Wall Street

By Jubi Headley

New York — With a call for the next President to appoint a Cabinet-level Secretary for Domestic Policy as its centerpiece, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, led an historic coalition of central-city, suburban, and exurban leaders to Wall Street on January 25th, to launch a national campaign promoting their 10-point “New Agenda for America’s Cities.”

Speaking to New York business leaders a day after the Iowa Presidential Caucuses, USCM President and Denver Mayor Wellington Webb said that federal policy and corporate investment strategies continue to give “short shrift” to America’s largest cities and counties to the detriment of the entire national economy. He said the Mayors would spend the rest of the year pressing for implementation of the “New Agenda,” particularly with the candidates for the U.S. Presidency.

Mayor Webb and a panel of local elected officials were invited to speak before 200 members of the Association for a Better New York (ABNY). ABNY, which was first organized in 1970 as a concerned citizens’ group, came to prominence as an influential local political voice in 1974 and 1975, when they mobilized support to help lift the City of New York out of its fiscal crisis.

In remarks preceding his introduction of Mayor Webb, ABNY chairman and New York businessman Lewis Rudin said, “This is the 25th anniversary of the New York fiscal crisis and it’s appropriate that we have this breakfast in honor of the Conference of Mayors at this time. In 1975 it was the Conference that stood up to help the city work its way out of [its financial crisis]. I know that some of us will never forget the tremendous effort made by the [then-deputy director] Tom Cochran, who’s here today, and the President of the Conference of Mayors at the time, Mayor Moon Landrieu of New Orleans. Let it be noted, Tom, that New Yorkers will never forget what you guys did to support the city and send a message out to the rest of the country about how important it was to help the City of New York.” Former New York Mayors Abe Beam, who was Mayor during the 1974-1975 fiscal crisis, and David Dinkins were on hand as well, and echoed similar sentiments in comments made after the formal panel presentation.

In their presentation to ABNY Webb and other local elected officials noted that at the beginning of February, the U.S. would enter the longest span of economic expansion in its history. Using data from a recent Standard & Poor’s DRI report, U. S. Metro Areas: the Engines of America’s Growth, they demonstrated how the nation’s largest urban counties and cities – America’s economic engines – have propelled this unprecedented economic boom.

The report, jointly commissioned last year by the USCM and the National Association of Counties (NACo), showed that metropolitan areas account for 84 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, the same percentage of the nation’s jobs, and even higher percentages of the nation’s income and recent economic growth.

During their visit to Wall Street the coalition of local elected officials set out to prove that cities are the economic engines that drive the national economy, and that states, who receive the bulk of federal and private sector investment, are becoming economically irrelevant.

“Contrary to the continued beliefs of many ordinary Americans, not to mention federal and corporate leaders, our data prove that Metropolitan Areas are not draining the national economy – they are supporting it,” Mayor Webb said.

 “It follows, then, that to maintain the economic momentum, the nation should feed strength by investing more heavily in the communities that are generating it,” Mayor Webb added. “At the federal level, we need to ensure this by establishing a Domestic Policy Advisor, similar to the National Security Advisor, who has sweeping authority over the federal agencies that promote the economic well-being of our metro areas.”

Key elements of the plan range from traditional bread-and-butter issues, such as greater investments in public education and law enforcement, to retraining the workforce to be competitive in a global economy, and providing more affordable public housing and public transit.

NACo President C. Vernon Gray pointed to the emerging coalitions between Mayors and County Executives epitomized by the joint effort between the USCM and his own organization, said that the Standard & Poor’s data revealed a “new arithmetic” to which smart national politicians will pay heed.

“Our research shows how closely integrated Metropolitan economies really are,” President Gray said. “Those accustomed to the old ways of dividing and conquering cities from counties, urban from suburban, should note that the political boundaries of cities, counties and even states are losing their relevance. The successful politicians will be the ones who recognize and capitalize on that understanding.”

Mayor Webb added: “For the business community, this also represents a new arithmetic that should lead to greater investment in rather than avoidance of metropolitan communities and particularly the inner cities. The nation’s cities and metropolitan areas are no longer mistakenly perceived as sinkholes of poverty and tin-cup need; we’ve taken our rightful places as sources of power, prosperity and opportunity.”

In addition to the ABNY meeting, the Wall Street launch of the “New Agenda for America’s Cities” included meetings with the editorial boards of The New York Times, BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal; officiating at the closing bell and gavel ceremonies of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE); and a dinner hosted by the co-CEOs of Citigroup of Sanford Weill and Robert Rubin, the world’s largest financial services company.

Mayor Webb and NACo President Gray were joined in their announcement in New York by H. Brent Coles, Mayor of Boise and USCM Vice President; Marc Morial, Mayor of New Orleans and USCM Advisory Board Chair; Wayne Curry, Prince George’s County (MD) Executive and NACo Large Urban County Caucus Chairman; Ron Sims, NACo Large Urban County Caucus Vice Chair and King County (WA) Executive; and Jane Hague, King County Council Member and NACo President-elect.

The next day, more than 200 Mayors of the nation’s largest cities joined the call for the adoption of the 10-point “New Agenda for America’s Cities” at the 2000 winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. (See related story in this issue for a full description of the “New Agenda for America’s Cities.”)

New York and Washington were the first stops on what is planned as a national tour of metropolitan areas around the nation, to promote the “New Agenda.” Events are already scheduled to take place in February in Florida and California – states of enormous significance to the presidential campaign – with more events to be announced throughout the 2000 campaign cycle.