By Trinity Simons, MICD
July 24, 2006

The Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) held a special session on community revitalization and workforce housing in San Francisco June 27-29. Hosted by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and in partnership with Bank of America, the event was attended by Eugene (OR) Mayor Kitty Piercy, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Portland (OR) Mayor Tom Potter, Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo, and West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel.

Each of the mayors presented a specific redevelopment challenge confronting a neighborhood in their cities. Following the presentations, experts in architecture, city planning and housing policy joined the mayors in a discussion, offering advice on a range of topics, including urban design, housing development, financing, and implementation.

MICD is a partnership program of the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Architectural Foundation, and the United States Conference of Mayors. Since 1986, the program has assisted over 650 mayors in transforming their communities through good urban design.

The event began with a reception and dinner sponsored by Bank of America in San Francisco. Conference President Dearborn (MI) Mayor Michael Guido, a member of the MICD’s National Advisory Council, was on hand to give opening remarks. He was joined by Newsom and Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr., the founder of the MICD, who gave the keynote lecture for the evening.

Throughout the event, mayors focused their discussions on designing neighborhoods that successfully confront the needs of working families. Participants discussed opportunities to create sustainable communities through mixed-use development and mixed-income housing; catalytic redevelopment of city center areas that have been abandoned or neglected; development of affordable workforce housing; preservation of historically significant buildings; and redevelopment of distressed and contaminated sites.

Joining the mayors at this special session were resource team members: Paul Brophy, Founder of Brophy & Reilly LLC; Dr. Eugenie Birch, Professor and Chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania; Carol Galante, President and CEO of BRIDGE Housing; Alex Garvin, President and CEO of Alex Garvin and Associates; Jim Grauley, Real Estate Development Executive for Bank of America’s Community Development Corporation; Mary Margaret Jones, President of Hargreaves and Associates; Gail Lannoy, West Region Market Executive for Bank of America; John Peterson, Founder and Chair of Public Architecture; Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr.; and Dan Solomon, Founder of Solomon E.T.C.

More information about the Mayors’ Institute on City Design is available at www.micd.org.