Urbinnovation | Richard J. Daley Global Cities Forum

At last week’s Mayors Summit on City Design, the impatience with Washington was sharp and clear.  Mayors Nutter of Philadelphia, Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, Rybak of Minneapolis, and former mayor Diaz of Miami led the charge.

Now is the time to invest in the real needs of the people, they said.  Common sense says this is the time to build transit systems and high speed regional rail systems, the time to repair bridges, the time to educate young people for a global economy.  And where more important to invest than in America’s cities, which generate 90% of the nation’s economic activity?

These investments will cost money up front, save money in the near term and generate massive payback in jobs and economic product in the mid- and long term.  They are good government and good business.

Money from DC would of course be nice.  But there are other things Washington can do.  It can provide credit enhancement.  It can provide regulatory relief around housing and infrastructure to permit cities to draw in the billions in private capital sitting on the sidelines.  Cities are not asking for a handout.  They are asking Washington to unleash the local.

Instead, the mayors are confronted with a “rhetoric of less” from the Beltway, small thinking, endless talk, and gyrations around philosophic theories.

This confrontation is not about party politics.  Urban issues cut straight across party lines and urban solutions require the cooperation of all sectors.  Above all, urban services have no party identity.  Mayors are fond of citing Fiorello LaGuardia that there is no Republican or Democratic way to clean the streets.

There are more elected mayors in the US than there are governors and members of Congress from both parties combined.  When streets have potholes, bridges are closed, snow is not cleared, it’s the mayor who gets the phone call at home or is buttonholed in the aisles of the supermarket, not the governor or the congressman.

Politics, as opposed to political bickering, is the art of rousing what the Greeks called the “polis”—the city-state—to understand its needs and to become what it wants to be.  As Mayor Nutter summed it up: what our cities need now is political will, in pursuit of common sense.

Moderator:
Judy Woodruff, Senior Correspondent, PBS NewsHour

Panelists:
Mayor Richard M. Daley, City of Chicago
Mayor Omar Maani, Greater Amman Municipality
Mayor Claudio Orrego Larraín, Municipality of Peñalolén
Anna (Anne) Eleanor Roosevelt, Vice President, Global Corporate Citizenship, The Boeing Company

11:38 a.m. Woodruff introduces panelists to discuss jobs, human capital and what cities and local governments can to to maximize talent. Credits Mayor Daley with being “America’s Greatest Mayor.”

11:42 a.m. Larraín: Most important thing we can do as mayors is to help people to find jobs. Private sector will create jobs. We need to provide specific training for the new economy. Need to find out what the private sector needs. Need to foster relationship between private sector and community. Train, train and train.

11:45 a.m. Daley: Bring community and educators together. We have created a training facility that deals with technology for those who have been laid off. We need to reinvent our schools.

11:48 a.m. Maani: Education is very important for Jordon and illiteracy is very low. We have a lot of engineers and tens of thousands of doctors. We’d be very happy to import some of these to Chicago. What is needed to fortify their skills is the softer skills, i.e. communications skills, citizenship, public speaking. Those skills are very needed now. We are introducing these skills at the community level. We have 50 IT centers around the city.

11: 51 a.m. Roosevelt: Collaboration is key to bring non-profit and private sector together to analyze where the resources are.  Our company focuses on the soft skills. Cities can also remember that learning is not just about facts and data but the ability to bring it all together to make a successful workforce.

11:53 a.m. Larraín: Public education difficult in all of the world.  We have to aim to be the best. We created advisory board for every school to help the principal manage the school. We need alliances. Agree with Mayor Daley, we need to make technology a priority. We have to join with private sector to bring additional needed resources to schools, such as after school programs.

11:57 a.m. Daley: Our parents gave us education — education should be the highest priority. We have to highlight students who are success stories. We have to look at teaching differently – perhaps mentors, more technology, more math and science. Education is the key to the success of any community.

12:00 p.m. Woodruff: How do you pay for education?

12:01 p.m. Maani: Schools and cirriculum are dated. Teachers not well trained. Two attempts from outside the central government have been to improve the physical schools and cirriuclum with the help of foundations. Another, a mentorship program, has reached many students to teach them leadership, belonging, teamwork. These programs can have massive benefits.

12:03 p.m. Roosevelt: Need to understand what each party brings to the table. When choosing partners, who are the best partners to deliver outcomes.

12:05 p.m. Daley: What our country lacks are skills in science, math and technology. We have to be able to retrain people in specific jobs, for instance in manufactering. We need to be able to address these training issues before a company is ready to close down.

12:07 p.m. Larraín: In Chile, we are too self-centered. We need more technical people and to foster technical education. Technology will change very fast, therefore, we need to focus on teaching people values. This is critical for economic development. At the end of the day it is the attitude and the values of the people.

12:11 p.m. Roosevelt: Training in early childhood education prepares young people.

12:13 p.m. Maani: Mayor Daley is always talking about the need for more engineers,  more math, more science. What strikes me is that the best universities are here in the United States. So I’m trying to understand how the first stages of education can be improved. There are more private universities in Jordon than public. We need more know how from the United States to find out how Jordon can benefit from it.

12:16 p.m. Daley: We have to reinvent ourselves. Families used to impress upon children how education was important. We need to go back to that.  We should never lose a child. We, as a society, need to do a better job with children. We have to get that passion back into education. We have to reinforce families — government has to go to them ,to intervene in a different way, more homes for children to help them at earlier ages.

12:20 p.m. Roosevelt:  The challenge is to take the math and science careers out of the university and into practice.

12:22 p.m.  Larraín: We have forgotten about shared responsibility. Families and government need to share responsibility for health and education of our young people.

12:25 p.m. Maani: Because of the current economy, it is improtant to emphasize thinking out of the box with this generation. We need to look at our fundamental weaknesses.

12:27 p.m. Daley: Once we are elected, we represent everyone. Most mayors work on behalf of our people, no matter thier party. They are isolated in Washington. The national government has a real disconnect. Mayors are taking a lot of heat. We have to have compassion for the people.

12:32 p.m. Larraín: I would like to think that we mayors are starting a new wave of politics. We are listening to each other, trying to learn best practices and learn from each other. We’re talking about alliances and leadership. We need, as a world, a new politics based of values, ability to cross the line, and listen to each other — to have big dreams.

Moderator: Neal Peirce, Columnist, Washington Post Writers Group

Panelists:
Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, Mayor, Mexico City

Christopher G. Kennedy, President, Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc., and Chairman, Board of Trustees, University of Illinois

Amos Masondo, Mayor, City of Johannesburg

Katherine Sierra, Vice President, Sustainable Development, The World Bank

10:45 a.m. Casaubon. Mexico City. How to green our city. Building new subways. Using bicycles. Trying to change trends away from cars. With bicycles, have a partnership with a private enterprise. With public transportation, partner with companies with old buses.

10:55 a.m. Masondo. Majority of people live in places that are far removed. There is poor fragmentation. Challenges with transportation. Commitment by government to have transportation that is fast, safe, reliable. Also dealing with carbon emissions.

10:58 a.m. Peirce asks Kennedy why the Merchandise Mart went green.

11 a.m. Kennedy. If you’re a sustainable company, it’s easier to bring in tenants. When young people are looking for a new job, they want to work in a building that is green.

11:02 a.m. Sierra, change in strategy in World Bank. Transition of people living in smaller communities. How do we help communities, cities, get ahead of the growth. We’re trying to move ahead in sustainability. The climate change issue is a factor. How do we help cities turn growth of cities into sustainability.

11:05 a.m. Sierra, knowledge sharing between cities is way out front. The cities are seeing the changes in climate change. Our job is to help regional governments to help them finance to do their job.

11:06. Casaubon. To accelerate the decisions of the cities. To prepare new ideas to get new financing to get the results of our goals in a shorter period of time.

11:08 a.m. Peirce. What partnerships are there in the city of Chicago, he asks Kennedy.

11:09 a.m. Kennedy. The arts can be beneficial. In a city like Chicgo, tourism is the largest industry in Illinois. Restaurants, hotels flourish. Downtown is beautified. Then companies will want to move to the area. Arts community has made Chicago a great place.

11:12 a.m. Johannesburg is hosting the World Cup in a month and many facilities have been built. Meet standards of sustainability. Long after World Cup has gone, we will have sustained projects for the citizens of Johannesburg.

11:18 a.m. Masondo. Are universities active in the greening of the city. Have a number of universities in the city, which is an advantage. Organized a think tank. Working closely with citizens and universities. They can ask any for any information about what is happening in the city.

11:23 a.m. Sierra. How do skills, engineering, etc., get transferred to help small cities. I don’t underestimate small cities. We see a great deal of yearning for small cities to grow. We don’t want to abandon the Mexico City’s of the world. We need to put in new tools. It’s important to have a strong rural strategy, as well as in the city. Figure out investment incentives to get ahead of the game. How do you get ahead of the growth.

11:27 a.m. What is the relationships between the city the suburbs, Casaubon was asked. We don’t want the cities surrounding Mexico City to grow. We don’t want young people to leave the city. We are trying to recover the historical part of Mexico City. We are trying to modernize the infrastructure. Especially museums in the city. It’s better to have the people in the better part of the city instead of living two or three hours away.

11:34 a.m. Casaubon. Rethinking whether to have neighborhoods where you can walk, which will help the climate.

Emmanuel:  Technology–empower citizens to address govt. thru federal e-government as well as local.  Public more satisfied if they’re part of solution.

Nutter: Don’t allow a crisis to go to waste.  Phila. has caucus, modeled after Daley’s, among counties.  Got $25 million in block grant.  Learned how due to crisis. Don’t be distracted, don’t give up hope. Reevaluate priorities. Get someone else to do some things city shouldn’t.

Delanoe:

With most people now living in cities, we will need every talent and energy.

Crisis taught us to optimize, prioritize. In politicians’ interest to make lasting decisions.  Contradictions can be transformed to energy, creativity.

Brown:  Tough times make best relationships due to clarity. Economy beginning to stabilize, relationships bulit in recession will survive. Trust those who share values and commitment.

Emmanuel:

Division not as bad in America as in Washington.

Arace to the Top rewards on results, not formula.

Anger differs from partisanship.  Income declining, Wall St failed people.  But people come together over education because city, unions, parents join to use limited resources.

Nutter:

I’m doing the things that I can get done day to day. Don’t go into politics to be loved.

Even balanced budget can go awry.

More service, less taxes? Absurd. Public must be told the facts.

Safety, services mean more than partisanship. Always comes down to leadership, communication with public.

Brown:

Americans are angry. Not a great time to be a CEO.  If free trade agreements will move us forward, make them.

Common ground, solidarity are key to overcome partisan issues. Private sector must be vocal, maintain dialogue and clarity on issues.

Delanoe:

If corporations don’t have social responsibility, we can’t move forward.

Need solidarity among nations, too.

I often took risk of telling Parisians what was needed, but also allowed them to express themselves.

Need inclusive process.

Each country has traditions, but local govts need autonomy.  In many countries, national govt lets mayors make decisions when cities don’t have finances.  Budget desicions must allow for cities to be loyal to national govts., find synergies.  Problem in society is trust.

Emanuel:

Now looking at what’s best nationally.

Local level knows best what it needs.

Priorities formed at local level.  With ARRA, had to move quickly by starting with infrastructure.

Nutter:

How will our work match up with Motorola’s goals?  Multi-year projects allow planning. Always putting requests out. Sometimes have to shave edges or move on, but keep relationships.

Does community and govt have commitment and resources to sustain?

Brown: Domestic and international requests come to Motorola.  Look for impact, esp. on children.  Math, science, tech in sustainable programs.

Emanuel: Think metropolitan, not urban. Density makes improvements possible.  Do more with less. Create opportunities that others don’t have.

Delanoe:

Center of Paris — if someone wants to build a hotel, we also need child care, hospitals, etc

Massive investment by bank in one neighborhood strengthened bank, community, businesses. Synergy, we have to adapt.

Paris businesses need city moving forward, regardless of resources.  Must be entrepreneurial to create jobs.

Nutter: Phil Library created space for teens, not able to do it alone, without fuondations.

Some ideas would only come about with private-sector help.

Motorola Hope schools in China.  Skills retraining, so next generation won’t necessarily be worse off than current one.

Brown: Definine engagement is key.  Moving from manufacturing to tech requires more graduates.  After-school programs through Motorola offer hope and commitment.

Judy Woodruff, PBS
Greg Brown, Motorola
Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff

Mayor Michael Nutter, Philadelphia

Mayor Bertrand Delano, Paris

Delano:

Improving public health with private help.  As mayor, I manage by sending call to private companies. Create jobs, improve city.

Nutter:

Philadelphia bike-friendly, competing with Chicago as green city.  Taxpayers want improvements, but not entirely on their own dime.

Emanuel:

Chicago’s redevelopment of public housing addressed promises  that hadn’t been kept. Integrated it with public safety through HOPE VI grant, model for US

9:20: Carol Colleta, president and CEO, CEO for Cities

Describes innovative projects in cities around the world that represent private/public partnerships; ways that cities are working to deal with crime and public safety; generating new economic value from local resources; Innovative partnerships to echance human capital and provide new jobs.

Inroduces first moderator. Judy Woodruff, Senoir correspondent, PBS News Hour

9:15 The best of America is embodied by Mayor Daley and Sen. Kennedy, open to the world.

We need in the 21st century to bring trust and a collective life. In Chicago, you are able to merge ideals with the practical.

We are here to learn from each others and exchange our best practices.

Chicago is the ideal city to gather mayors from around the world. We are working together to find policies that are innovative and fair.

9:10 Mayor Daley expresses pride in his father’s legacy in the University and the Global Cities Forum. Discusses the work of United Cities, largest organization of local governments in the world. Welcomes all to Chicago.

This is the time for cities to work together innovatively and with vision to improve the lives of their citizens. It is important to get ahead of new challenges.

Introduces Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe

9:05:

Paula Allen-Meares, UIC Chancellor extends a welcome to guests. Recognizes members of the UIC board of trustees and president of the University.

The diversity of UIC’s faculty and student body and reserach community is a model for the Global Citiies.

Introduces Richard M. Daley

9:00:   Richard J. Daley’s legacy and his role in the growth of Chicago introducing the innovative vision of the Global Cities Forum. Sen. Ted Kennedy, who introduced the first Forum, is remembered.

8:45:Delegate guests are introduced and welcomed, including mayors from Africa, Russia and East Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and West Asia, and North America.

8:10: The first Daley Global Cities Forum at UIC was held in April 2005 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the late mayor’s first inauguration.

Since then, the event has brought together public officials, business leaders, policymakers and scholars from all over the world to discuss the role of cities in solving the world’s problems.

Previous participants have included vice president Joseph Biden, former vice president Walter Mondale, former New York City mayors Ed Koch and Rudolph Giuliani, former treasury secretary Robert Rubin, U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy and retired CNN principal anchorman Bernard Shaw (a UIC alumnus).

8:05 Welcome to the live blog for the 6th Annual Richard J. Daley Global Cities Forum, held on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The forum will be blogged by staff members of the UIC Office of Public Affairs.

Today’s event, “New Partnerships for a New Economy: Driving Innovation in Cities” will include three sessions: panel discussions on “Transforming Government to Promote Innovation,” “Generating New Value from Local Assets,” and “Rebooting the Economy with a Premium on Talent.”

Welcome to the 2010 Richard J. Daley Global Cities Forum

On behalf of the City of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago and United Cities and Local Governments, we are honored to welcome all those attending the Sixth Annual Richard J. Daley Global Cities Forum, entitled “New Partnerships for a New Economy: Driving Innovation in Cities.”

This year’s Forum is especially significant in that it is the first time the Daley Forum will include a joint session with the executive meetings of United Cities and Local Governments, representing local authorities from 136 countries around the planet.

We are proud to welcome leaders from more than 100 cities and local governments, along with prominent business, civic, academic and foundation leaders for discussions on key urban issues.

Sincerely,

Richard M. Daley,

Mayor, City of Chicago

Paula Allen-Meares,

Chancellor, University of Illinois at City

Bertrand Delanoe,

Mayor, City of Paris

Chair, United Cities and Local Governments

In his recent post, Michael Pagano says it’s time to explore a Third Way, “neither wholly public, nor wholly private.”  It looks like the Swedish Academy agrees with him. The most recent Nobel Prize in Economics was shared by two thinkers who come at this from two different angles.

We usually think of the private sector as organized around business firms and the public sector organized as governments. But governments have learned a lot about behaving like businesses. And it turns out that businesses sometimes behave like government.

Oliver Williamson, a professor at Berkeley, shared the Nobel Prize for his work showing that firms aren’t always market-driven. Often they resolve conflicts and reconcile competing interests internally, just like governments, without the haggling and disputes of the marketplace.

Elinor Ostrom came at it from the other angle. A professor of political science at Indiana University, she has looked at how self-governing groups can be efficient and managers of resources and offer effective alternatives to either centralized government or privatization.

So the third way may be already here, right in our midst. A key outcome for this year’s Daley Forum will be to find outstanding real world examples—“neither wholly public, nor wholly private”—that are already working and can be adopted by others.

Clark Hulse, UIC

I don’t know who said it first, but lately it’s Rahm Emanuel who is best known for observing that “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste . . . what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”

So it’s fitting that Emanuel is a prominent participant in this year’s Daley Forum on “New Partnerships.” Certainly the announcement that he was coming made the needles jump on the Forum website.

“Things that you think you could not do before” is the key phrase—what are the new approaches that are now possible or more importantly—now necessary.   As Michael Pagano summarizes the situation in his post, there’s innovation—or some very nasty choices indeed.

Clark Hulse, UIC

Cities around the globe are looking at their commitments to provide services and to invest in fixed assets and asking whether they can maintain such commitment in the near and distant future. The Great Recession is hitting hard. The rapidly-eroding fiscal position of cities challenges policy wonks and elected officials to re-think how basic services can be organized and delivered.  And how to maintain appropriate and adequate levels of investment in infrastructure, land improvement, parks, museums, etc.

If a Third Way (neither wholly public, nor wholly private) is not an option, can cities scale back service delivery and capital investment? Should they? Who would know or care? Or should a Third Way be explored?

Michael Pagano, UIC

What a difference a year makes. If 2009 demanded quick actions to address a global economic crisis, then 2010 is the year for long-term thinking.

When global mayors assembled for the 2009 Daley Forum last April, financial markets were crashing, credit was seizing up, economic activity was slowing, and jobs were disappearing fast.

The mayors at the 2009 Daley Forum identified two keys for immediate response:

•Preserve jobs. Slashing jobs in the midst of the crisis of 2009 would simply have worsened local economies, added to the number of people in need, and reduced the ability of government to provide services. The central issue was how to reduce the downward spiral by supporting public and private sector jobs.

•Build partnerships. Governments had to act in parallel—not cut services independently and dump the demand on each other, but work together to maintain essential services.

A year later, markets have risen sharply and the global economy shows signs of recovery. But municipal governments are now dealing with the long-term effects of the financial crisis. Most cities face reduced municipal revenues in the face of high demand for services. And that’s not likely to turn around for another 2 or 3 years.

Long-term effects will require long-term solutions. At the 2010 Daley Forum, scheduled for April 26-27, the world’s mayors will look for innovative ways to address key issues, but with a realization that they cannot solve those issues alone.

Instead, they will look to strengthen partnerships among governments, the private sector, and civil society. The key is to find cost-effective programs that have positive impacts on people’s lives, and can be adopted—or adapted—by cities and regions around the globe.

Clark Hulse

The views expressed in UrbInnovation are strictly those of the individual author and not necessarily those of the Daley Global Cities Forum, the University of Illinois at Chicago, or any other organization or group.