There is so much to discuss this week that I’m struggling to narrow my thoughts. So here is a bullet list to start:
• New Leadership in Place Management (LPM) Certification applications will be accepted until August 15th, 2022. Join the growing LPM Registry as we look forward to recognizing our inaugural certified professionals at the Annual Conference & Marketplace in Vancouver.
• Annual Conference & Marketplace registration is booming – over six hundred and growing. It will be incredible, so don’t miss the early registration deadline on July 27, 2022.
• California Downtown Association’s sustained advocacy efforts successfully initiated a bill to amend the state BID law. It passed the legislature and is on the Governor’s desk.
• IDA members in Canada completed a survey of top federal policy issues and are preparing to meet for a policy summit at the Vancouver conference to set goals for 2023.
• IDA members in the U.S. are currently developing the 2023 legislative strategies to address their top four priorities: Public Safety, Homelessness, Economic Development & Placemaking and Housing. Background policy issue briefs on each are available.
The last three bullets are quite telling in that the role of policy and advocacy remains top of mind for many today. We are coming off the long weekend celebrating Canada Day and the Fourth of July. In the past, these were extraordinary celebrations where countries united in mass to celebrate. And yet this year, the mood seemed different. The weekend was clothed in mixed emotions, protests, violence and a bleak awareness of the growing polarized politics many countries continue to wrestle with.
Now is the time to build a strong united voice for federal investment in our city centers and commercial neighborhoods. Like the California Downtown Association, whose multi-year investment in sustained state advocacy is delivering results, so too must IDA invest greater sustained efforts on both Parliament Hill in Ottawa and Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. We know how decisions by elected officials, and even the courts, can positively and negatively affect our districts, their businesses and residents. IDA’s long tradition of providing education, research and information will not be sufficient to overcome the changing needs of our places. We must now build a robust public policy program and do so quickly!