Urban Waterfronts 2010 Keynote Speaker

BALTIMORE, MD. - Keynote speaker at the Waterfront Center's annual conference here will be Bruce Katz, vice president of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. and founding director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program.

He will present on Friday morning, November 5, and will address the theme of Urban Waterfronts 2010: "The City Resurgent." In a profile appearing in a recent issue of The Next American City, Katz is described this way: "He's made a name for himself by condensing Big Ideas about the potential of cities into easily digested sound bites that policymakers once paid lip service to but now are actually speaking." He was also called "America's oracle for cities."

Buttressing the idea that cities are experiencing a comeback are recent U.S. Census estimates. Among cities shown to have grown between 2000 - 2008 are Atlanta, 416,474 to 537,958; Boston, 589,141 to 609,023; Columbus, Ohio, 711,470 to 754,885; Los Angeles, 3,694,820 to 3,833,995; New York, 8,008,275 to 8,363,710, and Washington, D.C., 579,112 to 591,833.

The policy program Mr. Katz runs at Brookings seeks to redefine the challenges facing cities and metropolitan areas by publishing cutting-edge research on major demographic, market, development and government trends. He focuses particularly on reforms that promote the revitalization of central cities and older suburbs and enhance the ability of these places to attract, retrain and grow the middle class.

The Waterfront Center's 28th annual international conference will feature 33 presenters in four simultaneous tracks grouped under economic development, design and policy issues. Included are panels on Innovative Planning, International Updates, Waterfront Zoning and Community Boating. The conference is preceded by an all-day workshop on the Baltimore waterfront aboard the Lady Sarah (extra feed required).


For more information, see the Center's Web site: www.waterfrontcenter.org/conference. For a copy of the conference program, e-mail mail@waterfrontcenter.org.