KINGSTON – Twenty-four visitors from 23 countries were in Kingston this past week as part of the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program.
They met with Mayor Steve Noble and other city officials in a program created to strengthen US engagement with countries around the world and cultivate lasting relationships by connecting foreign leaders with their American counterparts.
The focus of the trip was visiting “sustainable cities” to explore and exchange best practices in environmentally sound create urban planning and the design and maintenance of infrastructure systems in urban areas, and to consider methods of collaboration among national and international specialists as a means of furthering the resilience of cities.
During the visit to Kingston, the guests visited some of the city’s sustainable development initiatives and partnerships including Energy Square, Lace Mill, Broadway Streetscapes project, the Greenline, and Empire State Trail, municipal solar installations, and electric vehicle infrastructure.
They toured the Rondout Creek and Hudson River waterfront’s Weaving the Waterfront resiliency and adaptation projects, the Kingston Land Trust’s Mason Hill Land in Black Hands acquisition, the YMCA Farm Project and the Ulster County Resource Recovery compositing operation.
Mayor Noble also lead the group on a kayak tour on the Hudson River.
The international group also visited Washington, DC, New York City, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and New Orleans.
