Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley visits sister city Kyiv (11/20/05)

Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley visits sister city Kyiv

by Marta Farion

KYIV - Chicago's ongoing international exchange relationship with Kyiv was personalized last month when Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley visited Ukraine for the first time, meeting again with his Kyiv counterpart Mayor Oleksander O. Omelchenko, as well as with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and other Ukrainian officials, educators, cultural leaders and businesspersons.

Mayor Daley's visit to Kyiv was organized by the Chicago International Sister City Program and arranged by the Chicago-Kyiv Sister Cities Committee, which had sought to schedule such a visit for several years.

Chicago's mayor decided over the past summer that the time was right for such a visit, after he followed press accounts of last winter's Orange Revolution and later met President and Mrs. Yushchenko during their celebrated visit to Chicago in April.

Chicago's official delegation to Kyiv also included the mayor's wife, Maggie Daley; mayoral press secretary Jackie Heard; Kenneth Meyer and Barbara Grochala Kruesi of the mayor's Office of Intergovernmental Affairs; as well as this writer, Chicago-Kyiv Sister Cities Committee Chair Marta Farion; international coordinator Kate Heilman, and committee members Vera Eliashevsky, Julian Kulas, Lida Truchly, Motria Melnyk and Deputy Director of Chicago's Department of Public Health Victor Wojtychiw.

Chicago mayor's Kyiv agenda

Mayor Daley's three days in Kyiv involved a wide range of activities, both ceremonial and substantive. Kyiv Mayor Omelchenko hosted Mr. Daley at a formal reception convened at the city's spectacular Hall of Columns at the City Administration Building, along with about 200 invited international ambassadors, members of Ukraine's Parliament, former consuls general of Ukraine to Chicago, and leaders of business, culture and education.

Following presentations of flowers at Kyiv's monuments dedicated to Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine's Great Famine and Babyn Yar, the Chicago mayor visited Kyiv's Harmonia School, where the Chicago-Kyiv Sister Cities Committee developed an electronic program in virtual learning. Under the guidance of the committee's head of education programs, Motria Melnyk, the Harmonia experiment is regarded to be the prototype for other such programs that the committee intends to launch at four other Chicago-Kyiv sister schools.

Mayor Daley's delegation also participated in a celebration of the 390th anniversary of the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy (NUKMA), which was attended by many members of President Yushchenko's administration: First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko, Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, ambassadors of various countries, other invited national and city dignitaries, and about 1,000 NUKMA students and teaching staff.

In addressing the convocation, Mayor Daley spoke about the value of ongoing educational programs between Kyiv Mohyla Academy and Chicago's Northwestern University and the University of Illinois School of Public Health.

In addition, an international business forum was organized with the participation of U.S. Ambassador John Herbst, the American Chamber of Commerce in Kyiv, the Kyiv Chamber of Commerce, Kyiv Mohyla Business School and the Kellogg School of Business at Chicago's Northwestern University. Both mayors addressed the forum, and each talked about his city's respective urban problems and prospects, from contemplated construction and beautification programs to their commitments to schools and other public services.

Special events for Chicago mayor

A luncheon for Mayor Daley's delegation was hosted by Ambassador Herbst at the ambassador's residence in the Podil section of Kyiv. Also in attendance was former U.S. ambassador and Mrs. William Miller, who joined the delegation at the U.S. Embassy.

For Mayor Daley, the U.S. ambassador's luncheon provided an opportunity to discuss the economic, employment and social problems associated with large cities and also the changing political climate in Ukraine.

At this luncheon, Ambassador Herbst announced that the U.S. and Ukrainian governments had just agreed to the sale of four hectares of prime Kyiv land to the U.S. for $7.3 million (U.S.) for construction of a new U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.

Finally, Mayor Daley and his delegation were honored when hosted by President and Mrs. Yushchenko at their "dacha" on the outskirts of Kyiv at a memorable luncheon - perhaps the crowning point of the delegation's visit to Ukraine. This occasion was convened in a sprawling physical setting which President and Mrs. Yushchenko have recreated to preserve traditional Ukrainian architecture, interior décor and historic folklore.

After a long afternoon at the beautiful hideaway, Chicago's Mayor Daley turned his attention to the next stops on his tour - a visit to Warsaw and Krakow in Poland.

Returning home

Leaving Kyiv's Boryspil Airport, Mayor Daley said, "This is such a beautiful city, and Maggie [Mrs. Daley] and I will always remember the energy, determination and warmth of its people." The mayor added, "The spirit of democracy and an open society must be sustained."

Distinguished among America's big city mayors for his international interests, Mr. Daley's mayoral tenure in Chicago has established and maintained Sister City Committees to undertake exchanges with 25 cities throughout the world. The city's International Sister City Program is administered by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs under the jurisdiction of the mayor's office.

Of Chicago's 25 Sister City Committees, the Chicago-Kyiv Committee has been especially active in the past 10 years, having staged a variety of cultural, governmental, economic, medical, educational and social service exchanges (see sidebar).

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