resilience(00:12:50) - Mobility data(00:14:38) - E-office vision(00:21:11) - Data alignment(00:26:34) - Crisis management(00:28:20) - Flood resilience(00:33:20) - Looking ahead(00:35:30) - What’s missing(00:41:33) - Inspire Us segment(00:46:14) - Ending question: “To you, what is a Smart City?”
Hop on the journey toward a better urban life and hear from top actors in the Smart City arena about stakeholders and themes most prevalent for today's citizens and tomorrow's generations.
At BABLE, through our platform and services, we enable processes from research and strategy development to co-creation and implementation. Visit us at www.bable-smartcities.eu
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