The Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) at the University of Michigan has started a site called the CLOSUP Public Sector Excellence Database, available at http://closup.umich.edu/public-sector-excellence/. This site was designed to provide information on innovative, award-winning programs implemented by a variety of groups including state and local governments.

You can look for the latest additions to the database or you can browse the entire contents, but you can also search. I tried to use the site search for a wide number of keywords, but it kept coming back with no search results. There’s also an advanced search that uses Google, so I did a search for inurl:public-sector-excellence sidewalks. I got six results.

Projects include an overview and summary of the project and information about any awards that it’s won. There’s also contact information for both the project and the award. Among the projects I found here: Residential Sidewalk Partnership Program (municipal and resident partnership for sidewalk repair), Stormwater Labeling and Mapping (storm drain labeling and road sweeps), and Citizen University (an effort to educate citizens about the workings of the municipal system.)

Use the Google search if you want to do serious searching, but the database is small enough that you can also browse fairly easily. I’d like that Residential Sidewalk Partnership Program in my neighborhood…