Mayor Dave Cieslewicz returned from Washington, D.C., late Sunday night from the annual New Cities Project meetings, held to share ideas with other progressive mayors from around the nation.

Cieslewicz's travels to the nation's capital marked the third meeting of the New Cities Project, an organized effort established by Cieslewicz and the Madison Center on Wisconsin Strategy in February 2005.

According to COWS research associate Matt Mayrl, COWS and Cieslewicz came together to form an association of progressive mayors and to hold meetings to hear new policy ideas.

"They can [then] take those ideas home and try to put them into place if they so choose," Mayrl added.

Though the project is relatively young, the mayors discussed a variety of issues at the past two meetings, held in Chicago, Ill., and Racine, Wis., according to George Twigg, spokesperson for the mayor.

Mayrl said Cieslewicz shared ideas in past meetings, especially regarding affordable housing in local communities.

"He was able to share his experiences about putting in place the inclusionary zoning ordinance," he said. "He was able to talk about the challenges that he faced and how he was able to get it accomplished."

According to Mayrl, discussions at the meeting this past weekend centered on topics such as economic development, financing community-development initiatives, crime and drug policy and climate change, among others.

"Hopefully mayors who go take home one or two things," he said. "Or, at the very least, have broad content on issues from talking to national experts."

Mayor Tom Bates of Berkeley, Calif., said climate change and global warming in communities remained a prominent topic of interest at this year's meeting.

"We're not getting leadership at the national level and we're certainly not getting leadership from the state level," he said. "We need to show the country that we can have the policy … so people can see that they need to do something about global warming."

Bates also elaborated on the importance of gathering input from mayors from around the nation.

"That's the beauty of the project," he said. "When you bring together a series of mayors and they have a chance to talk and exchange ideas, good ideas come forward."