City of Elkhart's Mayor Rod Roberson recently received the annual IMCL Mayors’ Vision Award.
Roberson received the award at the International Making Cities Livable conference in Cortona, Italy.
Michael Mehaffy, institute director, said that Roberson was chosen because of his transformative leadership in creating plans to redevelop downtown Elkhart. His achievements include planning Elkhart’s Benham area revitalization and establishing public-private partnerships to build the River District. Roberson is in his second term as mayor.
Over 100 conference attendees from every continent except Antarctica represented governments, practitioners, NGO heads and researchers. They shared knowledge about current challenges for livable and sustainable cities, towns and suburbs around the world.
The International Making Cities Livable conference series started in 1985. It was founded by Suzanne Lennard, a British architectural and urban scholar, and Henry Lennard, a Viennese medical sociologist.
Since its founding, the IMCL has become a peer-to-peer gathering of city leaders and researchers. The conference is typically hosted in instructive case-study locales in the United States and Europe. The IMCL believes there is no substitute for a component of face-to-face and on-the-ground learning, sharing effective tools and strategies to drive positive change for cities.
