Bowman learns in New York while promoting Winnipeg's fiscal sense

Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman says he's learning a lot while in New York City this week, while also aiming to promote the city to bond rating agencies and potential investors in the Big Apple.

Bowman and senior city officials visited the New York City Traffic Management Centre on Monday and met with Tim Tompkins, president and CEO of the Times Square Alliance, as part of the mayor's ongoing efforts to open Portage Avenue and Main Street to pedestrians.

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"Tim's lessons for how you transform neighbourhoods and intersections is very informative," Bowman said on Information Radio on Tuesday.

"Of course, Times Square is very different from any intersection in Winnipeg, including Portage and Main, but the lessons that we've been able to learn is how important it is to engage with the property owners and the stakeholders in the area, and we've been doing that, and it's been a good process to go through."

Tompkins was in Winnipeg in February to share his experience with transforming Times Square's busiest street into a bustling pedestrian plaza. He will return to Winnipeg when the city hosts the International Downtown Association conference next year, Bowman said.

"That meeting, as well as the meeting that we had yesterday at the New York City Traffic Management Centre, are all about talking about what we're doing in Winnipeg, looking for lessons that we can learn from other cities and sharing what's working with Winnipeg with the folks that we're meeting with," said the mayor.

Meeting with credit rating agencies

On Tuesday, Bowman and top city bureaucrats are meeting with officials from two major bond rating agencies, Moody's and Standard and Poor's, which issue credit ratings based on their assessments of the city's financial health.

"We want to make sure that they see that we've got a steady hand on the wheel, that we are managing our revenues and our expenditures in a responsible way," Bowman said.

Bowman said he hopes to impress the agencies with the fact that Winnipeg is required by legislation to balance its budget, while striving to keep its debt below a self-imposed target.

"We're going to be talking about our balanced budgets, we're going to talk about our debt ceiling that we have, that we work with organizations like Moody to make sure that we have the right level, and our plan to manage growth going forward," he said.

As well, Bowman said city officials will aim to impress organizations that invest in municipal debt.

"You want to have these meetings to talk about the fiscal management that we have in Winnipeg and you want to create a bit of a bidding war for organizations that want to loan money to a city," he explained.

"In doing so, it allows us to try to get the lowest interest rates possible and save taxpayers money in the long run. So they're really important meetings to have, and that's why we're here."