02.15.08

Next Generation Cities, May 13-14, 2008

We can have two different reactions to an economic recession: panic or plan. We can panic, pull in our horns and hang on for dear life. Or we can think past the current trauma and look ahead to think about the world we’ll be competing in once the storm passes. People in the technology industry talk about inflection points, where fundamental change reshapes markets. Cities can clearly see a coming inflection point—driven by economic challenges, globalization, and climate change. What can city leaders do today to position their cities not simply to survive, but to thrive, as these changes unfold?

That’s the issue we’ll address at our next National Meeting, May 13-14 in Pittsburgh on Next Generation Cities: Finding New Sources of Strength in Tough Times.

RSVP now for this meeting by downloading the agenda complete with RSVP information. REMINDER: THIS MEETING IS FOR CEOS FOR CITIES MEMBERS ONLY.

Questions? Email Kristian Buschmann at kbuschmann@ceosforcities.org.

 

01.23.08

Places of Innovation

How can city leaders use design to foster the “happy accidents” that come from idea sharing and innovation?

That’s the question we’ll begin to answer when CEOs for Cities with Steelcase hosts “Places of Innovation” at the Steelcase Global Headquarters in Grand Rapids, MI, February 18 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The full agenda can be found here.

Open to members only, please contact Kristian Buschmann at kbuschmann@ceosforcities.org for more information. RSVPs are requested by January 25.

 

11.07.07

City Anchors Learning Network

Following last May’s meeting on Leveraging Anchor Institutions for Urban Success in San Jose and the white paper that followed, CEOs for Cities is set to launch the City Anchors Learning Network on November 30 to apply those findings on the ground in member cities.

Urban leaders from Boston, Detroit, Lansing and St. Louis will work together over an 18-month period to gain new insights and invent new ways for:

• Anchor institutions to enliven communities and make them more dynamic places that trigger people’s imaginations, emotions and desire to learn.

• Anchor institutions to become “networked places” where various types of institutions are cooperating toward common ends.

To find out more about this Learning Network click here.

If you're interested in becoming involved in future Learning Networks email Kristian Buschmann at kbuschmann@ceosforcities.org.

 

10.31.07

Tampa Bay's Green Dividend

The Green Dividend was the topic of a major event in Tampa Bay. When civic leaders there learned their region was foregoing serious money with land use and public investment that forces long trips and excessive reliance on cars, it set off a public debate. Read the press coverage below:

Portland keen to teach green
St. Petersburg Times, 10/23/07
By Christina Rexrod

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/10/23/Business/Portland_keen_to_teac.shtml

Economist: Going green pays dividends
WMNF-Radio, Evening News, 10/23/07
By Seán Kinane

http://www.wmnf.org/news_stories/show/4847
Blog posting of WMNF story

Benefits of Going “Green”
WUSF-89.7, 10/23
By Steve Newborn


http://www.wusf.usf.edu/WUSF-FM/NEWS/News_Detail_TVLk.cfm?ID=724

Joe Cortright: "The paint is still wet..."
Creative Loafing, 10/17/07
By Wayne Garcia

http://tampa.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=320716

A green approach can pay off in green
St. Petersburg Times, 10/24/07
By Ernest Hooper


http://www.sptimes.com/2007/10/24/Columns/A_green_approach_can_.shtml

Green Dividend Is A Big Payback
South Tampa News, 10/24/07
By Joe O’Neill

http://www.tbo.com/southtampa/MGBASTIQ38F.html

Economist in Tampa: Efficient 'green' transportation creates major reinvestment capital
Tampa Bay Business Journal, 10/09/07

http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2007/10/08/daily27.html

 

10.01.07

Save the Date: National Meeting, Pittsburgh, May 13-14

Mark your calendars - CEOs for Cities next National Meeting is tentatively slated for May 13 and 14, 2008. More details to follow.

 

08.24.07

CEOs for Cities Presents "The Global City" Sept. 25-26

CEOs for Cities next National Membership Meeting will be September 25-26 in Chicago on "The Global City."

In today’s world, innovation is the new imperative for urban leaders.

That includes addressing the realities of globalization in smart new ways, by uncovering the hidden assets found in cities that will keep them competitive in our rapidly changing world.

CEOs for Cities will host an international conversation that will address these realities and develop strategies for urban competitiveness in a global economy. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is our co-host.

“The Global City” will convene an elite group of urban leaders from the United States as well as mayors from Canada and South and Central America to explore the role that cities and their leaders can play in confronting the challenges – and capitalizing on the opportunities – of globalization.

Download the meeting packet here. Please note, this is a password protected document for members and meeting attendees only. Contact Bridget Marquis at bmarquis@ceosforcities.org for the password.

Registration for this meeting is now closed.

Supported in part by a gift from:

 

08.24.07

Kids in Cities Learning Network

CEOs for Cities will convene urban leaders from New York, Akron, Chicago and Portland for its first-ever Learning Network on Kids in Cities, Sept. 25 at 10 a.m. before the kick off of our national meeting.

Learning Networks bring three to four member cities together to collaborate on a particular project over an 18-month engagement. Topics of the Learning Networks are driven by members’ interests and needs and participation in the Networks is driven by a delegation’s own decisions about its priorities. Learning Networks focus on a single pressing theme and are aimed explicitly at producing action on the ground.

The Kids in Cities Learning Network will help urban leaders understand, support and scale the behaviors of pioneering urban families. Researchers from the IIT Institute of Design studied parent concerns of safety, space and schools, developing concepts to counter them through density, public space and using the city as a classroom.

Participants will apply concepts from our research in new initiatives in their cities with the aim of achieving real local gains and refining ideas and strategies that can then be shared among our national network.

To learn more about the Kids in Cities project, go to www.ceosforcities.org/kidsincities.

You may download the report on Kids in Cities by clicking here.

 

07.16.07

CityVitals, CEOs Featured in Fast Company

This month's Fast Company features an article on "Fast Cities" that was developed, in part, from data in CEOs for Cities' CityVitals research. While the report’s Weirdness Index was misinterpreted (it’s certainly no measure of passion as was indicated), we’re glad to know the framework is being used to bring a positive focus on cities.

In part, the article reads...

"For all the challenges cities face--congestion, crime, crumbling infrastructure, environmental decay, plus occasional issues with basic civility--they are still where jobs and youth gather, where energy begets even greater energy, where talent masses and collides. Worldwide, the pace of urbanization is only accelerating. This year, for the first time, more of the earth's population will live in cities than in rural areas--a cool 3.2 billion, according to United Nations estimates. 'In a world where we can now work anywhere, we're tending to concentrate in fewer and fewer places,' says Carol Coletta, president of CEOs for Cities, an advocacy group. 'Smart people are choosing to live near smart people.'"

Read the full article here.

 

06.01.07

City: The Remix - Imagine the Possibilities

What if urban leaders could create a platform as powerful as eBay to engage citizens in solving problems and seizing opportunities? Imagine the possibilities as Charles Leadbeater tours the U.S. with CEOs for Cities as part of our City: The Remix initiative. Find out more about Charlie's trip by checking out the Remix Blog, which captured the project with video, pictures and real-time blog entries.

 

02.13.07

Leveraging Anchor Institutions, May 1-2, 2007

Leveraging Anchor Institutions for Urban Success, May 1-2, San José, California
Don’t miss the chance to shape the future of America’s cities.

At the CEOs for Cities National Meeting, May 1-2 in San José, California, members and invited experts will inaugurate a first-ever dialogue to turn traditional urban amenities into new urban assets that contribute significantly to urban success.

We invite you to join this unique conversation and leave this participant-driven convening with new strategies for engaging community colleges, parks, libraries, performing arts centers, museums, and hospitals as powerful engines of your city’s competitive advantage.

CEOs for Cities’ 2002 study by Michael Porter on “Leveraging Colleges for Universities for Urban Economic Revitalization” permanently altered the landscape of town-gown relations. At our National Meeting and in the resulting study, we aim to do the same using a broader range of anchor institutions and to pave the way for the implementation of new strategies that advance both city and anchor institution success.

Download a copy of the agenda here. Highlights include:

• Tours of the Googleplex and eBay Park.

• An opening workshop session at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library – an anchor institution built from a unique partnership between the City of San José and San José State University – exploring examples of the innovative strategies that have made San José, capitol of Silicon Valley and the nation’s most international city, the powerhouse that it is today.

• A gala reception at San José’s stunning Richard Meier-designed City Hall.

• At Adobe System’s award-winning headquarters in downtown San José, candid discussion of how far we have come since the 2002 publication of Michael Porter’s “Leveraging Colleges and Universities for Urban Economic Revitalization.” The efforts of progressive university presidents have revitalized cities across the country. Can their successful strategies be adapted for other types of anchor institutions?

• Keynote remarks by Elliot Schrage, Vice President of Global Communications and Public Affairs at Google.

• A dialogue with the leadership from America’s most innovative anchor institutions about the payoffs and pitfalls of their engagement efforts. What are the policies and development strategies that can transform anchor institutions from urban amenities into urban assets that generate value beyond their walls?

Following the meeting, national experts will turn our conversations into actionable strategies and produce a report and recommendations for distribution to all participants. Don’t miss the chance to inform the discussion, influence the recommendations and get ideas for putting anchor institutions to work on behalf of your city.

The meeting will begin at 4 pm on Tuesday, May 1, and conclude at 4 pm on Wednesday, May 2, for 24 hours of ideas and inspiration for your city.

We look forward to seeing you in San José.

For a map of meeting venues, click here.

 

01.03.07

Smaller Cities, Big Ideas

While shrinking populations have been cause for alarm in cities, USA Today reports on an encouraging trend: cities that don't see population decline as a negative, and instead, treat it as a chance to redefine themselves... "Cities that measure success by population growth have an outdated view of what success is all about," says Carol Coletta, head of CEOs for Cities, a non-profit alliance of mayors, executives and other urban leaders based in Chicago.

Read the full story here.

 

12.06.06

Y&R in NY Times

CEOs for Cities' research on the The Young and Restless in a Knowledge Economy was recently highlighted in a front page story in the New York Times. Its focus was Atlanta - a city that has had particular success in attracting college-educated 25-34 year-olds - but it showcased efforts in a number of cities to attract this valuable demographic.

We continue to get many inquiries about this research, and this year we hope to develop a toolkit for our members on what they can do to improve their city’s success rate on attracting and keeping these people in their cities, even after they start having kids.

Read the article here.

 

12.05.06

Save the Date: National Meeting, San Jose, May 1-2

CEOs for Cities next national network meeting is tentatively slated for May 1 and 2, 2007, hosted by the City of San Jose and San Jose State University. The topic will be Leveraging Urban Assets, a theme that builds on our early research with Michael Porter on leveraging colleges and universities for economic development. We hope to expand the definition of urban assets to include parks and open space, museums, performing arts facilities, libraries, and community colleges, and put all of them to work on behalf of cities.

The outcome we seek is an assesment of the value of these assets to cities, the resources they represent and how they can be applied in cities, and the partnerships necessary to make these assets play to their full potential.

We hope you'll mark your calendar now. More details to follow.

 

11.10.06

Miami Meeting Presentations Now Available

If you weren't able to capture all the great insights from our meeting presenters, you can download panelist slide shows in PDF format. Click the links below to access the presentations:

Kip Bergstrom's Thinking About Cities and Regions as Innovation Networks

Brian Boyle's presentation on The New Urban Narrative

Joe Cortright's presentation on CityVitals

Miguel Garcia's presentation on Integrating Immigrants in Portal Neighborhoods

Jane Werner's presentation on Keeping Kids in Cities and the Children's Museum Charm Bracelet Project

Erik Bolog's presentation on Increasing the Supply of Affordable Housing

 

10.04.06

CEOs for Cities Releases "CityVitals"

Urban leaders seeking success in the new economy should stop paying attention to ubiquitous city rankings and start focusing their attentions on four dimensions of success: talent, innovation, connections and distinctiveness, according to a new report released by CEOs for Cities.

CityVitals, developed by Portland-based economist Joseph Cortright in partnership with CEOs for Cities, lays out the rationale for the things cities must be really good at doing today and a new set of metrics – 20 in all – to measure their progress.

“Every week it seems a new ranking of cities makes the headlines,” said Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities. “Unfortunately, few of those rankings are relevant to what makes cities successful today. CityVitals gives urban leaders a much richer picture of what’s going right and what’s going wrong in their cities and uncover their best opportunities to improve.”

The 64-page booklet includes data on the top 50 metro areas in the U.S. for each of the 20 measures. It also looks at each city’s Metro Performance (economic indicators) and its Core Vitality (the strength of the city’s urban core).

“To be successful today, cities have to develop their own unique formula that addresses the four dimensions of urban success: talent, innovation, connections and distinctiveness,” said Cortright. “No single city performs best on all these metrics. And these metrics are very different than the traditional recipes of cutting taxes and building convention centers or arenas.”

CityVitals enables urban leaders to assess their city’s performance on each of these four dimensions, to plot strategies to build on strengths and offset weaknesses, and establish a distinctive, winning and competitive strategy, he said.

“For too long, urban decision makers have invested in magic bullet solutions that they hope will spur their city to become the next big thing,” Cortright said. “As a result we’ve seen a number of failed copycat economic development strategies over the last decade. CityVitals works because it recognizes that there is no one formula for greatness. But there are key ingredients to success – the mixtures just tend to vary.”

Read the full report here. (Note: the report is password protected. CEOs for Cities members may obtain the password, by emailing sredick@ceosforcities.org.) You may download a presentation on CityVitals by clicking here.