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In Phila., mayors to discuss urban wish lists

With the federal government preparing to make what could be the largest investment in American cities since the Great Society era, a diverse group of urban mayors is on its way to Philadelphia for two days of workshops on how to spend the windfall effectively.

With the federal government preparing to make what could be the largest investment in American cities since the Great Society era, a diverse group of urban mayors is on its way to Philadelphia for two days of workshops on how to spend the windfall effectively.

Philadelphia is this season's venue for the Mayors' Institute on City Design, a sort of traveling university that was created to teach urban mayors about the role design plays in infrastructure and redevelopment projects. Mayor Nutter will welcome five of his peers on Thursday to the exclusive gathering, which continues through Saturday and includes several public events.

Although the institute planned the meeting in Philadelphia long before President Obama's election, its educational sessions come at a transformational moment, when cities are pinning down their wish lists for funds from the stimulus package that is making its way through Congress.

"People are very hopeful that the new administration in Washington is turning its attention to cities in a way that previous administrations have not," said Jess Zimbabwe, who runs the institute, which is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and other groups.

The institute believes that government building projects are more likely to have a lasting benefit if officials pay attention to how they're designed, Zimbabwe explained. The institute likes to tell mayors that they are their cities' "chief planners."

Zimbabwe said Nutter was asked to serve as a host for this session because he signaled during his campaign that "he was going to use planning and land use as a vehicle to drive his administration."

But Nutter will also be a participant, along with mayors from Providence, R.I.; Shreveport, La.; Kalamazoo and Saginaw, Mich.; and Reading.

Unlike a typical convention, the institute's meetings are small, invitation-only affairs. The institute brings in a panel of experts with specialties in different fields, from landscape architecture to real estate finance, to coach the participating mayors about problems facing their cities.

Zimbabwe said that each of the mayors will start by presenting a case study from his or her city, on topics such as reviving downtown commercial districts or waterfront development. Nutter plans to talk about efforts to transform Philadelphia's old industrial corridors, like the Navy Yard and the Delaware waterfront, according to Commerce Director Andrew Altman.

Afterward, the experts and other mayors will respond with advice and criticism. In that respect, the institute functions like a group therapy session for urban mayors, with the experts playing the role of facilitators.

All the discussion takes place in one room, without any support staff present.

"It's very conversational, boardroom style," explained Zimbabwe. "It gives them the freshness of an outside perspective."

Altman, who served as an expert at the institute's previous workshops, said that Nutter was looking forward to the discussion. "It's really a chance for the mayor to share with his colleagues the challenges he's facing, to have a candid dialogue, to get advice," he explained. "It's a time for reflection."

Ron Bogle, president of the American Architectural Foundation, another sponsor, said the institute strives to create the atmosphere of a retreat.

"Mayors have so many daily responsibilities - for budgets, for policy. This helps them remember that design serves many generations. It's not just about what's right in front of them at the moment," Bogle said.

Although Zimbabwe did not have a final list of all the case studies, she said that the mayor of Shreveport, Cedric P. Glover, plans to discuss the problems created when that city turned its waterfront over to casinos. That topic should be of special interest to Nutter, who has been dealing with two casinos planned for the waterfront, and wants to move one of them, Foxwoods, to Market Street.

That particular discussion will not be open to the public. But the mayors will appear at public events on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings. Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., who helped start the institute in 1986, will deliver a keynote speech on Thursday at the University of Pennsylvania.