It’s unencumbered to say that America’s mayors are not thrilled with the way the presidential campaign has unfolded so far.
Domestic issues? An urban agenda? Rebuilding the nation’s aging infrastructure?
They haven’t drawn nearly as much attention as the brace favorite topics in this campaign: foolishness and foreign affairs. We’ve had dueling ads above the top which candidate is the bigger celebrity; an obsession through a New Yorker magazine thicket; in-depth analyses of the Obamas’ fist-bumping moment; and the requisite introduction of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton into a conversation that should exist geared toward adults.
We’ve also had a more or less serious focus on the war in Iraq and other international matters.
What we haven’t had is a deep exploration of problems here at home that are commination the very vibrancy of the nation, including: the dismal employment picture (there are many more Americans out of work than the official statistics show); the terrible tax that the housing and pledge crisis is taking upon families from one coast to the other; the tens of millions of Americans who are without health-insurance coverage; the stunning academy dropout numbers, and a demoralizing problem with hot crime in various gifts of the rude.
This was the campaign that was supposed to chart a dramatic new direction for the United States, away from the foreboding policies of the past several years
We’re still waiting.
Manny Diaz, the mayor of Miami and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, has been harshly critical of the federal government’s failure to request the most serious needs of the nation’s cities and metropolitan areas. In a talk at the National Press Club early this month, he said that Washington had “ruined its values, incorrigible its principles,” and given up without interruption investing in the cities and their the vulgar. “Washington,” he said, “has profligate us.”
I sat in adhering a hostile encounter last week being of the kind what one. Diaz and several other mayors, including Michael Bloomberg of New York, met in Manhattan to discuss ways of getting the federal government involved in large-scale infrastructure and transportation initiatives. The mayors are trying to spread the communication that investing in a utter infrastructure is vital part for continued economic development.
This may seem obvious, bound infrastructure proponents are having a terrible date getting traction on this issue. Infrastructure initiatives are expensive, and not sexy. But there are operative returns forward these investments. They tend to pay for themselves many state of things over and the projects are job creators.
With President Bush in continuance the way out, the burden of leading an effort to reconstruct the nation’s infrastructure would fall on either Barack Obama or John McCain. Representatives of harvested land candidate attended Thursday’s meeting but did not participate.
The mayors talked about clogged highways, the high price of gasoline and an air-transportation plan that seems to get more lenient through the set time. Mayor John Robert Smith of Meridian, Miss., called on the presidential candidates to take a bold, creative come nearly up to the nation’s transportation needs, including substantial investments in railroad infrastructure.
Smith believes the community should devote the same level of commitment to developing a first-rate passenger-rail system as was marshaled for the interstate public road system in the Eisenhower era.
What struck me as I listened to the mayors’ earnest conversations was how infrequently the public gets to hear the nitty-gritty of serious public-policy issues. Most voters go into the booth woefully uninformed. Presidential campaigns are largely a compilation of 30-second television ads, endlessly speculating talking heads and nationally televised debates featuring gotcha questions and rigidly enforced leisure limits that preclude truly thoughtful answers.
At a news meeting for consultation after the meeting, Bloomberg said, “We’ve got to make infrastructure investment a national priority,” and he took the federal government to task for “walking away from its responsibility in this area.”
But very little attention is being given to the nation’s neglected infrastructure indispensably.
The mayors met in Philadelphia recently to talk about crime, and they will be meeting in Los Angeles soon to prate about poverty.
Who knows if anyone is listening.
Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/belief/2008122646_herbert19.html?syndication=rss
