August 5, 2002

Mayor Raymond Caballero of El Paso, Texas, and Roxanne Qualls, former mayor of Cincinnati, addressed the National Council on the Arts (NCA) on July 12 to defend continued funding of the Mayors1 Institute on City Design. The Council advises the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts on policies and programs, and makes recommendations on applications for grants, and on leadership initiatives. The Mayors- Institute is a leadership initiative of the Endowment that is administered by the American Architectural Foundation in partnership with the U. S. Conference of Mayors.

Mayor Caballero, who took office in the spring of 2001 and attended the Mayors- Institute in Charleston, SC, in April of this year, provided a new mayor's perspective on the value of the program. Roxanne Qualls, who served as mayor from 1995 to 1999, described how her experience at the Mayors- Institute in 1996 supported her efforts to redevelop Cincinnati's waterfront. Council members were clearly moved by the presentations. Architect Hsin-Ming Fung commented that while the Endowment funded many programs that provided arts education for children, there were very few programs that provide an educational experience for adults.

Qualls, who recently completed a Master in Public Administration at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, oversaw public investment of over $1.3 billion in Cincinnati's waterfront during her four-year tenure. When she began, the waterfront was a patchwork of parking lots serving an obsolete sports stadium and separated from downtown by a busy freeway. Following advice she received at the Mayors- Institute, Qualls hired UDA Associates of Pittsburgh to do a masterplan for development that so far has guided the construction of the Paul Brown Stadium for the Bengals, The Great American Ballpark for the Reds, a parking structure that will serve both stadiums and provide a foundation for a yet-to-be-constructed museum for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and a freeway redesign that has reconnected the street grid, making the new development accessible by foot from downtown.

Mayor Caballero described a new mayor's reluctance to leave town to attend the three day institute session given the demands of office. He then asked the members of the Council to imagine themselves as mayors of their own cities:

"You are responsible for much that happens in your city, good and bad. You are making many decisions that affect your community. You will make many of those decisions directly or, by delegation, others in your administration will make decisions for you. You might be unaware that all the time, a city is being built that will be your "mark."

We hear it said that in some cultures, elders and leaders make decisions with seven generations in mind, that is, some 200 years out. In our culture, those who can think seven years out are considered visionary. What kind of a city will you leave for your children and grand children?

I suggest that the Mayors- Institute on City Design might help you place things in context. Take my advice. Go. Do this for yourselves, but more importantly. Go for the good of your city.

You will see issues that several other mayors are dealing with and the advice they receive. It is very likely that those projects will be similar to some area of your city. You will see how easy it is to make terrible decisions by not understanding design but that with some good advice it is just as easy to make much better design choices.

We all love the Londons, Parises, Washington DCs and the Savanahs of the world. They didn't get there by accident. They got there through design.

Before I was elected I was unaware of NEAs Mayors- Institute on City Design. It's a great idea. Thank you for sponsoring it. Thank you for having given many mayors an eye opening experience that has made a big difference in many cities."