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"I hope when the presidential candidates talk about cities, they stop thinking about us as basketcases, and think instead of the potential of cities to turn this country around."
Fifth in a series of ten conversations with mayors across America. (Project of The Nation and the Drum Major Institute.)
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Mayor TV, a new collaborative project of The Nation and the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, asks the people who know our cities best: America's mayors. In ten lively and insightful interviews, the mayors of Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Rochester and Salt Lake City offer their prescriptions for a reinvigorated urban agenda and, in many cases, issue their own presidential endorsements.
The contrast between the mayors' priorities and the presidential candidates' rhetoric couldn't be more stark. "In presidential elections, the media and pollsters focus on issues like war, abortion, gay rights, things that, quite frankly, for those of us in the trenches, aren't the hot-button issues," says Miami Mayor Manny Diaz in a taped interview. "People want to know that their kids will get a good education, that their neighborhoods will be safe and clean.... It's difficult for me to understand how presidential candidates don't see that. Those are the issues that affect Americans each and every day. We [mayors] are dealing with them, and [candidates] should also be dealing with them."
The challenges and frustrations of urban America are evident in these interviews, but even more apparent are the exciting ways in which theses mayors are taking the lead to innovate new solutions to old problems. MayorTV videos can be found on the VideoNation YouTube channel, TheNation.com and MayorTV.com.
The Mayors' Responses:
LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson
Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper
Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin
Miami Mayor Manny Diaz
Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy
Boston Mayor Tom Menino
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