On August 4-6, Mayor Jim Suttle had the opportunity to participate in the Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD), hosted in Los Angeles, California by the United States Conference of Mayors, the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Architectural Foundation.
The invitation-only conference included just eight mayors for an intensive, closed-door, two and a half day symposium intended to offer the invited mayors a better understanding of City design. Specifically, the symposium offered the opportunity for the mayors to learn how to approach the challenges present in their cities through the perspective of urban design.
Each of the eight mayors prepared a short presentation on a challenge confronting their City, and work- shopped the challenge with the other mayors and eight urban design professionals. Mayor Suttle presented information about how potential opportunities for business development and job creation in the Eastern part of Omaha could help address the City’s challenge of unemployment.
“My goal is to continue to address crime and violence in our community through education, enforcement and employment,” Mayor Suttle said. “We have the ability to develop opportunities for businesses in the Eastern part of our City by identifying shovel ready property. I will continue to work with the Omaha Chamber of Commerce and other partner organizations to identify areas of our City that are ready for re-development and would be ideal for business expansion.”
“The Mayors’ Institute on City Design enabled me to learn about successful projects in other cities and to see how strategic urban design can successfully stimulate business development. A key aspect is the proper blend of function and design into an aesthetic whole.”
Mayors representing the following cities also participated in the recent MICD session:
Los Angeles, California
Stockton, California
Portland, Oregon
County of Hawaii, Hawaii
Salt Lake City, Utah
Long Beach, California
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Mayor Suttle attended the trip at no expense to the citizens of Omaha. Eight other mayors from Nebraska have attended an MICD symposium, including Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler and former Lincoln Mayor and current United States Senator Mike Johanns.
Click here for more information on the Mayors’ Institute On City Design.
