Homewood Nation

I'm just going to leave this here, ok? From the office of Mayor William Peduto:

PITTSBURGH, PA (July 25, 2014) The governing board of the National League of Cities today chose Pittsburgh as the site of its 2016 Congress of Cities and Exposition, which will draw thousands of local government officials from around the country to the city.

That year will also mark the 200th anniversary of Pittsburgh city government.

"I want to thank the NLC for this honor, and I am thrilled for the opportunity to show off Pittsburgh to fellow government officials from around the nation,” Mayor William Peduto said. “It’s going to be a great birthday.”

One of the Mayor’s first acts in office was to rejoin the league, where he had long been a delegate from the Pennsylvania Municipal League. This year alone the NLC has awarded the city $230,000 for a program seeking to enroll eligible children in health care programs, and it announced plans to soon hold a community forum in Pittsburgh on early childhood education with the U.S. Department of Education.

The selection was made after a vote by NLC’s Board of Directors at their annual meeting in Saint Paul, Minn.

“We are thrilled that the Congress of Cities and Exposition will be hosted by the City of Pittsburgh on the city’s 200th anniversary,” said NLC President Chris Coleman, Mayor of Saint Paul, Minn. “Pittsburgh is an excellent place for our conference and has a great story to tell. The city’s rich history and recent urban renewal has transformed the Steel City into a strong economic center with a diverse and educated workforce. Pittsburgh has been a leader in sustainability and technology efforts, and can provide great examples of city programs for local leaders attending our conference.”

The Congress of Cities and Exposition will be held November 16-19, 2016. It is expected to attract more than 3,500 participants to Pittsburgh and include 300 exhibition booths.

“Hosting the National League of Cities brings a tremendous amount of visibility and prestige to the Pittsburgh region in addition to the economic impact the actual conference will garner,” says Craig Davis, president and CEO of VisitPittsburgh. “We are proud to have worked on the team with the Mayor.”

Registration is still open for this year’s NLC conference in Austin, Texas, held November 18-22, 2014.

The National League of Cities (NLC) is dedicated to helping city leaders build better communities. NLC is a resource and advocate for 19,000 cities, towns and villages, representing more than 218 million Americans.

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Laying aside the question of what the whole "200th birthday" thing means - we celebrated a 250th birthday in 2008, and I wouldn't wish on any generation the prospect of having to hear, much less pronounce, "sesquibicentennial" again - leaving all that aside, this raises questions for me like, "Is there something that Homewood can partner with the Peduto administration to do over the next two years that would both benefit residents and make Peduto & Co look brilliant in Nov 2016?"

In any case, it behooves those of us who are working to make Homewood better to think deeply about how to link our work here with what is happening in the city as a whole.

So...what do you think, Homewood? What could this mean for us?

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