Apr. 15—SUPERIOR — Mayor Jim Paine is joining a cohort of a dozen mayors from across the county to work toward safer streets for all Superior residents.
Paine was selected to participate in the 2025 Mayors Institute on Pedestrian Safety, a partnership among the Mayors Innovation Project, AARP Livable Communities and Smart Growth America.
Paine said he was selected to join the cohort based on a grant application he wrote that demonstrated the political will to improve pedestrian safety, work done toward that goal and demonstrated willingness to carry forward recommendations of the institute.
“That’s the case I really made, that pedestrian safety and walkability have been one of my highest infrastructure and community-building priorities since well before I was elected,” Paine said. “This was part of my 2015 campaign for mayor.”
Over the next six months, the mayors will engage in a mix of virtual and in-person sessions with national experts and fellow mayors to address safety challenges.
In early May, Paine said there will attend an intensive session in Washington, D.C. Monthly meetings will follow.
While the city has an active transportation plan that was adopted by the city council in 2020, Paine said Superior still has some pernicious problems that can’t be solved easily, such as large streets and high-traffic corridors where the standard approaches don’t work as well as they should.
“What I’m looking for are really the small ideas that can be executed in big ways,” Paine said. The mayor encouraged residents to reach out to his office to help identify problem areas.