CitiesOnaHill.org is an online resource providing market-friendly public-policy solutions for urban governance. It is part of the Manhattan Institute's newly-formed Center for State & Local Leadership, and along with PublicSectorInc.org, is one of the new Center's two on-line resources.

Through researching, developing, and highlighting effective initiatives for urban reform, the Cities on a Hill project fulfills the Manhattan Institute's broad mission to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility.

From Fixing Broken Windows in the 1990s, to The Entrepreneurial City: A How-To Handbook for Urban Innovator in the 2000s, to the Seamless City: A Conservative Mayor's Approach to Urban Revitalization That Can Work Anywhere in the 2010s, the Manhattan Institute has been pioneering best practices for America's cities. We are constantly exploring how to advance proven strategies with the people who make cities work.

This web-based guide focuses on six key issues at the forefront of city reform—Prisoner Reentry, Pension Reform, School Choice, Policing, Public Housing and Infrastructure. Each issue's page offers an archive of original research, books, articles and podcasts. Some of our issue pages also link to Manhattan Institute special projects currently underway. For example, the Prisoner Reentry page also provides information about the Newark Prisoner Reentry Initiative, a project that we are currently piloting with Newark Mayor, Cory Booker. Similarly, the Pension Reform page provides a link to our brand new web portal – PublicSectorInc.org – where we have brought together the nation's top thinkers to research, analyze and prescribe policy options to address the challenges facing America and its local public employees.

As part of the Cities on a Hill project, each year the Urban Innovator Award distinguishes the public officials whose innovative policies have demonstrated an improvement in the quality of America's metropolitan landscape and of the lives of the people who inhabit it. And through our Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, we reward those non-profit and non-governmental organizations that are making a unique difference in communities across the nation.

Reform can occur at all levels of government and Cities on a Hill seeks to learn about the innovative policies that have enabled America's cities to thrive.