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John Norquist

Speech Topics:
New Urbanism and the Future of Cities
Impact of Freeways on City Vitality
The Wealth of Cities: Revitalizing the Centers of American Life
The Growing Importance of Urban Design

John Norquist, president and CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism and a former big-city mayor, is a national leader in discussions of urban design and the relationship between the art of building and the making of community. He speaks on New Urbanism as an alternative to sprawl and an antidote to sprawl's social and environmental problems. The nonprofit Congress for the New Urbanism pledges to stop sprawl, end the separation of peoples by race and income and halt environmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and wilderness, and the erosion of community.

Norquist was the mayor of Milwaukee from 1988–2004. Under his leadership, Milwaukee experienced a decline in poverty, saw a boom in new downtown housing, and became a leading center of education and welfare reform. He oversaw a revision of the city's zoning code and reoriented development around walkable streets and public amenities such as the city's 3.1-mile Riverwalk. Norquist sees highways as the great destroyers of a city's soul and has drawn widespread recognition for championing the removal of a .8 mile stretch of elevated freeway in the heart of Milwaukee (Park East Freeway), clearing the way for an anticipated $250 million in infill development. He was also strongly in favor of light-rail as a solution for the city's transit problems, although his dream never came close to fruition. As mayor, he consistently reduced the property tax rate every year he was in office and kept city budgets from growing beyond the rate of inflation.

A leader in national discussions of urban design and educational issues, Norquist is the author of The Wealth of Cities, and has taught courses in urban policy and urban planning at the University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning, and at Marquette University.

Norquist served in the Army Reserves from 1971 to 1977 and earned his undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin. He represented Milwaukee's south and west sides in the Wisconsin Legislature. He chaired the National League of Cities Task Force on Federal Policy and Family Poverty and served on the Amtrak Reform Council.

Travels from Chicago.

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