May 4 - About the Mayor

News About Mayors From Around The Nation

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Alexandria (LA) Mayor Edward Randolph was a featured speaker on national television April 2 in a Pentagon press conference called to emphasize base closure issues and exemplary ways to adapt local communities to base re-use.

Invited by Defense Secretary William Cohen, Randolph shared Alexandria's experience in explaining how his city came back from the severe economic blow caused by the closing of England Air Force base.

The mayor's efforts in leading a local success story also has been featured in other national articles in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and other publications.

The base, as the mayor pointed out, was operational for 40 years, and a major factor in the local economy with 3,000 military and nearly 700 civilian jobs. England Airpark is a result of intensive community planning and now has 58 different tenants, and shows what a city can do. The mayor also praised the tremendous resources offered by The Department of Defense and Department of Commerce in easing the impact of the base closing. Secretary Cohen has called for the closing of more unnecessary bases to save billions each year as the country adapts to new defense realities. The mayor's C-SPAN appearance, as a local newspaper pointed out, was proof that base closure is not necessarily an economic disaster for a community and Alexandria's national prominence on this issue is proof.

Modesto Mayor Richard A. Lang was the subject of a lengthy feature in The Modesto Bee March 1. The California paper, in an unusual tribute to the mayor, gives credit for the love bestowed on the city by the mayor who writes U.S. MAYOR that he has not seen this much space devoted to any event in his long years of reading this particular newspaper. The feature article on the former high school principal and City Council member traces the mayor's education career, and also documents his folksy humor, schmoozing power and influence he has left on the lives of thousands of children. Modesto residents give the mayor a 93 percent name recognition, and touts him as a possible Republican Candidate for other office, the paper points out.

For his efforts at city beautification, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley garnered praise in an April 22 USA Today feature. The brawny city on the shore of Lake Michigan, the article states, has a reputation for being anything but pretty, but extensive floral plantings in the medians of historic boulevards have been accompanied by tens of thousands of new trees, turning Chicago into a visual delight. The article details how the mayor's efforts on revamping restrictive local regulations, starting "Streetscape" projects and other new innovations like riverside cafes and night illumination have resulted in local praise from the public and media reporters. Finally, the article states that other cities are making similar improvements, citing Knoxville's (TN) hiring of an urban planning professor to improve the appearance of Mayor Victor Ashe's city.

Another mayor was spotlighted by USA Today on April 16 when Grand Forks (ND) Mayor Pat Owens marked the anniversary of massive flooding which devastated her community. Nearly totally destroyed by both fire and floodwaters, Grand Forks is on the rebound from events of last April 18-20, 1997, when swollen rivers put neighborhoods under 10-15 feet of water. As a result, 47,000 Grand Forks residents and 9,000 East Grand Forks residents had to evacuate.

Mayor Owens puts in 16-20 hours a day at work in a supposedly part-time job but still finds time to read and visit with youngsters at a local grade school.

New York Mayor Rudolph W. Guiliani and Tempe (AZ) Mayor Neil G. Giuliano garnered a big photo in The New York Times of April 18. The occasion: New York's mayor made a rare appearance at a Phoenix fund-raising for the Republican party. Raising his national profile outside Manhattan, Guilani has also visited Washington, Buffalo and suburban Detroit. Arizona Senator John McCain is quoted as calling Guilani's urban stewardship "one of the most remarkable I've seen anywhere in any country in the world, much less the United States of America."

Former Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn may drop his race for Massachusetts governor to run for Congress in the seat being vacated by Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II. The April 29 issue of Boston Herald said Flynn, who moved back to Boston after serving as U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican for 4 1/2 years, was being encouraged to run for the Congressional seat. Flynn was Boston's mayor for 10 years and is a past president of The Conference of Mayors, serving from 1991-1992.

Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles-Belton received the 1998 National Bar Association Gertrude E. Rush Distinguished Service Award, given annually to national leaders who demonstrate "exemplary concern for human and civil rights." The Gertrude E. Rush Award is the highest service recognition of the National Bar Association, the nation's oldest and largest organization of African American attorneys. The award was given to the Mayor at the annual NBA Awards Dinner held in Scottsdale Arizona. The award is named for the NBA's only female founder, Gertrude E. Rush, who was also the first African American woman admitted to practice law in her home state of Iowa in 1918.