EP 79: How Sister Cities Work
Recently, during a visit to North Carolina by municipal officials from the country of Moldova, they and fellow municipal officials from around Wake County discussed possible "sister city" arrangements, to learn from one another and possibly create mutual resource opportunties. But sister-city arrangements can form for a number of reasons. On this episode we look at the impacts of sister city arrangements in North Carolina and beyond, and how it all works.
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Transcript
This is Municipal Equation from the North Carolina League of Municipalities.
Hello again. This is Ben Brown from the North Carolina League of Municipalities and another episode of Municipal Equation, the podcast about cities and towns adapting to change. You know, we had a live episode recently about public art and what governments do to make it happen. We've actually had more than one episode touching this topic, including one from 2017 on a certified mural trail guiding you to different large painted murals around downtown that the city of Sanford helped to facilitate. You know, a lot of downtowns these days have, have murals kind of depicting, you know, local history and things like that. And Sanford has, several with depictions of historical figures and other pieces of local pride. The mayor at the time, while showing me these murals, noted to me that Sanford's art legacy is really in pottery. Like, that's what the area is known for. It's been known for its legacy of pottery. And he further mentioned that Sanford had a sister city, Yijing, China, which is also a luminary place for pottery as the ceramic capital of Asia. So we get to talking more about sister cities and how that happens, how that's arranged, and how staffers from the city of Sanford have been to EJing a couple times and how they're they're sharing cultural awareness and other kinds of education. Even though Sanford has a bit more than 30,000 people in EJing, China has well more than a million in population. They still found interest in a mutually beneficial sister city arrangement. Lots of North Carolina cities and towns have sister cities. In fact, just recently, I was with a delegation of North Carolina municipal officials from around Wake County who met with municipal officials from the country of Moldova. And Sister City talks were heavy. They were all over the place during that meeting earlier this year. In fact, the latest edition of Southern City Magazine from the North Carolina League of Municipalities covers that meeting with words and photos about the ties that North Carolina cities and towns have developed with Moldovan cities and towns. But a lot of people still wonder what a sister city relationship really is and how it works. So let's replay some podcast coverage we gave that topic in 2017 to explain.
There are usually somewhat specific reasons for engaging in one of these relationships, and they can range from fun human interest to strategic and commercial. You know, I think traditionally,
Sister Cities is known as for for more arts and cultural and youth exchanges, and those are incredibly valuable and and still, very popular. But, in the past ten years, we've seen a a a huge increase in the number of municipal exchanges, technical exchanges, and especially economic development
exchanges. That's Adam Kaplan. He's the vice president of Sister Cities International. He gave me a primer on what the program's all about and also how it got started.
We are the national association representing around five sixty US sister city programs, and those programs have around 2,300 partnerships in 150 countries. The mission of Sister Cities International, which is the mission of most of our members, is to promote peace through mutual respect, cooperation, and understanding one individual, one community at a time. We were founded in 1956 by president Eisenhower. And Okay. And the background on this is after World War two, looking at the world, he thought, well, if we're going to have a lasting peace, then we can't just have contact between diplomats. We need a lot of contact and interaction and relationships between everyday citizens.
Thank you very much. Now if we are going to have take advantage of the assumption that all people want peace, then the problem is for people to get together, to leap governments if necessary, to evade governments, to work out not one method, but thousands of methods by which people can gradually learn a little bit more of each other. The problem is how do we dispel ignorance? How do we present our own case? How do we strengthen friendships? How do we learn of others? These are the problems.
And so that started the sister city program and the initial focus was on a lot of post World War II countries, so Germany, France, Japan, England, Spain, Italy, etcetera. And we still have quite a few partnerships in those areas. But since then in the past sixty years, as I mentioned, we've expanded to over 150 countries around the world. While we are a we do consider ourselves to really be a peacebuilding network, that's the foundation of our mission and the reason that a lot of people get involved. Practically speaking, our members do exchanges with other countries and areas like arts, culture, youth, education, trade, economic development, humanitarian work, technical exchanges, professional exchanges, and everything in between, basically.
So how is the sister city relationship arranged? You know, let let's just say that I'm the mayor of a town that's interested in in the program. Do we get to pick our sister city? Is it a random pairing? Or how does that work?
So Sister City relationships start in a lot of different ways. Here at Sister Cities International, we will help, US and foreign cities if they contact us and they're looking for a partner. Maybe they have an idea of a geographic area they wanna go to or a specific country. Sometimes they even have a specific city because of some preexisting link. And in those cases, we'll we'll help them identify partners and and, eventually sign a relationship. All of them are formalized by the mayor, highest elected, or appointed official signing off on a memorandum of understanding. So you can't just declare yourself a sister city. You have to have the mayors, sign off on it. Most of them start much more organically, and a lot of them are built out of small connections within the community. So it might be diaspora groups or expat groups. It might be because there's an ancestral connection. It might be because a city has a particular geography. We see a lot of port cities twinning with port cities, mountain cities with mountain cities, etcetera. Sometimes it's because they have similar industries, or similar goals for what they wanna get out of their program. And then usually, we recommend and I I think that most partnerships start because there's someone in the community that has a foot in a community abroad, and they can help build a relationship between the two cities, introduce people, and help move the process along. So for example, a couple years ago, Cincinnati, Ohio, which is my hometown, twinned with Amman, Jordan. And we had gotten a request from the mayor's office that they were looking for a Jordanian city. And part of the reason why is because they wanted a a city and a partnership in in The Middle East, which they they didn't have at that time. But the mayor is also married to, a woman of Jordanian descent. She's native of of Cincinnati, but but her family is, Jordanian by heritage. So we had sort of a marriage connection there. And as we dug into it, there were a lot of interesting ties between Cincinnati and and Jordan. Turned out that the Cincinnati Museum of Art has the largest collection of Nabataean art, which is ancient Jordanian art anywhere in The US. It also turned out that Cincinnati has a great park system and a great municipal park service and Mount Jordan was getting ready to revitalize a park in their community. So it made sense on a lot of levels and they had the connection between, the mayors, a spousal connection, a thematic connection, and they also, reached out to us for help with, a few of the initial introductions. So that's a case where, the the relationship, you know, there's no one thing you can point at, to say that's the overriding reason why they did it, but it just makes sense.
So let's talk a little bit more about what happens in a sister city relationship, and you've mentioned this a little bit. But, you know, we'll we'll see the newspaper article about, you know, for example, a group from South Korea coming over to visit their sister city in the in in The United States. So there's that in person connection you get to see. You mentioned, you know, some of the geographic similarities that may, you know, and maybe some similar projects from town to town. But, what about lessons in in governance and, you know, styles of government, economic development considerations? Could you talk a little bit more about that?
Sure. And and those are probably the fastest growing area of exchanges that we're seeing. You know, I think, traditionally, Sister Cities is known as for more arts and cultural and youth exchanges, and those are incredibly valuable and still very popular. But in the past ten years, we've seen a huge increase in the number of municipal exchanges, technical exchanges and especially economic development exchanges. So, for example, ways that cities might benefit from these types of exchanges, A lot of times it's related to municipal expertise. So, as an example, Boulder is sister cities with Yamagata, Japan, and it's, I think, around a twenty five year old partnership. And Yamagata, as a sign of goodwill had donated around two fifty cherry trees to the city of Boulder to help beautify the city. On top of that, they did a few, exchanges between people in their respective park services to see how to take care of the trees and planting and and just general maintenance. So in that case, you had something that was both, a culture and goodwill exchange, but at the same time was a municipal or technical exchange. And we've seen those in areas like sanitation, transportation, health management. And a lot of times these things fly under the radar and people might not be aware that it came about as a result of the sister city exchange. So in some cases, The US is learning expertise, from abroad. Another great example is Duluth, Minnesota who is a sister states with Vasho, Sweden. And both of them rely a lot on forestry and are near forests and Duluth was learning how to use the, waste from their timber plants as biofuel. So these are ways that cities that might have certain similar characteristics, can share their respective techniques and a lot of benefit comes to the city. In terms of economic development, sometimes it's very targeted. So for example, trade delegation visits. And probably the most famous in the Sister Cities network was Xi Jinping's visit a few years ago when he was still Vice President of China. He the first time he had come to The US was during a sister state exchange back in 1985 when he was a, a lower level agricultural, functionary in in his local government, and he came over to Iowa, which was sister states with the Bay Province. And he went to Muscatine, Iowa and spent time there, and I think they were studying pig farming or something like that. But it was a very, it made a very big impression on him. So when he came back a few years ago, on sort of a coming out visit to The US, he was supposed to travel to Washington DC and to Los Angeles. And he insisted on going back to Iowa because that's where he developed his image of of America and who Americans were. Now it just happened that during this visit, he was also traveling delegation of businessmen. And when they were there, Governor Branstad, who was just named the, nominated as the ambassador to China, held a state dinner for them. And over the course of that visit, they signed, a multibillion dollar soybean export deal. Now again, this isn't a case where sister cities is is necessarily the beginning and the end of of of the project, but it very much is grease in the wheels of business. It helps cultivate these relationships. It helps build knowledge and understanding of other communities. And if you talk to any business person, it's more than just seeing a business opportunity. They need to know the lay of the land. They need to know what to do if something goes wrong. And and, you know, a lot of this is based around relationships and having comfort. And Sister Cities, I think, is really, really good at cultivating that sort of trust, cultivating those sorts of connections across sectors.
And that's not an isolated example. It's a big one, but it's not the only one.
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There have been times when business deals come out of Sister Cities' cultural exchanges too, like a story out of Lakeland, Florida, which had a sister city in China. During a sister city's trip to that Chinese city, a member of the Lakeland contingent who happened to be an engineer learned about a request for proposals in that Chinese city for a water theme park. This Lakeland, Florida engineer figured, hey, why not? I'll apply for it and see what happens. Well, what happened was he got it, a contract worth $1,200,000,000 for this relatively small engineering firm in Lakeland, Florida. Again,
we we create these opportunities for people to move outside their usual network of of folks and and opportunities and build new relationships.
With Kaplan's help, I paired up with a few municipalities in my state, North Carolina, that have sister cities. One of the cities I talked with was Burlington, North Carolina, where about 52,000 people live. They're twinned up with Soledad, Mexico and with Kwachon, South Korea. Here's Anne Without an e. Honeycutt.
And I am, president of the Burlington Aliment Sister Cities Association.
And how how did these relationships, come about? What was the impetus, and and how were these specific cities chosen?
Sister Cities International has an organization called Cities Seeking Cities. And so you go to the international website and you file or list criteria that you have, things that you are looking for in a sister city, a sister city. And Sister Cities International will then give you a listing of cities who meet your criteria or who are seeking a city similar to your city. This is kind of like eHarmony. So in, April 15, auspicious day, 2004, we the mayor of Soledad came to Burlington, and we signed the official documents. Okay. The documentation is is very official. It is a like a binding document. We are family now. We think of ourselves as family now. Okay. Yeah. Kinda like a marriage. I wasn't going to say that, but we joke. It is a joke among sister cities that we have married each other until death threw us apart. It's very hard to get a divorce.
Honeycutt said her group's been to South Korea to visit Kwachan, and her town has gotten to be close with the Korean embassy in New York. Twice, the heads of the embassy have been to Burlington for dinners. Alright. Now, the sister city in Mexico, that's a different story. Again, that's Soledad, Mexico. Honeycutt said they've done with that sister city every other year, a tutoring trip, usually with about six to eight people from Burlington or that area. And to clarify, they're not putting public money into it. They've gone to, for example, universities in Soledad, Mexico that have English language programs with students that don't frequently interact with native English speakers. Honeycutt and company will offer themselves for that angle on education, sometimes to help the students get up on, for example, terminology related to certain technical pursuits or professions, like with machinery. Honeycutt said they've also done exchanges with the police department, where police officers from her area will go to Soledad. Same with the fire department. And we have given
them two fire trucks, and we've we fundraised for that. And, actually, most of the money came from grants from Rotary, but there was no public money at all.
They bought the trucks from auctions, and they're still in use in Soledad, which has also benefited from donations of turnout gear and other essential equipment from their sister city group here. Soledad, as a symbol of thanks, has given the Burlington Alamance group two stone fountains produced from the quarries in Soledad. One of the fountains is small and hand carved and went to the children's museum in the town of Graham, which is near Burlington and part of Honeycutt's group. And the other fountain, quite large, with multiple tiers, the kind you might see in an old city plaza in Mexico, also hand carved. It's in a park in Burlington right now.
I have actually met and talked to and been at the quarry of the man who did them. It was a man and his son. And the mayor of Soledad is coming here. I believe he's coming in May. We're doing the official work, but we're tentatively May. He's coming for an official visit.
Okay. And what's on his itinerary?
On the long list. He's going to visit industrial things, to look at manufacturing. So we're going to tent there. Of course, he'll look at you know, mayors all look at infrastructure. So we do we always do the water and the waste treatment plant and the power and, you know, the the show the delivery of water, and we visit fire departments and police departments, and and he'll bring people from those areas with him. So we we begin again this process of talking about what how can we be of benefit to each other. You know? And and Burlington has a a very substantial or Alamance County has a substantial Spanish speaking population. And so being able to send our police to Soledad to spend time is wonderful because Mhmm. They they learn about the culture. Sure. There were several things that our firefighters found when they lived in homes and went to fires that have helped them in I can give you an example. Building codes. And we have building codes, electrical. I mean, we just did an addition to our house, and the electrical inspector is out here all the time. Sure. Well, Soledad doesn't have that. People do have they'll have things plugged in their house, and then they'll have extension cords with these big things on them, and they'll have multiple things going to wiring that may be 40 years old or 50 years old. And so they period they have more house fires than we do because of wiring. Sure. Yeah. And so our firefighters found you know, they were like, why in the world are people living in Burlington doing that? It's a it's a recipe for house fires. Mhmm. And so after being in Soledad, the firefighters came back and they began an educational program, just meeting with groups of people, you know, going into various organizations of Spanish speaking people and talking about it. And it has dramatically, and I do mean dramatically, reduced the numbers of house fires.
Let's hit another US sister city, Cary, North Carolina, spelled C A R Y. We have four sister cities in Cary,
Le Touquet in France, Xianju in Taiwan, County Meath in Ireland,
and Markham in Canada. That's Chris Carmichael, who works with the town of Kerry. She said the initial focus was more of cultural diversity and appreciation, but they also have educational and business exchanges, like a culinary exchange they do, where young people learning to be chefs get hands on experience in different parts of the world in these sister cities. And there's been a lot of international interaction with Carrie, which also locally celebrates Taiwanese American Heritage Week. The Shenzhou relationship gives that a big boost. We bring in groups that,
perform, and we've had some great publicity through that, program. They bring in acrobats and dancers, and they've been really some amazing, very professional level, programs where we have filled to capacity our auditoriums, to be able to see these groups.
But the bottom line of it all wasn't lost on Carmichael.
Well, we've we've spoken in in broad, broad strokes, but I think ultimately, it's the people to plea people diplomacy, which is where sister cities got its start, back in the Eisenhower administration. It is that opportunity to to meet someone from another culture and find your commonalities, share your experiences, that I think has been ultimately the the jewel in the crown of sister cities.
And you know, we like to think that these days with the Internet and different communication technology and all these different social media platforms and YouTube that if we want to experience another culture, we can do it in a second just by googling the name of the country and seeing what comes up. But in reality, anyone that's traveled abroad knows that that first trip abroad is a life changing experience. It changes the way you view the world. It changes the way you view other cultures. And I think really think it changes the way you view your own culture. I've heard it said and I think it's true that, you know, most people when they travel to another country for the first time think that they're going to learn about that other country, and what they end up learning about is themselves and their home country. So kids have a lot to learn when they come here about things that are,
you know, things they don't experience. And, of course, one thing they don't experience is seeing stars because there's, you know, the ambient light because everybody lives in high rise apartments. They're not single family houses. So at night, to go out in someone's backyard and lie on a a pallet or a a lawn chair and look up at the sky and go, oh, look at these stars, is amazing, and they're something they really, really enjoy. So
Let's wrap up with some advice from Honeycutt for anyone thinking their town would do well with a sister city.
You've got to have a strong lead you've got to have have strong leadership at the local level because it is all volunteer. Nobody is paid. You don't have much money. You have to have the support of the local community, and you've got to have the support of your local municipality, your governmental leaders. And you need to work together with business leaders, governmental leaders, and your sister city's committee to look at what you're looking You know, what will be your criteria, and how will you, you know, what do you have to offer? Both of our sister cities are much, much larger than Burlington. You've got to form your organization, and Sister Cities International will they're a huge help with that. You develop your bylaws. You look at the committees committee that you're going to have, who will what kinds of of leadership you will have, and you you have to join Sister Cities International. That's costly because your dues are based on the size of your city. It's an extensive process. It took us four years to go from the beginning to actually finding a city. I'm sure you can do it more rapidly, but it is very methodical. There's a process, and Sister Cities International is a huge help.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Municipal Equation, the podcast about cities and towns adapting to change. Coming to you from the North Carolina League of Municipalities, you can visit us at n c l m dot o r g or visit southerncitymagazine.org to read that piece by my colleague, Jack Cassidy, about the North Carolina Moldova Municipal Connection. To learn more about Sister Cities, you can visit sistercities.org. That's the website of Sister Cities International. According to their last impact report, the program created 3,700 jobs, involved more than 24,000 people in exchange programs, and leveraged support from 32,000 volunteers who led more than 2,000 Sister City events in The United States. There's also part of their web page for Cities Seeking Cities. That's sistercities.org/cities-seeking-cities. You might also run into a North Carolina municipal colleague with sister city experience at the League of Municipalities upcoming conference, City Vision twenty twenty three, to be held in Concord, North Carolina, April 25 through April 27. More information about registration and so on at nclm.org. This is the big annual event for the league and its members who get invaluable time to network and learn, so don't miss it. We appreciate you listening and for your interest and involvement in the League of Municipalities and All We Do. The league at nclm.org has been the unified voice for cities and towns in North Carolina since nineteen o eight and continues to evolve, working as one, advancing all. That's going to do it for this episode of Municipal Equation. Thanks for listening. This is Ben Brown.