Lexington was not among the five winners in the Bloomberg Philanthropies' Mayors Challenge, a competition to inspire cities to come up with innovative ideas to solve major challenges and improve urban life.

Winners were announced Wednesday.

Providence, R.I., won the grand prize for innovation that carried with it a $5 million implementation award for a cutting-edge early education initiative. Innovation prizes also went to Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and Santa Monica, Calif. Each of those cities will receive $1 million.

Lexington was one of 20 finalists in the contest created by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Lexington's idea was to create CitizenLex.org, a website that would offer a continuing way to tap into residents' ideas for innovative solutions to challenges facing the city.

City spokeswoman Susan Straub said the city would look for grants and other financing to implement CitizenLex.

The idea from Providence uses technology to measure vocabulary exposure for low-income children and helps parents close the word gap. A statement from Bloomberg Philanthropies said the idea was selected for its direct, simple and revolutionary approach to early childhood education.

Beverly Fortune: (859) 231-3251. Twitter: @BFortune2010.