With an eye on the future, Michigan City Mayor Angie Nelson Deuitch has invested significant time during her first year in office connecting with community and economic development experts from around the country. With the knowledge, tools and other resources she has gathered, Michigan City continues to grow and succeed, attracting attention on a national scale.

As a result, Mayor Angie was one of seven U.S. mayors invited to attend the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, hosted at the University of Florida School of Architecture in October. Joining the mayors were seven design leaders with expertise in architecture, arts and culture, economic development, landscape architecture, transportation, urban design and urban planning.

The cohort spent 2.5 days workshopping ongoing or upcoming projects from each of the mayors’ communities, generating creative solutions to complex problems. Topics of discussion ranged from revitalizing main streets and bringing nature into urban areas to improving safety and promoting community healing.

The Michigan City case study question Mayor Angie took to the workshop: “How can city leaders best leverage infrastructure funding to support their walkability, quality of life, and economic development goals along East Michigan Boulevard?”

In her presentation, Mayor Angie focused on the historical vibrancy of the area and acknowledged the lack of investment over the last several decades.

“The resource team helped me refocus my perspective on making Michigan Boulevard vibrant for people and neighborhoods, not the actual road for cars just passing through,” she said. “They asked tough questions and provided great feedback.

“We need to slow Michigan Boulevard down and provide funding to allow local businesses to thrive there. My goal was to gain knowledge to help submit a more robust RAISE grant through the Department of Transportation. Great experience.”

The Mayors’ Institute on City Design is a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors. Since 1986, MICD has helped transform communities through design by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities. For more information, visit micd.org and follow @MICDdotORG on social media.