Mesa was ranked number six out of the top 10 digital large cities in the United States in the Center for Digital Government’ s Digital Cities Survey Awards, two years in a row.

It was in company with San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego in California, as well as Charlotte in North Carolina, Seattle in Washington, Boston in Massachusetts, and others.

“ That [ the top 10 recognition ] doesn’ t get given to you unless you are getting better every year,” Scott says.“ We’ re constantly on the lookout for new things.”

Paul adds:“ A smart city puts out technology and solutions to its residents like free Wi-Fi, connected through street lights, or the programme we’ ve launched to teach AI tech to our residents.

“ They can access it through the City of Mesa Library system and complete training modules for free.”

The City of Mesa rolled out this training to its residents in May 2026. The City of San Jose, California, rolled it out earlier and Mesa decided to follow suit.

“ We looked at what they were doing, liked it so much that we decided to flatter them by copying what they did,” Scott says.“ This is an example of us putting solutions in the hands of our residents and striving to do better to maintain our status as a smart city.”

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