The Beirut City Council and the Council for Development and Reconstruction coordinate multidecade urban reconstruction, manage the iconic Corniche waterfront promenade, oversee post-2020 port explosion rebuilding of the Gemmayzeh and Mar Mikhael neighbourhoods, and administer utilities across a city where the municipality must coordinate with private neighbourhood generators during extended national electricity grid outages.
The record Beirut keeps on the Board of Mayors is still unwritten. Take office and write its opening chapter.
Landmark: Pigeon Rocks (Raouché) & National Museum of Beirut.
The Beirut City Council navigates one of the world's most complex urban utility situations — the national electricity grid supplies only 3–4 hours of power per day in many districts, requiring the municipality to coordinate with a network of private neighbourhood diesel generator operators who collectively supply power to hundreds of thousands of residents as an unofficial parallel grid, with the city managing fuel-import licensing, noise regulations, and emissions standards for thousands of privately owned generators.
The Council for Development and Reconstruction manages the ongoing port district reconstruction following the 2020 Beirut explosion — coordinating heritage restoration of 19th-century stone houses in Gemmayzeh alongside new urban zoning frameworks, international NGO construction timelines, structural assessment of blast damaged buildings, and displaced community rehousing across a city simultaneously managing a broader national economic crisis.
How a term works
Take office and each day brings a live situation from the city's services: a decision to make and a result that is measured. A term is judged on approval, infrastructure, environment and innovation, within the city's budget, and every term adds to the record Beirut keeps on the Board of Mayors. Mayors message and confer with one another, form councils, trade with neighbouring cities and send aid where it is needed. Cities rise together.