We want Louisville to be a place all our residents are proud to call home - a community known for its vibrant neighborhoods, thriving downtown, and commitment to providing job, education and housing opportunities for all its residents. You can also define success in personal and quality-of-life terms.

Q&A WITH THE MAYORS

• What separates good cities from great cities? Mayors of the region's major cities answer Enquirer questions on how to become "great" cities. • How have you defined success for your city? • What does it take to raise a good city into a great city? • Do you try to run your city as a business? What investments are needed in housing, commercial development, industrial development, technological development and tourism to make a great city? • What do you need from partners to make a great city? • How do you reduce city vs. suburban rivalries and build a more united metro area? • Who is your competition for development and tourism? Each other? Out-of-state cities? Who are your benchmarks? • Would additional mayoral powers help you make your city more successful, and if so, what powers? • What action do you need to take if city "product lines" (housing, etc.) don't meet their goals? • What's your impression of Cincinnati, and what advice would you give Cincinnati? • Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken • Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell • Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman • Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson • Louisville Mayor Jerry E. Abramson • Enquirer editorial: Great development strategies

It builds on its strengths and unique assets - its distinctive and vibrant sense of place. You know it when you're in New York or San Francisco or New Orleans. For Louisville, that sense of place includes our waterfront, with its glorious park, and historical assets. A great city cultivates excellence. Few cities can be best at everything. But (for example), we can aim to be an international center for heart and hand surgery. A great city has a great heart ... hope ... confidence in its strengths and potential.

You can learn a lot from the entrepreneurial spirit of business: thinking strategically about your priorities and the best way to provide services. As a newly consolidated city, Louisville is making the most of its opportunity to ask fresh questions and learn from the best practices of cities across the country. We are constantly looking at ways to become more efficient - from how we sell city surplus items online to teamwork that cuts response times - with the overall goal of reducing the size of government while enhancing the services we provide.

It is impossible to imagine a city without caring, creative partnerships. In tight financial times, financial support has been crucial to many endeavors. But whether the investment is financial, programmatic or personal, in my judgment, it is the engagement - between public and private partners - that is most critical to our community's success.

We merged our city and county government in January 2003 after local voters said yes to unity. It was a clear yes that said we are stronger as one metro area. When we took the merger to our voters, we chose a plan that left intact our 80 or so suburban cities and 20 suburban fire districts. It's not all-or-nothing. We focus not so much on our differences as what we have in common. I think of our new city as a patchwork quilt of urban and suburban neighborhoods ... all part of the fabric of the community.

Your competition - or benchmarks - change, depending on the issue. When the Brookings Institution took stock of Louisville two years ago, it compared our metro area's strengths and challenges to 14 cities, including three in Ohio - Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton. When our Convention & Visitors Bureau promotes Louisville as a leisure destination, it has focused in recent years on Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Nashville and Evansville. We trade tourists.

Like many cities, I suspect, our region pays far more in taxes to the state than we receive back in return. It's important for state legislative bodies to revise outdated funding formulas to give metro areas a more equitable return on their investments when it comes to education and road funds. And it's important for cities to control their financial destinies. If citizens want an arena, more library branches or improved parks, they should be able to consider how they will pay for it. Louisville voters can't do that today, under current Kentucky law.

I review our goals monthly, in accordance with my administration's strategic plan, and talk with department directors to keep us on track.

Louisville has long looked with admiration at Cincinnati's arts and architecture and professional sports. Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky have taken advantage of the economic opportunities afforded by the growth of the regional airport. It can be challenging to create strong regional leadership across city, county and state lines.