April 26, 2004

Harrisburg (PA) Mayor Stephen R. Reed is moving ahead with his dream of building a new museum in Pennsylvania's Capital. Chief executive for 22 years, Reed has plans for a National Museum of the Old West, featuring memorabilia such as the gun that killed Jesse James or Annie Oakley's cloak.

A lengthy profile of Reed's efforts in building tourist attractions in Harrisburg appeared in the April 18 Washington Times. The article gives Reed credit for making many changes in the state capitol since taking office in 1982. The city was among the nations most distressed in that year. Since then, he has attracted more than $3.3 billion of the state. He took over schools that ranked 500th among the 501 Pennsylvania districts.

Tourism, Reed says, is the state's second biggest industry. Competition for tourist dollars comes from Hershey, Gettysburg and the Pennsylvania Dutch country. So Reed helped initiate five national museums, all precursors to bring the Old West to his city. These include the Pennsylvania National Fire Museum, the National Civil War Museum, the National Sports Hall of Fame and the National Museum of African American History.

Caguas (PR) Mayor William Miranda Marin has unveiled plans for an ambitious $282 million light rail system to connect his city with San Juan by 2007.

In a densely populated island, massive traffic congestion is a daily reality for thousands of citizens, many of them traveling from Caguas (the fifth largest Puerto Rico city) to San Juan.

Caribbean Business, Puerto Rico's premier business publication, profiled Miranda Marin's achievements in the city of 400,000 in its April 8 issue. Puerto Rico is close to realization of completing an above ground metro system, Tren Urbano or Urban Train. The Caguas light rail proposed system is separate from this, but would feed into the Island's new system an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 riders daily each way. The article gives high praise to Miranda Marin's reputation for making his city a business'friendly, high-tech haven that attracts industries, educational institutions, businesses and new residents. The mayor has led the Island's 78 mayors in an ongoing quest for more municipal autonomy from the highly centralized commonwealth government. Notes Caribbean Business: "His sometimes controversial, out-of-the-box thinking and style have won him the praise and administration of people from all over the political spectrum."

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper is featured in the Wall Street Journal "Workspaces" profile. The April 21 article highlights the mayor's efforts in making the arts a key component of Denver's economic development plan.

Since taking office, Hickenlooper, owner of eight restaurants, has encouraged businesses to embrace the arts and features Colorado artists in his city hall office. Hickenlooper, 52, is intent on luring "creative" workers to Denver, advancing the "creative cities" concept set forth by best'selling author Richard Florida. Florida, a Carnegie Mellon professor, has spoken several times at Conference of Mayors meetings.

Says the mayor: "More people attend Denver-area cultural activities than professional sporting events."

The article points out that the mayor keeps memorabilia from Colorado teams in his city hall office.

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has turned to an outside source as his city prepares for this summer's Republican National Convention.

Former Mayor Edward I. Koch, a three-term occupant of city hall, has been named chairman of a volunteer drive for the August event. Both Bloomberg and Koch say the GOP event will bring money and jobs to the city, and that visitors will have a lasting impression of New York City (hopefully positive) that will go all over the U.S. and the world.

An estimated 15,000 media representatives are expected at both Boston's Democratic convention (July 26-30) and its Republican counterpart (August 30 to September 2).