Nation's Mayors Talk About Retail…and a Lot More

Mayor Beverly O'Neill of Long Beach, CA, current president of the US Conference of Mayors, lauded that organization's relationship with ICSC for helping hers become "a city transformed." She explained that after military cutbacks set Long Beach on its heels, "we depended on the shopping center industry to change the city," particularly in terms of waterfront redevelopment.

Picking up on the waterfront theme, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley said the process "takes visionary people, and we've continued to build on that," a reference to the fact that his city is one of the prime examples of waterfront redevelopment. He admitted that after all these years, it's still a work in progress, but "our downtown population has doubled. We've even brought in 18 supermarkets," admittedly an accomplishment for any city.

Indeed, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman admitted that despite all the growth his city and the region have seen, downtown Las Vegas still needs a lot of work. Among other things, "I want a grocery store downtown."

Carlson raised the issue of eminent domain, with O'Malley responding, "we couldn't have accomplished what we have without it. But we don't use it in a cavalier, reckless, irresponsible way."

What do you say to critics of eminent domain? While admitting that abuses in some places have caused a backlash, St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay explained that, "you need to have a system in place to make judicious use of it and avoid abuses. We haven't had any controversy in St. Louis." And according to Mayor Wayne Seybold of Marion, IN, his city's approach was to go to large owners of underutilized land "and make them partners."

As far as the often difficult effort to attract retailers into the cities, Mayor Shirley Franklin of Atlanta, which has seen significant in-migration of people, "our pitch is that people are coming back, and they need retail. And we've launched a marketing campaign to invite people in." Mayor Kay Barnes of Kansas City, MO explained that a lot of growth is coming from young people moving back into the city, "and that attracts retail."

And for Mayor Ross Ferraro of Carol Stream, IL, the pitch was simple: "We have no property tax." He noted that his city also has sales tax incentives, "and we've also streamlined the permitting process." On the subject of red tape, Mayor Michael Coleman of Columbus, OH noted that his city had plenty of it when he took office, "but we've changed that with a one-stop shop. Cities need to reinvent themselves."

Mayor Anthony Williams of Washington, DC concurred: "You have to remove the obstacles so investment will take its course. We had to get the message out that, 'the lights are on'." He also urged cities to "prioritize, because you can't do everything at once."

In terms of the aesthetics of redevelopment, "we bring developers to the table early on, before the permitting process," explained Mayor Richard Sullivan, Jr. of Westfield, MA, where the goal is to blend development with the historical fabric of the city. That's also the case in Boston, with that city's Mayor Thomas Menino calling aesthetics "a challenge. Design is very important to us, and we have a community process."

Menino admitted, however, that despite the best intentions of that process, "you still have the meeting-goers. They hate their wives, they hate their boyfriends, they had a bad childhood and they hate everything, and they come out just to beat us up." Long Beach Mayor O'Neill admitted that the public process can be discouraging to developers, but urged the latter to "talk to the neighborhood. It's a process of education."

Concluded Columbus Mayor Coleman, "retail is part of the picture, obviously. But the cities themselves have to step up to provide good housing, jobs and infrastructure to set the table for retail."