MICD News

MICD Press Releases | MICD in the News

MICD Hosts Session at First Miami Hemispheric Conference

SEPTEMBER 2006 — MIAMI — The Mayors' Institute on City Design (MICD) facilitated a discussion panel at the first ever Mayors Hemispheric Forum, hosted by City of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, on September 27 and 28 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Miami. Eighteen mayors from key international cities attended the two day forum, along with an accomplished group of officials to share best practices, regional insight and the opportunity to engage in pressing issues of mutual interest.

The MICD session was titled, "Mayors as Architects of their Cities." The session included presentations from three mayors, as well as Mr. Jaime Lerner, architect, urban planner and former Governor of Parana, and Jeff Speck, Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts. A list of renowned think tanks facilitated the other forum discussions, including the US Conference of Mayors, CEOs for Cities and the Police Executive Research Forum.

Mayor Raul Alcaìno Lihn of Santiago, Chile opened the City Design session by discussing the effects on Santiago's urban form of intense investment in the city that is not harnessed to improve the quality of the entire city. He advised that "it is the duty of all mayors to take good care of the public spaces in their cities' historic centers."

The second speaker on city design was The Honorable Luis Casta?eda Lossio, Mayor of Lima, Peru, who described recent investments the city has made in impoverished mountainside communities on the fringes of Lima. "There is a huge population that was being excluded," he stated. The city built a series of parks, sports fields, fishing lagoons, and staircases to improve access to these neighborhoods. Mayor Casta?eda Lossio said that he measured the success of these projects by the improved services to people who had "never before had a place to spend Saturday or Sunday outside of the four walls of their home."

Mayor Paco Moncaya Gallegos of Quito, Ecuador presented third, and offered an overview of Quito's process for involving its citizens in decisions about the future development of their city. "Everything that works in Quito works because of public participation," he explained.

Jaime Lerner, the renowned architect and planner, was also twice elected governor of the state of Paraná (1994 ad 1998), in southern Brazil, having also been elected mayor of the city of Curitiba, capital of Paraná, three times (1971-75, 1979-84 and 1989-92). Lerner delivered a presentation on his work in Curitiba and around the world, advising the mayors assembled to "never allow the city to be thought of as a problem, but as a solution." He described a number of designs and solutions that he has been a part of, in his 40 years of experience working in cities, and he encouraged the mayors to remain optimistic about even their most entrenched urban issues: "I am sure that any city can make a tremendous change within three years." Lerner suggested that American cities might consider making other uses of their sports arenas, possibly using them for markets when games are not being held, and showed a design for a new project called "portable streets," which are market stalls that could be closed and moved to different areas of a city.

Finally, Jeff Speck, Director of Design at the National Endowment for the Arts delivered an engaging presentation on key principles of design for mayors. He focused his advice on the need for mayors to contemplate the role of design in every day decisions, and on the need to integrate many disparate fields of expertise such as housing, open space, and transportation, to create a successful, holistic design.

In addition to Mayor Alcaìno Lihn, Mayor Casta?eda Lossio, and Mayor Moncaya Gallegos, Caribbean and Latin American participants included the Mayors of Santiago, Lima, Asuncion, Chacao (Caracas), Guayaquil, Kingston, Port au Prince, San Juan, San Jose (Costa Rica) and Santo Domingo. The Mayors of Chicago, Tampa, Wichita, Columbus and Memphis also represented the United States at the Forum.