code-enforcement
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The Garbage Trucks That Went to War With Urban Blight
A University of Alabama economics experiment strapped cameras to trash trucks to map urban decay. Five years and $15 million later, City Detect is doing the work of 40 code officers with one vehicle - and cities are starting to fix blight before it spreads.
Andrew Kieve
Andrew Kieve is the co-founder and CEO of Tolemi, a Boston civic-technology company whose BuildingBlocks platform stitches together the messy, siloed property data that cities sit on and turns it into maps and insights officials can actually act on. Originally launched as OpportunitySpace in 2013 and rebranded after a 2017 run through Y Combinator, Tolemi now helps state and local governments fight blight, enforce housing codes, and protect affordable housing across dozens of American cities. A Stanford and IESE graduate and former Innosight consultant, Kieve has spent more than a decade convincing governments that the answer to neighborhood decline is hiding in their own databases.
GovWell
GovWell builds an AI-native software platform for state and local governments, replacing legacy permitting, licensing, inspections, planning and code enforcement systems with a single configurable, cloud-based product. Founded in 2023 and based in New York, the company says it cuts permit and license processing time by up to 95% and serves well over 100 municipalities and counties across more than 30 states. In May 2026 it raised a $25M Series A led by Insight Partners.