Building cities for citizens: Metropolis analyses how to Live the City

29.05.2015

Over 450 mayors and representatives of the world's major cities and metropolitan regions, together with partners, professionals and academics, came together in Buenos Aires between 18 and 21 May 2015.

Over 450 mayors and representatives of the world’s major cities and metropolitan regions, together with partners, professionals and academics, came together in Buenos Aires between 18 and 21 May 2015, at the invitation of the city’s Government, to attend the annual meeting of Metropolis. The event was opened by the President of the organisation and President of the Ile-de-France region, Jean-Paul Huchon, and by the Mayor of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri. In their opening speeches, they made reference to the 30th anniversary of the creation of the leading global network of major metropolises, emphasizing the need to build cities for the people, where citizens can “Live the City“, the meeting’s key theme.

The event, which was preceded by meetings of Metropolis’ women and youth networks, included different sessions on the role of sport in urban transformation, creative and collaborative cities, cities that are resilient to climate change, open urban innovation, friendly mobility and community leadership; along with visits to learn about the experiences developed in the neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires.

During the two plenary sessions dedicated to the “Live the City” topic and the “Voice of the Mayors” – one of which was chaired by Josep Roig, Secretary General of UCLG – statements from the following participants were heard: Parks Tau, Mayor of Johannesburg (South Africa), Michael Müller, Mayor of Berlin (Germany), Denis Coderre, Mayor of Montreal (Canada), Ana Olivera, Mayor of Montevideo (Uruguay), José Fortunati, Mayor of Porto Alegre (Brazil), Mónica Fein, Mayor of Rosario (Argentina), and Daniela Chacón, Deputy Mayor of Quito. Statements were also made by a number of ministers, directors and sectoral secretaries from the cities of Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Mexico, Bogotá, Medellín, Santiago de Chile, Barcelona, the Brussels-Capital Region, Seoul, Guangzhou, and Sydney, among others. 

During this meeting, the Board of Directors of Metropolis adopted a Declaration for the Lyon Conference, the World Summit on Climate and Territories, to be held on 1-2 July 2015, in preparation for COP 21. In the Declaration, major cities undertook to control greenhouse gas emissions, in order to keep the rise in the minimum temperature below 2oC from now until 2050. In addition, the Board of Directors decided to support UCLG and the Global Taskforce in the facilitating of the Second World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments, which will take place in the framework of Habitat III in Quito, in October 2016. Metropolis also adopted a preliminary statement for Habitat III during the sessions.

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During the PrepCity session, organised by the city of Berlin, Josep Roig, Secretary General of UCLG made an intervention to present the process driven by UCLG to develop the Global Agenda of Local and Regional Governments for the 21st Century . It was also noted that PrepCity would contribute to this process.

In parallel to this annual meeting, the cities of Guangzhou and Buenos Aires, together with Metropolis and UCLG, organised a workshop on “Urban innovation” to promote the sharing of the experiences of the cities shortlisted for the Guangzhou Award, which was presented in November 2014.

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