Urban Innovator Award Winner

2001
Mayor Brown Receives Urban Innovator Award

On May 11, CCI bestowed on Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown our highest honor, the Urban Innovator Award. Former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith introduced Mayor Brown and presented him with the award in a ceremony at Oakland's Lake Merritt Hotel. The event was underwritten by the William H. Donner Foundation.

Long known as a maverick for attacking special interests, Mayor Brown has pursued major reform initiatives in policing, education, and quality of life. As Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Heather Mac Donald noted in the Autumn 1999 issue of City Journal, Mayor Brown embodies 'an emerging national consensus regarding what cities need in order to flourish—public safety, order, decent schools, and respect for private creativity.'

In his introductory remarks, Mr. Goldsmith touched upon another of Mayor Brown's contributions to solid urban governance. Upon arriving in Oakland, he had asked a taxi driver how things seemed to him under Mayor Brown. The first thing the cabbie mentioned was that 'honesty had returned to city government.'

In accepting the award, Mayor Brown spoke about his vision of 'what cities should be.' Extolling the benefits of local control, he described the many improvements Oaklandhas made without assistance from federal or state government. He also criticized the failed compact of the Great Society, praised the work of urban ministers, and hailed City Journal for changing way people think about cities.