Partners’ long-term board member Neal Peirce has recently announced the expansion of Citistates Group coverage from national to global. Along with this new focus comes a new website- Citiscope.org.
Last Friday, for an audience of several thousand at the concluding session of the Fifth World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Partners' Board Member Neal Peirce was able to make the official announcement.
The text of the announcement is below. For a full taste of what the service will be like, several lead stories included, please take look at the beta web site—Citiscope.org. It includes the "who, what, when and how" of the new service, which will be launched full-bore in the near future.
Remarks to the World Urban Forum—by Neal Peirce
Across the continents, today's cities are coming up with new and intriguing solutions to the massive problems cities face in this century. From city halls to neighborhood councils, the wave of originality is amazing.
But the mainstream media too often fails to "get it." News of cities' disasters or crises or scandals get coverage. But there are rarely reports of original, noteworthy innovations—stories that could lead to inventive adaptation in other cities, whether they're next door or across oceans.
We think the gap imperils cities' learning and progress. In close cooperation with the World Urban Campaign, assisted by Cities Alliance and UN-Habitat, we've developed a new global news service—we're calling it Citiscope.org.
Our goal: to report regularly on cities' notable new approaches and solutions on every issue from climate adaptation to local food self-sufficiency to slum upgrading. Professional journalists in the breakthrough cities will be invited to write the stories —objectively, clearly, for worldwide dissemination. We'll aim for a constantly growing global reader base. And media worldwide will be invited to pick up the reports.
The website, again, is Citiscope.org. Please check out our first group of stories. Submit story ideas yourself. Help us tap the world's top expert commentary, seek out inventive links, help inventive NGOs spread word of their star experiments, track the vital urban trends—and make a real difference for this Century of the City.
t trip “Down Under”, Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield found many similarities between his community and that of Mayor Paul Pisasale of Ipswich, Australia. Both cities are essentially bisected by waterways and both are focusing on returning to the riverfront, quality of life and sustainable development as keys to a brighter future. “I was very impressed by all that I saw there,” said Littlefield. “Both cities have the same heart. Ipswich even has a walking bridge using an old railroad trestle which mirrors our restored Walnut Street Bridge in downtown Chattanooga.” Littlefield noted that other features were remarkable such as both cities having railroad museums and even such interesting details as back-in angle parking in the downtown area. “We thought that we were doing something different in Chattanooga” Littlefield noted. 
mmunity of today that regularly the 2 mayors makes top ten lists of most livable cities. While in Australia, he also spoke to attendees at a conference sponsored by the International Riverfoundation, to a gathering of members of Partners for Livable Communities Australia, and a meeting of the Moreton Regional Council. In a meeting with executives of Cisco Systems in Brisbane, Littlefield outlined Chattanooga’s world class fiber optic smart grid system that is moving his community ahead in the digital age and “once more, putting Chattanooga on the short list of progressive cities”.