Scenic Jacksonville announced Monday that Mitchell Silver, a former commissioner of New York City's parks department and past president of the American Planning Association, will deliver the keynote address at its seventh annual Great Cities Symposium on Feb. 4, 2027, at the Garden Club of Jacksonville.
Silver would provide the keynote at the event, which is set for the Garden Club of Jacksonville at 1005 Riverside Ave., according to Jacksonville Daily Record. Silver currently teaches as a professor of practice at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the outlet reports, and his resume includes a stint as commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Beyond those roles, Silver also served as president of both the American Institute of Certified Planners and the American Planning Association, per the same report. He has logged more than 35 years in the field and holds a master's degree in urban planning from Hunter College, earned in 1993, according to his faculty profile at Carolina Planning, which also lists his current post as principal and vice president of urban planning at the firm McAdams and notes his specialty in land use and environmental planning.
Scenic Jacksonville's Pitch for the Keynote
Travis Smith, Scenic Jacksonville's interim executive director, said Silver's background makes him well suited to push the city's thinking forward. “Mitchell Silver's experience will challenge us to think in creative ways about the future we're creating together for Jacksonville,” Smith said, according to the Daily Record's report.
Scenic Jacksonville Inc. has said on its website that the Great Cities Symposium exists to bring inspired examples of leadership and peer-city solutions to Jacksonville residents, and it has pointed to a 2019 launch as the start of that mission.
A Track Record of Sold-Out Crowds
This will not be Scenic Jacksonville's first high-profile keynote. The sixth annual symposium, held Feb. 5, 2026, featured architect and city planner Victor Dover and drew a sold-out crowd of more than 350 city leaders, business leaders and civic-minded attendees, according to the organization's own event recap. That evening included a cocktail social hour ahead of Dover's talk at the same Garden Club venue.
The pattern goes back further. The fourth annual symposium, held Oct. 4, 2023, also sold out with 350 attendees and featured civic and business leader AG Lafley, who spoke about revitalization efforts in downtown Cincinnati and Sarasota's The Bay district. A year later, Scenic Jacksonville announced Carol Coletta as its fifth annual speaker for an Oct. 10, 2024 program that was built around her remarks, a Q&A, and a social hour with dessert and cocktails.
Tickets and Sponsorships
Scenic Jacksonville says sponsorship opportunities and ticket information for the Feb. 4 event are available through its website. With Silver's national planning credentials now attached to the lineup, organizers appear to be betting the seventh symposium can match the sellout turnouts of recent years.
