Thessaloniki Mayor Named in World’s Top 10
Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris joins the ranks of the best mayors around the globe as he was named today one of the top 10 awardees for the 2014 World Mayor Prize.
Mayor Boutaris, who has been the mayor of Thessaloniki since January 2011 — elected for a second term with 58 percent of votes in May 2014 — competed with 26 mayors around the world and came in eighth.
According to World Mayor’s website, Mayor Boutaris has been praised by European institutions for his policies and attitudes during the crisis years between 2010 and 2012, reduced the number of city council departments and staff and brought the budget under control whilst protecting important services. He has set a timetable for phased reductions in local taxes.
“Yiannis Boutaris has promoted ethnic and religious inclusivity by, for instance, reaching out to Jewish people and across borders to communities in neighboring countries,” it is noted on World Mayor’s website.
Commenting on the results, Mr. Boutaris said in a statement: “This is an important distinction especially for Thessaloniki and a great success considering the size of the cities that participated in the competition and the countries they represent.”
Mayor Boutaris underlined that the result of the 2014 World Mayor competition is one more step in his coordinated effort to “open up” the city and increase its brand awareness, so as to create conditions for tourism growth, among other things, within an extremely difficult economic period.
The top 10 Mayors of World Mayor 2014
Rank
|
Mayor
|
City
|
Country
|
1
|
Naheed Nenshi | Calgary | Canada |
2
|
Daniël Termont | Ghent | Belgium |
3
|
Tri Rismaharini | Surabaya | Indonesia |
4
|
Carlos Ocariz | Sucre | Venezuela |
5
|
Jed Patrick Mabilog | Iloilo City | Philippines |
6
|
Albrecht Schröter | Jena | Germany |
7
|
Annise Parker | Houston | USA |
8
|
Yiannis Boutaris | Thessaloniki | Greece |
9
|
Giusy Nicolini | Lampedusa | Italy |
10
|
Aziz Kocaoglu | Izmir | Turkey |
The 2014 World Mayor Prize was awarded to Naheed Nenshi, the Mayor of Calgary, Canada. First runner-up Daniël Termont, Mayor of Ghent, Belgium, will be conferred the World Mayor Commendation for Services to European Cities. Second runner-up Mayor Tri Rismaharini will receive the World Mayor Commendation for services to the City of Surabaya, Indonesia.
The World Mayor Prize is awarded to a mayor who has made outstanding contributions to his and her community and has developed a vision for urban living and working that is relevant to towns and cities across the world. The prize is given to the mayor that received the most votes through a public voting on the website www.Worldmayor.com. The competition is held every two years by the World Mayors Foundation.
Previous winners include the mayors of Bilbao (2012), Mexico (2010), Cape Town (2008), Melbourne (2006), Athens (Dora Bakoyannis, mayor of Athens in 2005) and Tirana (2004).