The National League of Cities (NLC) and ULI announced that mayors from four U.S. cities—Anchorage, Alaska; Grand Rapids, Michigan; San Jose, California; and Washington, D.C.—have been selected as the 2017 class of Daniel Rose fellows by the Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use.
Mayors Ethan Berkowitz of Anchorage, Rosalynn Bliss of Grand Rapids, Sam Liccardo of San Jose, and Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., will lead teams from their cities, which will receive technical assistance on a local land use challenge from NLC, ULI, and their peers from the other fellowship cities. The four city teams will also convene for a retreat at NLC’s City Summit in Pittsburgh.
“The 2017 Rose Fellows are dedicated to solving land use challenges in their cities,” said Clarence E. Anthony, NLC chief executive officer and executive director. “Through collaboration, sharing best practices, and innovative thinking, these projects will serve as models for how cities can learn from each other to make urban spaces a healthy, sustainable, and vibrant part of our communities.”
“The Rose Center Fellowship program has a consistent track record of mayoral teams effectively working together to help solve the land use challenges of our nation’s leading metropolitan areas,” said Patrick L. Phillips, ULI global chief executive officer. “Cities are the heart of our country’s economy, serving as hubs for human capital and innovation. We are excited to partner with NLC and the new class of Rose fellows to highlight creative approaches and solutions that other communities can replicate to become more healthy, prosperous, and sustainable.”
The Rose Center’s mission is to encourage and support excellence in land use decision making by providing public officials with access to information, best practices, peer networks, and other resources to foster creative, efficient, practical, and sustainable land use policies. The program was established at ULI in 2008 with a $5 million gift by ULI Foundation governor Daniel Rose; in 2014, the Rose family and ULI formed a strategic partnership with NLC to bring that organization’s robust expertise in local government leadership to bear on the Rose Center’s programs.
Now in its eighth year, the Rose Fellowship begins with the selection of four mayors, each of whom chooses three additional fellows—city department leaders or public agency directors with land use decision-making authority—and a project manager to serve as their city’s fellowship team. The program of work includes working retreats at the NLC City Summit at the beginning and end of the program year and at the ULI Spring Meeting at its midpoint, a study tour of another U.S. or foreign city, and study visits to each of the four fellowship cities.
The 2016 Rose Fellowship teams are:
- Anchorage: Mayor Ethan Berkowitz; Hal Hart, director, Planning Department, Office of Economic and Community Development, city of Anchorage; Mara Kimmel, first lady of Anchorage and city resilience team lead; and Christopher Schutte, director, Office of Economic and Community Development, city of Anchorage. The project manager is Katie Dougherty, executive assistant, Office of Economic and Community Development.
- Grand Rapids: Mayor Rosalynn Bliss; Kristopher Larson, president and chief executive officer, Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.; Josh Naramore, Mobile GR and parking manager, city of Grand Rapids; and Kara Wood, managing director, Economic Development Services, city of Grand Rapids. The project manager is Tim Kelly, vice president of planning and development, Downtown Grand Rapids Inc.
- San Jose: Mayor Sam Liccardo and the following city officials: Rosalynn Hughey, assistant director, Department of Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement; Nanci Klein, assistant director, Office of Economic Development and director of city real estate; and John Ristow, deputy director for transportation planning and project delivery, Department of Transportation. The project manager is Kimberly Vacca, long-range planner, Planning Division, Department of Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement.
- Washington, D.C.: Mayor Muriel Bowser and the following city officials: Polly Donaldson, director, Department of Housing and Community Development; Brian Kenner, deputy mayor for planning and economic development; and Eric Shaw, director, Office of Planning. The project manager is Andrew Trueblood, chief of staff, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.
To assist the fellowship city teams, the Rose Center has assembled eight urban development and design leaders from around the nation who will serve as their faculty advisers over the course of the fellowship year. They are:
- Anchorage: Carlton Brown, principal, Direct Invest Development, New York City; and Frank Fuller, partner, Urban Field Studio, San Francisco.
- Grand Rapids: Antonio Fiol-Silva, founding principal, SITIO architecture + urbanism, Philadelphia; and Calvin Gladney, managing partner, Mosaic Urban, Washington, D.C.
- San Jose: Nolan Lienhart, principal and director of planning and urban design, ZGF Architects, Portland, Oregon; and Marilee Utter, president, Citiventure Associates, Denver.
- Washington, D.C.: Kate Collignon, managing partner, HR&A Advisors, New York City; and Ignacio Bunster-Ossa, landscape architecture practice leader and vice president, AECOM (Americas), Philadelphia.
“These four cities are working at the cutting edge of the biggest development issues facing cities,” said Rose Center executive director Jess Zimbabwe. “In addition to the valuable insights gained by the fellows during this year, ULI and NLC members will benefit from the practical know-how that emerges when these city leaders get together to share their ideas and expertise.”
Since its inception, the Rose Fellowship has worked with 28 cities across the United States: Austin; Birmingham; Boston; Charlotte; Denver; Detroit; Hartford; Honolulu; Houston; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Missouri; Long Beach, California; Louisville; Memphis; Minneapolis; Nashville; Oakland; Omaha; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Pittsburgh; Portland, Oregon; Providence; Rochester, New York; Sacramento; Seattle; Tacoma; and Tampa.
