By ANNIE BUI
Joining mayors from around the country, Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 headed to Washington, D.C. earlier this week to attend the “Mayors Manufacturing Summit” at the White House, according to a City of Ithaca press release.
Myrick took to social media Wednesday to announce his departure, tweeting, “I’m headed to the White House tomorrow. One of 20 mayors invited to a manufacturing summit.”
As part of the trip, Myrick collaborated with other local officials selected from across the country to discuss ways to invigorate high-tech manufacturing and revitalization in communities like Ithaca. The summit is part of new manufacturing initiatives and collaborations introduced by the White House this week, according to a City of Ithaca press release.
During the summit, mayors engaged in discussion about manufacturing as a central component of President Barack Obama’s Middle Class Jobs Agenda, the press release said. The Obama administration hopes to spark middle class job growth through measures such as “rebuilding American infrastructure,” “strengthening America’s manufacturing communities” and “creating good manufacturing jobs” within the country.
Myrick said in the press release that having the opportunity to present a “community-based agenda for advanced manufacturing” to the President and his team would be valuable.
“This is … important to cities like Ithaca, which is not only an established hub for manufacturing jobs, but also a partner with higher education institutions like Cornell University and Ithaca College, who have made programs like nanotechnology, advanced energy, technology innovation and materials engineering a key part of their educational role in the new economy,” Myrick said.
Myrick also said he was pleased to be part of the group invited by the White House to take on the issues of manufacturing and community revitalization, according to the release.
“I look forward to sharing Ithaca’s ideas with the Obama Administration’s manufacturing and economic policy team,” Myrick said Wednesday.
Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Gene Sperling, director of the President’s National Economic Council, were among many top Obama Administration officials and leading private sector manufacturing innovators who were part of the summit, according to the press release.