Mayor Larry Gilbert

Mayor's Corner: Mayors’ Institute on City Design at Northeastern University

Twin City Times- Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
Mayor's Corner #109

On August 21, 2009, I received a letter from Mr. George Thrush, FAIA, and Director of the School of Architecture at Northeastern University in Boston. He wrote that I was selected as one of a small group of mayors to participate in the October 7-9, 2009 session of the Mayors Institute on City Design (MICD). The institute is sponsored through the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Architectural Foundation, and the United States Conference of Mayor. There was no cost to the City of Lewiston.

The letter stated that since 1986, the Mayors’ Institute has helped transform communities through design by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities. This particular institute was hosted by the School of Architecture at Northeastern University. It brought together 7 mayors and a select group of planners, architects, landscape designers and other national experts who explored opportunities in each of our cities. It gave us the opportunity to learn new approaches to some of the urban challenges confronting our communities.

Last month Mr. Daniel Hewett who is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Northeastern’s School of Architecture traveled here to Lewiston. Acting City Administrator Phil Nadeau, Assistant to the City Administrator Lincoln Jeffers, Energy Sczar Ian Houseal and I met with him at city hall for a couple of hours discussing the proposed strategic plan covering the Riverfront Island area of downtown Lewiston. This area encompasses all of Island Point, Canal Street to Cedar Street and the river front all the way back to Island Point near the Great Falls. The entire area is encircled by water be it by our canals or the Androscoggin River.

We provided Mr. Hewett with a briefing of what has been developed in the area as well as what is proposed for the area. We stressed to him that our canals and the river are resources that we have that have not been developed for enjoyment by our community and in particular our young adults. 

We explained that with our educational institutions in Lewiston-Auburn, we educate our young people only to have them leave to work in areas where there is a great deal of vitality and recreational activity for them to enjoy. If we are to retain and attract an educated workforce to bring in industries and economic development, we must be able to demonstrate that we have such a workforce here in order for employers and developers to invest in this area.

Mayor's Corner: International Association of Francophone Mayors in Paris

Twin City Times- Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Mayor's Corner #108

As mayor of Maine’s second largest city, I was honored to be recommended by Ms. France Dionne, the Quebec Government Delegate to New England based in Boston to attend the 30th anniversary of the International Association of Francophone Mayors in Paris, France during the period October 1-6, 2009. In attendance were mayors from throughout the world.

Upon my arrival at Charles de Gaulle International Airport, I was greeted by Mr. David Elkaïm, the Chargé de Mission Affaires Générales and Mr. François Hemon, who served as my chauffeur during my stay in Paris. It was early morning and like most major cities, there was a traffic jam, so it took us over an hour to get to the Hotel Scribe next to Garnier’s Opera House.  Like everything in Paris, it is a very ornate building. 

On Monday, October 2nd, my chauffeur picked me up at the hotel and drove me to the Petit Palais, which wasn’t so petit but quite grand. There was a military orchestra waiting for us and a red carpet leading us all the way up the stairs to a grand entrance with gold leaf gates. My driver insisted on opening the door for me so that he would be proper. The place looked like a palace. My name was on a chair in the first row and there were about 200 in attendance.

The event started with a procession led by former President of France, Mr. Jacques Chirac and Mr. Bertrand Delanoë, Mayor of Paris, and the President of the Association Internationale des Maires Francophones (AIMF). During the séance solonnelle d’ouverture, President Chirac spoke of his creation of the organization 30 years ago when he and the former Mayor of Quebec City started the organization. Mayor Delanoë talked about the ongoing work of the association. It was stated that more than half of the world’s population lives in cities.

Mr. Jorge Sampaio, former President of Portugal from 1996 to 2006 spoke on the creation of “Dialogue Café. This is a pilot program in six cities throughout the world where young people will communicate via HDTV where they will meet and exchange ideas dealing with cultural diplomacy, human rights, inter-cultural dialogue and inter-religious dialogue. It is amazing what can be accomplished around a cup of coffee. It sort of reminds me of my “Coffee’s with the Mayor,” yet on a grandeur scale.

Mayor Gilbert to Present Lewiston, Maine for Development at the 2009 Northeast Session of the Mayors' Institute on City Design in Boston

"Riverfront redevelopment" will be the topic of Mayor Larry Gilbert's upcoming presentation at the 2009 Northeast Session of the Mayors' Institute on City Design in Boston. 
 
Gilbert was invited to attend the Institute by George Thrush, Director of Northeastern University's School of Architecture, and will be in Boston October 7-9 for a privately funded all-expenses-paid visit with mayoral colleagues and design experts. He will join other mayors from Norwalk, Connecticut; Niagara Falls, New York; Cranston, Rhode Island; Rutland, Vermont; Nashua, New Hampshire; and Brockton, Massachusetts.
 
The Institute brings mayors together with planners, architects, landscape designers, and other national professionals who will explore opportunities in each of the mayor's cities.  The roundtable discussions that follow each mayoral presentation will offer a rare opportunity for some of the finest designers and development experts in the country to determine how quality design can improve the way a particular city looks and functions. 
 
Thrush notes, "Mayors who have participated in past Institutes have indicated they return to their communities with a better understanding of design and design process and a repertoire of new tools and ideas to tackle complex design issues and solutions."
 
Upon receiving the invitation to participate, Mayor Gilbert responded, "I am very honored to be invited to interact with and learn from both attending mayors and design experts.  It is my hope that I will come away with exciting design possibilities for consideration in the City's plan for the redevelopment of our riverfront."
 
On Friday September 25th, 2009, Mayor Gilbert, Acting City Administrator Phil Nadeau, and City staff met with Daniel Hewett and Christina Crawford from Northeastern University for a Lewiston site visit pertaining to possible redevelopment of the downtown riverfront.  The group toured the area that starts at Island Point and extends along the river, down to the Bernard Lown Peace Bridge, and extends up from the river to Canal Street from Main to Cedar.
 
The Institute is sponsored through the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Architectural Foundation, and the United States Conference of Mayors. 

Related New Link:

[Sun Journal]

Mayor Gilbert Invited to Attend International Gathering of French-Speaking Mayors in Paris, France

Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert at the recommendation of the Quebec Government Delegate to New England, France Dionne--will join an international gathering of French-speaking mayors on October 1, 2009, in Paris, France, focusing on "Cities and the Dialogue of Cultures." 

The gathering will mark the 30th anniversary of the Association Internationale Des Maires Francophones  (AIMF), a branch of the Organization Internationale De La Francophonie (OIF). Gilbert will be attending at no cost to the City of Lewiston.

Started as a small club of northern French-speaking countries in 1970, the Francophonie has since evolved into a global organization whose numerous branches cooperate with its member states in the fields of culture, science, economy, justice, and peace. The Francophonie has been considered a French version of the Commonwealth of Nations and strives to promote cultural diversity and the use of the French language amongst member countries and throughout the world.   It also aims to stimulate education at all levels, economies, and lasting development, as well as impact major global debates.

Officially invited by Pierre Baillet, of the AIMF, French-speaking Gilbert noted, "It was an honor to be recommended by the Quebec Government Delegate to New England.  As I have now received the actual invitation to participate, I am looking forward to meeting mayors from around the world and exchanging thoughts and ideas with them."

Gilbert will indeed be interacting with mayors from numerous countries to include Egypt, Canada, Morocco, Togo, Madagascar, France, Romania, to name but a few.   At current time, there is only one other confirmed United States mayor attending, that of Mayor Joey Durel, Jr., of Lafayette, Louisiana, who is also the President of the Lafayette Parish Consolidation Government.

Specifically, the conference will focus on a new strategy to achieve inclusive societies.  The strategy is based upon inter-cultural dialogue applied to the workplace, to neighborhood life, to youth, to the media, and to the arts.  The strategy is touted as one that leads to harmonious interaction between persons and groups with different identities, as well as favoring social cohesion and economic development.

Attending mayors will consider what tools they can use; what the impact is of inter-cultural dialogue on economic and social development; and what might be the role of networks in developing such an approach to dialogue.

In addition, Gilbert will also attend workshops entitled Entrepreneurship and Health, Including Children's Healthcare; Neighborhood Schools and Other Neighborhood Spaces Where Dialogue Can be Useful; and The Roles of Networks and Networking in Pluralism.  Gilbert will also participate in a "Nuit Blanche," a     7 p.m. to 7 a.m. focus on contemporary arts.  The purpose of the event is to make art accessible to everyone, giving value to a shared heritage through contemporary artworks via a festive atmosphere. 

Media Related Links:

[Sun Journal]

[WMTW-TV 8]

Mayor's Corner: Congressional City Conference Beneficial to City Officials

Twin City Times- Thursday, March 26th, 2009
Mayor's Corner #80

Last week I attended the 2009 Annual Congressional City Conference of the National League of Cities (NLC), at the Mariott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC, with Ward 4 City Councilor Denis Theriault and Lewiston Deputy City Administrator Phil Nadeau. 

Ward 7 City Councilor Robert Reed was invited to participate in the National League of Cities, Cities for Financial Empowerment Municipal Financial Empowerment Symposium. He, as the Lewiston representative, due to his participation as a volunteer in the Earned Income Tax Credit Program here in Lewiston was invited as a guest, at no cost to the city, to share the workings of the program in Lewiston-Auburn.  This was held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel directly across from our hotel.  All four of us were invited to a reception with the group of representatives from two dozen cities to share in their efforts to strengthen financial empowerment initiatives and build partnerships for the future. We found it to be most productive interacting with representatives of the National League of Cities who work on this program.  We ended the evening with having dinner with Councilor Reed at his hotel before he left on Monday morning to return home.

Monday morning, I was provided with the honor and privilege to introduce United States Senator Susan M. Collins to the 2,000 attendees at the General Session. To view a video of my introduction and Senator Collins’s speech go to the following link:
http://www.nlctv.org/events/ccc2009/090314/default.cfm?id=10791&type=wmhigh&test=0 or go to www.nlctv.org and then click on the 2009 Congressional City Conference Logo and then on the photo of Senator Collins and it will start with my being introduced by an officer of the NLC, followed by my introduction of Senator Collins and then her speech..

Senator Collins was warmly welcomed by the conferees because of her hard work on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 or as it may more commonly be known as the “Stimulus Package.”  In talking about the state of our economy, she said that all of us are in this together; Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and Green Party. As Americans, she said we have a “can do attitude.”  She said that in Washington, DC bi-partisanship is viewed as a weakness, but with her 12 years of bi-partisan participation, she said it is truly hard work and requires a thick skin.

Criticism comes easily directed at those who work across the isle. She and Senator Snowe, both moderate republicans, do work in a true spirit of bi-partisanship and as a result, they get things done.  She said that a group of about 20 senators from both sides of the isle who are moderates worked together late into many nights to develop a stimulus package that eventually became the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. 

Mayor's Corner: A Gala Honoring an Extraordinary Man

Twin City Times- Thursday, September 18th, 2008
Mayor's Corner #52

 
L to R. Larry Gilbert, Kitty Dukakis, Governor Michael Dukakis, Dr. Bernard Lown

 
L to R. Larry Gilbert, Pat Gilbert, Alan Dershowitz, Al Harvie

I write about an extraordinary man who was honored Saturday night at the Seaport Hotel in Boston. This man is none other than Dr. Bernard Lown, an internationally renowned cardiologist who graduated from Lewiston High School in 1938 and went on to develop the direct current (DC) defibrillator that has saved thousands upon thousands of lives worldwide.

Dr. Lown has been and continues to be, even though he recently retired, a people’s doctor.  He is quoted as saying “Medicine is the art of engagement with the human condition rather than with the disease.”  I am currently reading his book entitled The Lost Art of Healing, Practicing Compassion in Medicine.  I would highly recommend it to anyone and most especially physicians.  As one doctor has said; “It should be required reading by everyone in medical school.”

In 1985, Dr. Lown and his Soviet counterpart Dr. Yevgeni Chazov, a Russian Cardiologist, won the Nobel Peace Prize, not for medicine, but for peace.  Together they founded the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.  This worldwide organization, made up of thousands of physicians, was able to gather enough data to demonstrate that the world could not survive a nuclear war. There simply weren’t enough hospitals and physicians to treat those afflicted by such an attack, the result being death.   

My wife, Pat, is currently reading his newly released book Prescription for Survival, a Doctor’s Journey to End Nuclear Madness.  I cannot wait to delve into that book. Periodically, my wife will present me with tidbits from the book written by this most extraordinary man.

Over a year ago while I was volunteering as an indoor track official at Bates College, Al Harvie, a Bates alumnus and retired teacher who has taught at Edward Little High School and Leavitt Area High School was serving as the announcer of the track meet.  During a break, he started telling me about this most extraordinary man, Dr. Bernard Lown.  He also told me that he was a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and had graduated from Lewiston High School. He said that nowhere in Lewiston-Auburn had he ever been recognized for his achievements.  Harvie suggested to me that the South Bridge that connects Lewiston’s Little Canada to New Auburn be named in Lown’s Honor.

Mayor's Corner: Networking and Marketing Done Right in Quebec

Twin City Times- Thursday, August 14, 2008
Mayor's Corner #48

(Photo:  l to r. Mayor Larry Gilbert symbolically arm wrestling with Mayor Stephen Brunet of Acadie-Bathurst, New Brunswick.  Acadie-Bathurst has a team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League that plays against the Lewiston MAINEiacs.  A rivalry now exists between the mayors in support of their local team.)

 In last week’s column I wrote about the importance of networking and marketing one’s community.  This weekend I experience a classic example of what I was writing about.

At the invitation of Québec City Mayor Régis Labeaume, several mayors from throughout the United States and Canada were invited for a Rendez-vous de la Franco-Amérique.  Attending from Maine along with me, were Mayors Roger Katz of Augusta and Paul LePage of Waterville.  Mayors from such places as North Miami, Florida; Lafayette, Louisiana; Berlin, New Hampshire; Burlington, Vermont; Midland, Michigan; Acadie-Bathurst, New Brunswick were in attendance.

With the compliments of the Mayor of Quebec we were provided with deluxe accommodations at the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac hotel. This was an historic gathering on the theme of Quebec’s links to cities and towns of North America. 

We were welcomed at a city hall reception by Mayor Labeaume, followed by a presentation from Ms. Jeanne Valois, Assistant chair, Université Laval’s Chaire de recherche sur la francophonie nord-américine, in the presence of the Consul General of the United States, Mr. David Fetter, and history experts which include our very own Professor Barry Rodrigue of the University of Southern Maine, Lewiston-Auburn.

The remainder of the day included a reception at an outdoor terrace at Espace 400 followed by the evening supper.  Then back onto the terrace to view The Image Mill Show that I wrote about a few weeks ago.

Mayor Gilbert Celebrates Quebec City's 400th Anniversary

Mayor Gilbert with Mayor Regis Labeaume of Quebec City in Mayor Labeaume's office.

Mayor Gilbert with United States Senator Patrick Lahey of Vermont.

Mayor Gilbert with Rita Dube at the New England Franco-American Monument in a park along the Fleuve St. Laurent.

Mayor Gilbert on July 2nd traveled to Québec City with his wife Patricia in his capacity as both Mayor of Lewiston and as President of the Board of Directors of the Franco-American Heritage Center (FAHC).  Traveling with the Gilberts was Rita Dubé, Executive Director of the FAHC and her husband Paul, owner of Dubé Travel Agency in Lewiston.

The two couples were there to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the discovery of Québec by Samuel de Champlain on July 3, 2008.  A reception for New Englanders attending was held in the City Council Chambers at Québec’s City Hall, followed by a wine reception in the Mayor’s Chambers.

The group then traveled along the Fleuve St. Laurent to a park for the unveiling of three monuments.  One monument was in honor of cities and towns in New England where French Canadians settled at the turn of the last century.  Another was a gift by the State of Vermont and the last by the Government of the United States.

Aside from Mayor Gilbert who represented Maine other dignitaries attending were Premier Ministre Jean Charest of Québec Province, Governor James Douglas of Vermont, United States Senator Patrick Lahey of Vermont, Mayor Régis Labeaume of Québec City and United States Consul General for Québec David Fetter.

The celebration continued on July 3rd with a spectacular event on the waterfront called The Image Mill. It was a 40 minute visual and audio production projected against the grain silos in the Port of Québec.  This huge concrete structure consists of 81 silos, which measure 600 meters long by 30 meters high. The show depicted Québec’s 400 year history.  It was simply awesome.

This spectacular was followed by a spectacular fireworks show over the Fleuve St. Laurent.

On Friday, July 4th entertainers from each of the New England states performed on the enclosed stage on the waterfront.  At the end of the day, the group returned home to Maine.