St. Cloud has recently gained global recognition and it’s not because the Husky hockey season just began.
The beloved Cloud Town recently won a competition even greater than a hockey game. In fact, the city won a bronze medal in an international competition hosted in the Czech Republic for the most livable communities in the world.
This is the second time in three years St. Cloud has been a finalist for the award. St. Cloud tied for the top spot in 2007.
According to the St. Cloud Times, last Monday, it was announced that St. Cloud received a bronze in the Whole City Awards for cities with the population of 20,001 to 75,000.
St. Cloud was up against other finalist cities like Annapolis, Maryland; Canada Bay, Australia; Eger, Hungary; Tabor, Czech Republic and Newark-On-Trent, England.
Each year, many cities apply but few make it to the final competition.
“In the competition held in London a few years ago, hundreds applied but only six or seven advanced to the final competition,” said Mike Williams, St. Cloud’s City Administrator.
In order to compete in the competition, each city must self-nominate their cities and present a portfolio and presentation of what their city has to offer which is then reviewed by the LivCom organization.
LivCom offers awards including The Whole City Award, Project Award, Bursary Award and Personal Award.
The Whole City Award, which the city won the second of two gold medals inpopulation size in 2007, is judged on a number of different criteria and is not compared against other cities within their population category.
According to LivCom’s Web site livecomawards.com, cities are judged on how they perform according to the cultural, political, economic, geographic and climactic environment in terms of where the city is located.
The specific criteria that LivCom uses is based on the enhancement of the city’s landscape, heritage management, environmentally sensitive practices, community sustainability, healthy lifestyles and planning for the future.
In 2007, St. Cloud won first prize in the planning category.
Williams said he knows that St. Cloud’s planning is what sets it apart from many other cities.
“Our planning is what makes us unique,” Williams said, “We plan well with the counties and communities around to seek federal money to serve the surrounding area.”
By planning with other communities, St. Cloud officials have been able to acquire more federal funds for public transportation, parks and other services because of their collaborative efforts to work together and serve a greater amount of people. St. Cloud’s planning work with cities and counties has made sales tax partnerships.
“This is why we are successful in the LivCom process,” Williams said.
The chance to work collaboratively with other communities and share ideas is another benefit that St. Cloud receives in participating in the LivCom conference.
At the conferences, cities from around the world come together and share what they have done to make their cities better for their citizens to live in.
Williams said St. Cloud got the idea for the Fried Ride bus SCSU uses that runs mostly on vegetable oil at the 2007 conference.
St. Cloud also vied for LivCom’s Bursary Award, which focuses on one project that the city undertakes.
The Lake George Project was a finalist in this category and if they win first place they could receive 10,000 euros or about $15,000 to further develop the project.
The LivCom Web site presents that the LivCom Awards began in 1997 and is the world’s only awards competition that focuses on best practices regarding the management of local environments.
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