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Cities (at least for now) You're On Your Own


It's not a new problem. For more than a generation, presidential aspirants have mostly resisted acknowledging the importance of the cities' well being. Blame the front-loading of the primary season with rural states, or electoral and legislative systems that give disproportionate weight to sparsely populated states. Whatever the reason, it is shortsighted. According to Bruce Katz, co-author of a Brookings Institution study promoting investment in metropolitan areas, the largest 100 cities and their surrounding communities are home to 65 percent of the nation's population and account for about 75 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. In Search of a Real Urban Policy - New York Times

Tonight, Clinton and Obama will debate in Ohio, with one week to go before the March 4 primaries. Will they talk about urban policy? Will they talk about the role cities have to play in making broadband widely available? I wouldn't hold your breath.

This NY Times editorial from last week underscores the challenge we face in the US - cities are the most common experience we have of living our daily lives, but they can't do it all. Mayors and city councils truly are on the front lines of policy that impacts most citizens, but their cities need help from state and federal governments, just like ground troops need air support.

Continue to neglect infrastructure, and face the prospect of more Katrina-like disasters where large numbers of people live or more collapsed bridges that carry thousands of commuters, as happened last summer in Minneapolis. ... Keep encouraging fossil-fueled transportation, and cities will choke on gridlock, and so will businesses and jobs.

It's not like there is no leadership on these issues, it's just not coming from Washington or the presidential candidates. In fact, they might take note with some concern that the national leader on handgun control and a range of other urban issues - from environment to public health - is Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York, who has presidential aspirations of his own.

Of course, that is just one city, and it does not change the sad truth that states and cities have been forced to assume more fiscal obligations from Washington while getting fewer of their citizens' tax dollars. There can be no substitute for national leadership. The president must provide it, and Americans deserve to know how the candidates would step up to the challenge.

Posted on February 26, 2008 at 08:32 AM

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