17-Sep-16 – In London, they call it the Thames Path. It may be longer than the Chicago Riverwalk – 184 miles long, following the Thames River from Gloucestershire to Charlton – but except for Green Mill Cocktail Lounge last night, it was the first stop on the new mayor of London’s first destination city on a visit to the United States.

Sadiq Khan, elected in May, is the first Muslim to become mayor of a major Western capital. He has introduced reforms to limit charges on public transportation in London. On his visit to Chicago, hosted by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, he wanted to see two things – a new grocery store that will serve one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, and the Riverwalk.

“What’s important is that we learn from each other,” Khan told reporters on the Riverwalk on Friday morning. “Like how you can regenerate the real estate but make sure everyone’s a winner. How you can bring back a species of fish in the river that had disappeared in previous decades. How you can make sure that the river is democratized for everyone to use, and accessible to those who are disabled.”

The mayors arrived at the Riverwalk by Wendella water taxi, then walked east of Clark Street to Tiny Hatt, a Riverwalk vendor owned and managed by the same people behind Tiny Lounge, one of Emanuel’s favorite Chicago bars.

(Left) Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel shows London Mayor Sadiq Khan renderings of the Chicago Riverwalk during a visit to the Riverwalk on Friday morning.

(Right) Emanuel and Khan visit with Colleen Flaherty, co-owner of Tiny Hatt.

Emanuel says economic growth is possible without being at the expense of environmental policy.

“The Riverwalk, while a major funding investment – that was our goal, to create the next transportation park for the city – that this investment has…not only created all that private investment to complement the job creation but done it in a way that brings people from many different walks of life together to share the Chicago River, our next waterfront.”

(Left) Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel with London Mayor Sadiq Khan (left).

London is not the only European city interested in the Chicago Riverwalk. Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, says Emanuel, “is trying to rethink how Paris interacts with the Seine.”

After the Riverwalk, the mayors visited tech hub 1871 at River North’s Merchandise Mart.