As we reflect on our work this year, we invite you to explore some of the lessons and themes that emerged at the Mayors’ Institute on City Design in 2024. Since 1986, mayors have come to MICD expressing hunger for new ways of approaching city design to better serve their public and improve lives. As one of the longest-running mayoral education programs in the country, a number of messages are driven home at every single session: leadership and progress start from the top, but must be informed and shaped by the public; someone in your administration must wake up every day with a goal to move your project and efforts forward. There are shifting concerns and challenges, too: the changing nature of our downtowns; building consensus in an increasingly fractured society, for examples.
Throughout it all, we continue to advocate that mayors are uniquely equipped to shepherd the hopes and dreams of their community into concrete and actionable vision. In that spirit, we compiled a sampling of the recommendations and resources shared with mayors this year: some recurring, some rather new, all critical for steadfast leadership in this moment of changing tides.
By the numbers
In 2024, the Mayors’ Institute on City Design:
+ Worked with 50 mayors and Tribal leaders across 25 states through 60 in-depth experiences
+ Partnered with 63 design leaders throughout the year to serve these mayors
+ Brought in 109 members of mayors’ city staff to our leadership development and technical assistance programming
+ Provided in-depth follow-up advice to 24 mayors and their teams via MICD Alumni Advising
+ Held the 4th cohort of the MICD Just City Mayoral Fellowship with the Just City Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, bringing us to 30 past Fellows
+ Held 4 Institute Sessions around the country: New York City, Detroit, Albuquerque, and Gainesville, including one special session for mayors and Tribal leaders
+ Held 3 virtual seminars on topics like arts, urban design, and mental health
+ Launched our Design Library to showcase exemplary work around the country, starting with a collection of 7 case studies on arts & city leadership
Recommendations and Resources: 2024 Highlights
This year, mayors expressed a hunger for new ways of approaching city design to better serve their public and improve lives. They sought out advice on visioning processes, community engagement tactics, ways to uplift local culture, and fresh ways of approaching complex challenges. A sampling of the recommendations and resources shared with mayors this year:
+ You are the chief convener of your city.
We often say that the mayor is the city’s chief urban designer. By that, we don’t mean the mayor is grabbing pen and paper and “designing” their city. We mean that you, as mayor, are the chief convener, the chief translator of community hopes into vision. You have the power to bring together the people who care the most, the people who can build visions, and the people who can bring them to fruition.
+ Articulate your values.
Mayors work in city government because they care deeply about serving the public. Be a steward of your community’s values and lead boldly with your values, using clear language to articulate the generational impact you hope to have for residents who need it most.
Resource: Just City Index (Just City Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Design)
+ Lead with a vision.
Successful projects have a clear vision, including how they are funded, governed, programmed, and who they will serve. Creating a vision framework plan with a clear narrative can help ensure that your outcomes match your community’s needs and aspirations (and attract funding). If the vision is already clear, move to an action plan to start making good on those promises.
Example: RiverFirst Vision Plan (Minneapolis Parks Foundation)
Example: Franklin Park Action Plan (Boston Park and Recreation Department)
+ Write your values into RFPs.
City procurement is a powerful tool to achieve design excellence and equitable outcomes. Instead of recycling RFPs, put your well-articulated values front and center in all facets of your RFP to attract the right partners and get transformational results.
Resource: Purpose Built Design Methodology and Worksheet (MASS Design Group)
+ Remember that the public realm makes up half of your city.
Invest appropriately in visioning and design for streetscapes, sidewalks, parks, and connectivity to get safe and vibrant results.
Resource: Design Guides (National Association of City Transportation Officials)Â
+ Rethink traditional community engagement.
Use fresh, nimble, creative processes to identify residents’ wants and needs without centering the loudest voices in the room. Use engagement to test, learn, iterate, and define the project. Think of community engagement as long-term relationship building, and start early: bring residents along from the beginning to build a vision rather than trying to achieve buy-in later.
Resource: Virtual Seminar: Beyond Traditional Engagement and Design Guidelines (MICD)
Example: Moakley Park Preliminary Resilience Plan, Boston, MA (STOSS)
Example: Station Soccer, Atlanta, GAÂ (HKS)
+ Invest in cultural infrastructure.
Bring artists and culture bearers into all levels of a project to develop creative approaches to community engagement, storytelling and authentic reflections of local culture, and the creation of catalytic initiatives. Embracing creativity and the arts can expand well beyond the usual tools (murals and public art, percent for art programs, etc.), and help to uncover hidden challenges, motivations, and opportunities for joy and justice.
Example: Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, Boston, MA (MICD)
+ Remember that development either hurts or heals.
Approach your city’s projects in the built environment with the weight of positive and negative impacts in mind, and don’t overlook the power of these projects to bring healing and reconciliation.
Resource: Equity Toolkit, 11th Street Bridge Park (Building Bridges Across the River)
The Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) is a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors. Since 1986, MICD has helped transform communities through design by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities. MICD conducts several sessions each year. For a list of upcoming events, past participants, and more information, visit micd.org and follow @MICDdotORG on social media.