Representatives from 46 cities -- including 33 mayors from around the country -- are converging on Berkeley for the summer meeting of the Mayors Innovation Project Aug. 25-27.
It's the first time Berkeley has hosted the Mayors Innovation Project (MIP), an 11-year-old learning network of mayors that focuses on
policy
innovation on such pressing issues as affordable housing, homelessness, equitable development, green infrastructure, police and community relations, and effective housing planning.
Mayor Bates has been a member of MIP from its inaugural conference in 2006, and now will host the conference in Berkeley in his last term in office.
This summer's meeting will highlight Berkeley
'
s leadership on a number of issues, including our first-in-the-nation soda tax and our successful goBerkeley parking program, and will feature in-depth policy discussions on innovations around the country on childhood obesity, getting to zero waste, parking policy, art as a source of economic development, and integrating racial equity into government.
The meeting's keynote address will be delivered by
o
ne of the leading experts on economic inequality in the U.S., UC Berkeley Professor Robert Reich, who will speak on "American Cities of Inequality" and why the poor are clustering ever more together, as are the rich -- and what this means for our cities.
