LAFAYETTE SELECTED AS A WINNER OF THE BLOOMBERG PHILANTHROPIES 2025 – 2026 MAYORS CHALLENGE

Lafayette will receive $1 million as well as operational support and additional funding for dedicated staff to scale its tested innovation to repair failing private sewer infrastructure, reduce stormwater infiltration, and unlock thousands of new development opportunities

Lafayette is one of 24 city halls from 20 countries awarded for its breakthrough idea to improve essential services

Lafayette, LA – Mayor-President Monique B. Boulet announced that Lafayette has been named one of the 24 winners of the Bloomberg Philanthropies 2025 – 2026 Mayors Challenge, a competition to spur local government innovation that improves lives in cities around the world. The sixth Challenge awards municipalities that have proposed and tested the best breakthrough ideas to bolster essential services at scale. As a winner, Lafayette will receive $1 million as well as operational support and additional funding for dedicated staff to repair failing private sewer infrastructure, reduce stormwater infiltration, and unlock thousands of new development opportunities.

“Lafayette is honored to be recognized among the most innovative cities in the world,” said Mayor-President Monique B. Boulet. “In Lafayette, more than 60% of sewer system breaks occur on private property, and when stormwater leaks into those lines, it overloads our public infrastructure and limits growth in our core. Instead of building costly new systems, we are fixing the hidden inefficiencies that cost residents and the city money. This investment allows us to strengthen what we already have, modernize our utilities, and unlock thousands of new development opportunities for our community.”

The 24 winning city halls represent 20 countries and serve over 35 million residents. Together, they reflect the significant role municipalities play in tackling complex public service challenges — and the ingenuity that animates local governments across the globe. 

Selected from more than 630 applications, and the prototypes developed by 50 cities during the finalist phase, when each pressure-tested core hypotheses with residents, the winners were chosen for their ideas’ novelty, potential impact, and strength of implementation plans. They include: As-Salt, Jordan; Barcelona, Spain; Beira, Mozambique; Belfast, United Kingdom; Benin City, Nigeria; Boise, United States; Budapest, Hungary; Cape Town, South Africa; Cartagena, Colombia; Fez, Morocco; Fukuoka, Japan; Ghaziabad, India; Ghent, Belgium; Kanifing, The Gambia; Lafayette, United States; Medellín, Colombia; Netanya, Israel; Pasig, Philippines; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; South Bend, United States; Surabaya, Indonesia; Toronto, Canada; Turku, Finland; and Visakhapatnam, India.

“The most effective city halls are bold, creative, and proactive in solving problems and meeting residents’ needs – and we launched the Mayors Challenge to help more of them succeed,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg L.P., and three-term mayor of New York City. “We look forward to supporting this year’s 24 winners as they bring their innovative projects to life – and to seeing their ideas spread to more cities around the world.”

Now, Lafayette will work with dedicated coaching from Bloomberg Philanthropies over the next two years and hire city staff to administer the program. Using a data-informed prioritization matrix, the team will target sewer repairs that have the greatest impact on unlocking development. The city will continue prototyping the approach, engaging residents and neighborhoods, and begin making improvements to private sewer lines before the end of 2026, continuing into 2027, strengthening infrastructure and paving the way for new development.

The 2025 – 2026 Mayors Challenge was launched by Mike Bloomberg in October 2024 at Bloomberg CityLab in Mexico City. More than 630 cities applied. In July 2025, 200 municipal chiefs from the 50 finalist cities — including top officials from Lafayette — gathered at Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Ideas Camp in Bogotá to hone their concepts with experts and peers. As a finalist, Lafayette received $50,000 and technical guidance to prototype its idea locally. This enabled LCG officials to gain valuable resident feedback and fine-tune the proposal based on what worked. As part of the ongoing Mayors Challenge program, Lafayette will continue to use these innovation practices to implement the Bloomberg Philanthropies-supported intervention. 

The 2025 – 2026 Mayors Challenge builds on more than 10 years of work led by Bloomberg Philanthropies to discover, nurture, and drive innovation in cities. The awards across five previous rounds of competition have provided 38 winning municipalities with funding and technical assistance to realize their ideas for addressing civic issues. By supporting the replication of the most successful winning ideas — from Providence Talks, an early literacy program that boosts childhood learning, to Visor Urbano, Guadalajara’s pioneering initiative to digitize permitting and reduce corruption — Bloomberg Philanthropies has expanded the impact of the Mayors Challenge to 337 cities globally, reaching over 100 million residents.

To learn more about Lafayette’s winning program, visit mayorschallenge.bloomberg.org or lafayettela.gov/bloomberg.

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