Books
Mayor’s Desk
20 Conversations with Local Leaders Solving Global Problems
November 2023, English
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
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In this collection of interviews, with an introduction by former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, 20 mayors from five continents share their strategies for tackling global challenges at the local level. During a period dominated by racial unrest, the Covid pandemic, and the increasingly vivid impact of the climate crisis, these enterprising leaders have made their cities more healthy, functional, fiscally sound, and sustainable places to live and work. Mayor’s Desk argues that local governments are the real engines of global change. Angela Brooks, president of the American Planning Association, writes an impassioned afterword. Packed with full-color photography, this book will inspire, educate, and surprise all who strive to influence the evolution of their cities.
Mayor’s Desk includes interviews with the following 20 mayors:
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- Ben Walsh (Syracuse, NY)
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- Manuel Velarde (San Isidro, Lima, Peru)
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- Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz (Warsaw, Poland)
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- Gleam Davis (Santa Monica, CA)
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- Marvin Rees (Bristol, England)
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- Marty Walsh (Boston, MA)
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- Kostas Bakoyannis (Athens, Greece)
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- Libby Schaaf (Oakland, CA)
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- Muriel Bowser (Washington, DC)
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- Kate Gallego (Phoenix, AZ)
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- Sumbul Siddiqui (Cambridge, MA)
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- Frank Jackson (Cleveland, OH)
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- Claudia Lόpez (Bogotá, Colombia)
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- Randall Woodfin (Birmingham, AL)
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- Miro Weinberger (Burlington, VT)
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- Jesse ArreguĂn (Berkeley, CA)
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- Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr (Freetown, Sierra Leone)
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- Oh Se-hoon (Seoul, South Korea)
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- Aftab Pureval (Cincinnati, OH)
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- Shelly Oberoi (Delhi, India)
Anthony Flint is a senior fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. He is host of the Land Matters podcast, contributing editor at Land Lines magazine, and a correspondent at Bloomberg CityLab and The Boston Globe. He is the author of Modern Man: The Life of Le Corbusier, Architect of Tomorrow (New Harvest); Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City (Random House); and This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America (Johns Hopkins University Press).
Reviews
“The book provides inspiration and support for mayors and by extension politicians all over the world in their struggle for a more daring policy in the field of equity, social justice, climate change, affordable housing, and transportation. For students, practitioners, and local communities, it may become an eye-opener that there are challenging but workable options beyond more of the same. For all these actors, the book is a documented invitation to extend the scope of the possible and to even make the impossible possible.”
— Louis Albrechts, Emeritus Professor of Planning and Editor of European Planning Studies
“Overall, Mayor’s Desk provides a very inspiring collection of stories and experiences from city leaders who have been, or continue to be, faced with numerous urban challenges that compete for priority and resources. Papers in EPB have touched upon many of these challenges, endeavoring to provide scientific solutions or models that can help cities to become more sustainable. Bringing this science to practice is ultimately one of the biggest challenges that we face as researchers. Yet seeing the range of innovations being implemented around the world should inspire us to be part of the multilevel cooperation that is needed to achieve climate transformation and urban sustainability in the near future.”
— Linda See, Editor of Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science
“The 20 leaders featured share their insights on tackling some of the toughest challenges we face with creativity and collaboration.”
— Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and former mayor of New York City