From a City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations'Advisory Council on LGBT Issues news release
Chicago was represented by Bill Greaves, Director and Community Liaison of the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations' Advisory Council on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues at the International MANEO-Conference 2011, "Building a Queer and Tolerant Neighborhood," in Berlin, Germany, from November 30 to December 3, 2011. The 150 participants were elected officials, appointed officials, law-enforcement officers, entrepreneurs, and representatives of nonprofit social service agencies and non-governmental organizations from Amsterdam, Barcelona, Capetown, Chicago, Cologne, Dublin, Liverpool, Los Angeles, Montreal, Munich, New York, Oslo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Toronto, and other cities.
Greaves was invited by MANEO to make two presentations: 1) on the designation of Halsted Street as the first official gay neighborhood in the U.S. and its development as an economic engine and center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) tourism; and 2) on the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame as an official way to capture LGBT cultural history.
Fourteen (14) presentations on LGBT neighborhoods shaped the focus of the conference. Greaves's presentation on Chicago was the first and was enthusiastically received. Throughout the rest of the conference, Greaves said, "people consistently remarked that Chicago is leading the way and providing a model for others wishing to establish or sustain viable LGBT communities."
"A theme clearly emerged," Greaves continued. "Successful LGBT neighborhoods are significant indicators of the economic health of cities and their ability to attract a creative cultural class that will stimulate economic development. A secondary theme emerged as well: these neighborhoods are vulnerable. For example, once thriving LGBT neighborhoods in Sydney, Australia, and Amsterdam have all but disappeared in the last 10 years."
"By the end of the conference," he said, "it had been repeatedly demonstrated that LGBT neighborhoods require the following if they are to be sustained: visible government support, a strong business association, strong community institutions and organizations, physical spaces that serve as anchors and/or symbols for LGBT culture, events that draw LGBT residents and tourists to the neighborhood, and permeable boundaries that allow interaction with the larger city environment."
Participants in the conference included the Vice-President of the European Parliament, the Mayor of Berlin, the Mayor of Cologne, the Deputy-Mayor of Amsterdam, the Ambassador of Argentina in Germany, elected City officials from Amsterdam, Berlin, Cologne, San Francisco, and Tel Aviv, and many appointed City officials, including the Deputy Director of International Relations and Research and Senior Planner in the Economic Development Unit for the Dublin City Council and the Mayor of Paris's advisor and liaison to the LGBT communities.
MANEO is an independent project of and supported by Mann-O-Meter e.V., Berlin's gay information and advice centre since 1985. The International MANEO conference is part of the MANEO-Violence Prevention Campaign and is under the patronage of the Mayor of Berlin. It is supported by the City of Berlin, the Presidents of the Berlin Police, Berlin Tourismus Marketing, the Völklinger Kreis, and the more than 80 partners of the MANEO Tolerance Federation.