Burlington will play host to leaders from about 40 cities across the country during the Mayors Innovation Project’s three-day annual summer meeting, which begins on August 16.
The event is for policy wonks and those interested in collaborative brainstorming, said Satya Rhodes-Conway, the organization’s managing director. Or, she added, there’s the way former Madison, Wis., mayor Dave Cieslewicz referred to it: A gathering of the “nerd mayors of America.”
Cieslewicz founded the group in 2005 with a goal of creating “a learning network for American mayors committed to ‘high road’ policy and governance: shared prosperity, environmental sustainability, and efficient democratic government.”
Former Burlington mayor Peter Clavelle joined the group at its inception and Bob Kiss later continued the tradition. Weinberger, in his second term as Queen City mayor, is a member of the MIP’s steering committee.
He sees hosting the conference as a way to “raise the profile of the city.”
“There’s a great deal of interest in some of the things going on here,” Weinberger said.
The conference covers a variety of topics that “expose our member cities to good ideas and interesting things around the the country,” Rhodes-Conway said.
On next week’s agenda of “good ideas”: Los Angeles’ housing policy specialist Ben Winter will highlight his city’s work on permanent supportive housing, a representative from Seattle’s planning and community development office, Katie Sheehy, will speak to the city’s efforts to address racial inequity through development, and Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick is scheduled to discuss his multifaceted approach to battling the opioid epidemic.
Bill McKibben will give the keynote address during an August 17 dinner at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain.
There will be no shortage of Burlington city officials strutting their stuff. Police chief Brandon del Pozo will participate on a panel about 21st century policing, while Burlington Electric Department’s general manager Neale Lunderville will discuss the city’s net zero goals. Beth Anderson, the city’s chief innovation officer, will outline Burlington’s approach to data.
Weinberger will use the event’s downtime to show off Burlington landmarks.
The schedule includes a ride along the bike path, a visit to the wood-burning McNeil plant, and a tour of downtown Burlington. Attendees will head to the South End’s Pine Street corridor for a welcome reception at Citizen Cider and dinner at ArtsRiot. There’s also a group outing to a Vermont Lake Monsters baseball game at Centennial Field.
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Where will they temporarily move the homeless?
Might be a good time to visit downtown.
oh they will be hiding all the homeless and anything else they think that won’t look good for liberal Weinyberger big show.
.What the non-liberals need to do is make signs and protest..Cuz you know that Weinyberger will make sure the visiting mayors will only see the people who loves him..It will be a big farce ..
Not all liberals like Miro. In fact, he’s all about money and development, so republicans secretly love him.
Be sure Mayor Weinberger, to show the other pols before and after pictures of Burlington College with and now, without, all those beautiful oxygen producing trees. And if rumor proves out, I hear stretches of the bike path that go past some lakeside homes will be widened to 45 feet from the initial plan of 11 feet. Lots more trees will be lost. So much for walking the walk on climate change.
Yes, the mayor is a worthless piece of crap who has not kept up his vow to help the homeless and the other problems. Also what has he done about making real affordable housing for the homeless and struggling people besides nothing? Instead he seems more interested in Burlington business such as the mall farce. That mall is pretty much dead now so what makes him think building a new one will solve the problem? It will only drive up prices to a way over priced city.
This mayor has to go!!!
Fortunately, Mayor Weinberger knows the difference between a growing, thriving, economically successful Burlington and the backward, decaying vision of a handful of washed up, hippie, socialist wannabes who never even took Economics 101 in college.
Of course you have proof of this, knowyourassumptions. This is not just your unfounded opinion, is it?
@ Philo
We’re still waiting for your proof of your accusation that Mayor Weinberger took bribes to support the mall renewal project. That’s a very specific accusation that you made on this site. There’s no evidence for that accusation and no rational basis for making it. But you did. You just say stuff. You’re more like Trump than you could ever know.
I’ve always pointed out how much money developers have donated to Weinberger’s campaign. Go ahead and look at all of the donations developers gave him.
Nice try. All politicians get campaign donations. Including your beloved Bernie. But with Weinberger you specifically accused him of taking “bribes.” You didn’t accuse any other politicians of taking bribes. Just Weinberger.
But still no proof.
Congrats, Donald.
I’m not sure which post exactly I explicitly said the mayor takes bribes. I do note that he takes large donations from developers. That is like a bribe, I guess. I suppose you have my exact post saved on your desktop. Even if you do I don’t see how this pertains to my original post in this story other than to take attention away from it.