Chattanooga Mayor Andy BerkeMayor Andy Berke’s travels:Dec. 5 — Mayor’s Manufacturing Summit in Washington, D.C.Dec. 12-13 — Met with President Obama at the White House along with other mayors from across the countryJan. 8 — Spoke at Savannah Downtown Business Association’s business luncheonJan. 16-20 — Went to the Aspen Rodel Fellowship seminar for emerging public leaders in ColoradoJan. 20-24 — Conference of Mayors in Washington D.C., then meetings at the White HouseFeb. 27 — Met with Gov. Bill Haslam in NashvilleMarch 5-7 — Trip to Louisville for both business and personal meetingsMarch 17 — Attended the Tennessee Municipal League board meeting, then met with Haslam and other leaders in NashvilleMarch 29 — Attended Young Democrats and College Democrats of Tennessee’s joint conference in NashvilleApril 8-10 — Spoke at the Smart Cities Summit in Toronto, OntarioApril 30-May 1 — Spoke at the Bond Buyer’s Municipal Distress, Recovery and Fiscal Sustainability Symposium in BaltimoreMay 16 — At the Open Society Foundations board meeting in New YorkMay 29-30 — On a panel at Community Strategies for Broadband Innovation in Washington, D.C.June 4 — Invited to the White House for first lady Michelle Obama’s announcement on a federal initiative to end veterans homelessnessJune 8-9 — On a panel at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.June 24-25 — At the Federal Stakeholder Conference in Washington, D.C.July 14-15 — In Wolfsburg, Germany, for the Volkswagen announcement to add a second line in ChattanoogaSept. 17-19 — At the Mayor’s Institute on City Design, in Charleston, S.C.Sept. 22-23 — Spoke at the Shift Innovation: Community Development Conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas CityOct. 10 — A featured speaker at the “What Works” event in BostonOct. 16 — Presented at the Mayors Conference on Entrepreneurship in Louisville, Ky.October 20-23 — Represented Chattanooga as one of the launching cities in Next Century Cities in Santa Monica, then traveled to Washington, D.C., for a Socrata conferenceSource: Mayor Andy Berke’s calender
In just four days last week, Mayor Andy Berke flew from coast to coast to answer questions about the “Gig City” in California, then to attend an innovation conference in Washington, D.C.
On Thursday morning — Day 4 — he was a featured speaker at the innovation conference, where he explained Chattadata, the open portal that is meant to be a public report card for Chattanooga on issues such as economic growth and violence.
That evening, he was back in the Scenic City to deliver a stern message to gang members following several shootings, two of them fatal.
Midway through the second year of his four-year term, the mayor has embarked on an active travel schedule that since early December has taken him outside the state 19 times. That’s an average of about twice a month and about 40 days total when the mayor was out of town.