Posted on 08/03/2008 3:58:35 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Mayors from across the country are in Madison this week for the Mayors Innovation Project summer conference.
They'll be sharing ideas about how to run progressive communities in tight economic times.
But they will, as well, be wondering whether they are going to have a partner in the federal government.
That's something cities have lacked for the past eight years.
This week in an interview with MayorTV, an initiative of the Drum Major Institute think tank to focus on urban leaders and issues, Santa Fe Mayor David Coss argues that the Bush/Cheney administration's response has been characterized by "ignorance" as opposed to engagement.
And Coss suggests that John McCain will make things worse for urban areas.
"I'm for Senator Obama," says Coss, echoing the sentiment of Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and so many other urban leaders who have gotten on the bandwagon of the Democratic presidential candidate.
Obama, who worked as a community activist in Chicago and then represented a portion of that city in the Illinois Senate, knows cities. And he has developed a smart urban agenda that is genuinely in tune with the sentiments of America's mayors and the communities they lead.
"Yes, we need to fight poverty. Yes, we need to fight crime," Obama told the U.S. Conference of Mayors this year. "Yes, we need to strengthen our cities. But we also need to stop seeing our cities as the problem and start seeing them as the solution. Because strong cities are the building blocks of strong regions, and strong regions are essential for a strong America."
The senator from Illinois backed that statement up by pledging to advance a $60 billion, 10-year program of infrastructure development that would provide aid in building and repairing the roads, rail networks, electrical grids, water systems and the telecommunications networks that link metropolitan areas.
That was in marked contrast to Republican John McCain, who has not just neglected to develop a strong urban agenda but has described urban transportation and public safety initiatives as "pork."
Mayors are worried about McCain, and rightly so.
"I feel like we don't have another eight years to waste invading countries that aren't a threat to us, propping up the profits of oil companies, ignoring the problems of working families and middle-class families in the cities. I don't think we have the time," says Santa Fe's Coss.
The mayor's sense of urgency is appropriate.
George Bush never gave urban areas a reason to support him, and they never did.
That broken relationship needs to be replaced with a functional one, not just for cities but for the whole of a country that cannot afford to neglect the engines of economic, artistic and social progress that cities have always been.
Remind me again what progressive cities produce? Oh, that's right...more laws that hurt us all, more taxes that cripple those within the City Limits and without, more crime, more waste, more pollution, etc.
(I'm not against City Freepers; you appreciate Country Bumpkins. Your dopey "leaders" do not.)
McCain has apparently read some of Mr. Jefferson’s work. (See below).
Of course, The Obamessiah would NEVER stoop to studying the writings of that old slavemaster from Monticello.
A video of these remarks may be found at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypLu49pq3bI
An astute student of history and human nature, Thomas Jefferson, predicted what we see happening here in America. As ambassador in France, he witnessed the run up to the FIRST socialist/communist revolution there. He penned the following observations concerning what would happen HERE should that socialism come to the United States. He CORRECTLY predicted that we would become an increasingly contentious and litigious people as we shouldered one another out of the way to get OURS from the public trough and the trough would soon be empty.
He also knew where the bulk of the problem would originate.
That whirring noise you may hear coming from that mountain in Charlottesville, Virginia is Mr. Jefferson getting up to around 3600 RPM.
“The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.” —Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XIX, 1782. ME 2:230
“I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe.” —Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1787. Papers 12:442
“I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere; and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice.” —Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1800. ME 10:173
“Our cities... exhibit specimens of London only; our country is a different nation.” —Thomas Jefferson to Andre de Daschkoff, 1809. ME 12:304
“Everyone, by his property or by his satisfactory situation, is interested in the support of law and order. And such men may safely and advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control over their public affairs and a degree of freedom which, in the hands of the canaille of the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted to the demolition and destruction of everything public and private.” —Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:401
“An insurrection... of science, talents, and courage, against rank and birth... has failed in its first effort, because the mobs of the cities, the instrument used for its accomplishment, debased by ignorance, poverty, and vice, could not be restrained to rational action. But the world will recover from the panic of this first catastrophe.” —Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1813. ME 13:402
“I fear nothing for our liberty from the assaults of force; but I have seen and felt much, and fear more from English books, English prejudices, English manners, and the apes, the dupes, and designs among our professional crafts. When I look around me for security against these seductions, I find it in the wide spread of our agricultural citizens, in their unsophisticated minds, their independence and their power, if called on, to crush the Humists of our cities, and to maintain the principles which severed us from England.” —Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, 1814. ME 14:120
Since when is it the federal government’s job to be “a partner” to municipalities? I thought the feds protected the nation from foreign invasion and financial malfeasance, and the locals ran police/fire/schools/libraries. Then again, I haven’t read my copy of the New Living Constitution.
Like hell he didn't!
After all, he is a two term POTUS.
progressive communities
Gotta' love the misplaced statements of fact bestowed upon us all via our lack of knowledge to decide for ourselves as individuals. ; )
Crack and meth.
Since blame placing became a political agenda with fervor by many politicians.
The cities are killing the states! Living in a suburban/rural area of NJ we are forced to pay for the education of inner city kids. The major problem with this is THE INNER CITY FOLK’S DON’T CARE! It’s not their money!
They elect BOE who give the store away to the Administrator’s, the heck with the kids!
Google Abbott Districts in NJ.
Here's a novel idea: How about cutting expenses and reigning in bureaucracy, reduce special programs, expel special interest, reduce special projects, stop double dipping
Oh' wait, that looks like a conservative way to run things, better belly up to the government teat, the US taxpayer can support you much better
“Progressive” is what com symps are calling themselves these days.
Mayors Innovation Project
expand housing and transit availability, develop the opportunities of the clean energy economy while combating climate change
Participating MIP cities include megalopolises like Chicago, LA, and New York, large cities like Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Milwaukee, and Seattle, and smaller cities like Cincinnati, Des Moines, Portland, and Scranton.
MIP was founded in 2005 by Madison WI mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Joel Rogers, the UW-Madison professor
The current Steering Committee members are:
Mayor Tom Bates, City of Berkeley, California
Mayor Martin Chavez, City of Albuquerque, New Mexico
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, City of Madison, Wisconsin
Mayor Frank Cownie, City of Des Moines, Iowa
Mayor Heidi Davison, Athens - Clarke County, Georgia
Mayor Chris Doherty, City of Scranton, Pennsylvania
Mayor Heather Fargo, City of Sacramento, California
Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan, City of Gainesville, Florida
Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden, Baton Rouge - East Baton Rouge Parish, Lousisiana
Dr. Joel Rogers, Director of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy
******
“Building Progressive Metropolitan Leadership”
Responding to Climate Change
Downtown for Workers: Improving Job Quality
Healing Communities: Restorative Justice and Ex-Offender Reintegration
Improving Urban Education
Affordable Housing and Homelessness
Race and Community Relations
Renewable Energy for Cities
Collateral Loan Funds: New Ways to Bankroll Urban Development Projects
Effectively Combating Climate Change Together
Responding to Failure on Immigration Reform: What Progressive Mayors Can Do
Sanctuary City Project: Safe Access to Public Services
Perfect for me is living right at the edge of a mid-sized city. 20 minutes to get downtown on occasion, and 20 minutes the other way has you on a nice cruise through the country without red lights, speed traps, etc. Augusta, GA, Lincoln, NE, and most places in NC. Living right where the suburbs start to end in St. Louis was nice, but that’s because I could stay away from the city itself.
Anything bigger than STL is a disaster...behemoths like Chicago (which I’m 20 miles outside now), NY, etc are just colossal hellholes. Their sole “purpose” is a concentrated voting block for socialists to feed on, forever piling more restrictions and costs on top of as they push for complete dependency on the state.
Screw urban dominance over all the people trying to make an honest living who just want to be left alone. Cities should have zero control over the towns around them...in fact they should all be considered their own county so that they can’t they can’t drag the surrounding areas down with them (Crook County includes 130 surrounding towns, which all get taxed in various ways to fund Chicago handouts and machine politics...54% of the county is Chicago, so the other 46% get robbed blind quite “democratically”).
Cities are the source of most RAT votes; why should McCain bother supporting them instead of where the REAL people are?
According to the guidelines issued:
Increasing cultural awareness and diversity of the workforce
To discuss progressive solutions for cities
Mayors Innovation Project (MIP) on Global Warming Solutions
Going Green Can Pay and Money Makes a Difference
National Mayors Innovation Project
“encouraging alternatives to driving by creating new bike trails and bike street lanes . . . with additional money, we could do a lot more.”
Diana, I heard a report this weekend that in gives another example of the theme, I believe, you’re reporting, but this was coming from the local governments of the District of Columbia and the states of Maryland and Virginia.
They were complaining (and it was being reported) that they faced a severe budget shortfall for their Homeland Security needs/plans. They had collectively requested $95 million from the DHS — and they were only being given $71 million (”a 25% CUT!”).
Then the report went on to note this past year, DHS had given them $61 million: so they were asking for a 56% increase(!!) in their budget and only ended up getting a 16% increase and yet the reporting (CBS affiliate radio station) emphasized this as a major “CUT” from the budget request.
It used to be that “only in the Beltway” would this kind of reporting go on, but what you’re reporting suggests it’s now everywhere.
“Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country”
—William Jennings Bryan
Too bad the several states can’t follow the Founders’ wisdom and have legislative houses not in proportion to population ever since the ‘One Man One Vote’ decision (not one that springs to mind, but one actual as bad as Dred Scott, Roe v. Wade, and Kelo).
Contrary to the Founders intent, power has devolved to population centers, to the bane of good governance.
SURE HE DOES! They need each other, there in the same criminal enterprise
Very nice! :)
Well said, and welcome to Free Republic, BobbyT. :)
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