Posted on 06/24/2008 5:41:49 AM PDT by CWWren
For three days, members of the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Miami this weekend shared their problems and successes, heard experts discuss challenges facing them and compiled a list of issues their representatives will take to Washington, D.C., and to state capitols.
It so happens that the top representative for the coming year is Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, newly installed as the group's president. As such, he'll be pushing the mayors' agenda in Congress, at the White House and in the federal agencies that interact with city governments. Greener cities
It is an ambitious agenda. The Mayors Conference, for instance, has led a nationwide campaign to push the feds into taking bigger steps to curb the gases that cause global warming. Mayors -- including many in South Florida -- have signed an accord recognizing the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to reduce greenhouse emissions by specific amounts according to a timetable. The Bush administration has spurned the protocol, saying it would hurt U.S. business.
The agenda Mr. Diaz will take to Washington has many intertwined issues. On Saturday the mayors heard from Philip Mangano, the nation's homelessness czar, who urged them to act to cure homelessness, rather than merely treat it. To do that, cities need jobs available at all pay scales and a large stock of affordable housing, including rentals. With the mortgage foreclosure crisis and lower tax collections giving cities a double whammy, homelessness may be on the rise, what with families being forced out of homes.
So the mayors are rightly asking Congress for help to deal with the foreclosure crisis. One smart idea is to use federal dollars to purchase and fix up abandoned homes that are in foreclosure and convert them to affordable housing units. Congress is working on a package that would bring relief to cities hit hardest by the subprime-mortgage fiasco. President Bush, who has hinted that he might veto the legislation, should reconsider.
Better mass transit
Another link on the mayors' agenda is for improvements in mass transit. With the price of a gallon of gas heading toward $5, drivers are switching to mass transit. Trouble is, as in the case of Miami-Dade County, the transit system isn't prepared to welcome an influx of riders who could become long-time users if buses and trains worked efficiently.
Help to improve mass transit brings us right back to the mayors' position on global warming. Getting people out of their cars and into trains reduces greenhouse gases. The mayors are talking sense, and the folks in Washington should hear them out. The backbone of the country are its cities. When they are in good shape, so too, is the nation as a whole.
It appears that most of the nation's mayors of big cities are about as intelligent as the Man-Bear-Hog, Al Gore.
I’d rather see a national conference of mayors of big cities to end the CORRUPTION in their ranks seeing as those buying contracts etc. had a federal investigation and ties between major metropolitan areas.
And virtually all of the big cities are Rat infested and handed down from one Rat mayor to the next. Term limits don’t do any good when you have a one paper town that is pwned by that city’s crooked establishment.
Wonder just “why” Houston’s major daily didn’t “know” anything about the crooks at Enron? They didn’t WANT to know. Ken Lay was too crucial to getting the downtown business partners their slim margin of victory for billions of dollars in stadiums.
Our politicians have become totally useless. Evironmentalism is what is causing the price of gasoline and diesel to go up. Further environmental restrictions will only push the price higher.
Conservatives had better start making some noise, because otherwise they will be completely powerless in the near future.
On Saturday the mayors heard from Philip Mangano, the nation's homelessness czar..
Exsqueeze me. Who? What?
I don't recall voting for any "homelessness czar" nor can I find any mention of a position of "czar" in the U.S. Constitution. At least not in my copy.
And besides spending taxpayers money on booze and hookers, what good is this 'Mayors Conference' anyway. What exactly in common does the mayor of Keokuk, Iowa have with the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, or Rochester, New York with Normal, Illinois? how about... n-o-n-e (I typed that slow for Dem lurkers).
How low this country has sunk: City Mayors going to the Federal Government begging them to take over. Or are they just looking for handouts?
Disgusting.
What those City mayors are REALLY doing is drafting identical gun control bills to deprive American Citizens of their Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
Watch for legislation because of a “sudden and dramatic rise in Gun Violence” in each of their cities.
Philly tried it - Mayor Thugstreet attended one of those meetings last year, and passed it to his successor, Mayor Thugnutter.
The mayors should also agree to end the seditious practice of providing “safe harbor” for illegal immigrants.
When you come to this country illegally without a sponsor and without a job, you are homeless from day one.
Saw a Hispanic woman going door to door in businesses in Houston yesterday trying to sell her tamales. She even bluntly walked into a Chinese restaurant and started shouting “tamales?! tamales?!”.
Your business is not your own these days. The invaders will take any space.
The agenda is exactly the same as it's always been: Confiscate as much money as possible from hard-working, traditional American families (the Republican "base") and dump it into urban parasite nests (the Democrat "base"). Nothing new under the sun.
This is just gut-wrenching. All of these “solutions” are causing the very problems that the Mayors are whining about. What’s going to happen is that their cities are going to become cardboard-shuttered businesses and weed-filled vacant lots as the more productive move out into rural and suburban areas.
Good governance should start at the local level. Local government is dominated by leftist slime.
A law requiring all cities must be literally 50% "Green" would be a great help against global warming. That is 50% of the land area must be trees, grass, shrubs and flowers. And the cities must not think they can go vertical, their building plans must allow enough natural sunlight to support the green areas.
One way to encourage the cities to go green would be to freeze all building permits until they are under the 50% cap, only then would they be free to again build up to the 50% cap.
Further steps would include sending the illegals home, 20+ million less folks polluting would be a big step and it would also go a long way in the fight against the dreaded urban sprawl.
Most Americans who can read have seen what the leftists (communists) have done to the world and will not stand for it to be espoused here.
Like Detroit, et al?
I think it you look up "Petty Dictator," you'll find a reference to mayors.
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