Washington, DC
May 16, 2007

This week Conference President Doug Palmer joined New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, other USA mayors, and mayors from around the world at the C-40 Large Cities Climate Summit in New York. Following a luncheon address by Mayor Bloomberg where he cited the progress New Yorkers are making toward climate protection, Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Palmer led mayors to Central Park for a well attended overflowing press conference. Mayor Palmer announced to national and international media that he was proud of the fact we had signed up the 500th Mayor supporting our Climate Protection agreement. The 500th mayor is Mayor Kathy Taylor of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He commended Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels for initiating the Mayors Climate Protection agreement. Mayor Palmer said we won’t stop until all USA mayors have signed the Mayors Climate Protection agreement.

The press conference with Mayor Bloomberg was a tremendous success in a unique setting for the event in Central Park on a beautiful May day. Throughout the conference sessions there were over 18 panels that took place over the three days of May 14-17. Mayors Daley of Chicago, Wynn of Austin, White of Houston, Chavez of Albuquerque, Anderson of Salt Lake, Nagin of New Orleans all played significant roles in the C-40 Summit and offered best practices and challenges.

The C-40 initiative started in London and London Mayor Ken Livingstone played a prominent role in this meeting. He discussed his bold initiative of taxing “motor cars” that are driven in London. He said that his critics were quite fiercely against this in the beginning and it came mainly from the press. He praised Mayor Bloomberg for his courage in calling for a congestion tax on cars that are driven into Manhattan.

It was good to chat with Mayor Livingstone. Some will remember that upon being elected as Mayor of London, he came to the United States for the first time as the first elected Mayor of London to attend our Conference of Mayors Washington Winter Meeting in 2001 to be our plenary speaker in our Summit on Rails Policy held at Union Station here in Washington, DC.

Some will also recall that during that time, he took a strong stand to remove the pigeons from London’s Trafalgar Square and it caused quite a ruckus in London and got a lot of play in the world media. We were shocked and surprised at our 2001 Winter Meeting press conference back then that a “pigeon lover and defender” stood up to ask a question and begin shouting calling him a “pigeon killer!” As he threw a glass of water on all of us. It did not faze Mayor Livingstone. His tan suit was streaked with water stains and he kept right on talking with no restraint about how and why the pigeons had to go and of course he continued to stress for a sensible rails policy to reduce traffic and improve our environment. Back then and even this past week he continues to stress that mayors of the world must unite on the global warming issues because, as he said, so many of our national governments don’t have the political will or the strength to act on global warming initiatives that must be started now.

It was also good to talk to Sydney Mayor Clover Moore. I had met her and spent time with her along with our late President Dearborn Mayor Mike Guido and Burnside Mayor Elizabeth Kautz last September in Sydney. We invited her then to join with us at our 75th in Los Angeles next month. She is leading the way in that beautiful city of Sydney to involve Australians through her coalition with other Australian mayors to implement climate initiatives in Australia.

Another friend and a mayor that really stands out among others on the international scene is Mayor David Miller of Toronto. We had met in Berlin when Past President Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic and I went there to officially join Metropolis, the organization headed up by our good friend Barcelona Mayor Joan Clos. Mayor Miller addressed our 2005 Annual Meeting in Chicago. He wants to continue to work with us and I will be following up with him.

President Bill Clinton ended the New York C-40 Meeting. In an afternoon press conference with Mayors Palmer, Chavez and mayors around the world he announced a major climate protection initiative which involves an up-front 5 billion dollar cash commitment from five international banking firms. In this partnership four multi-national corporations will partner with the Clinton Foundation to reduce energy use in buildings worldwide.

We sincerely appreciate Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership and his hospitality coming from him and his staff leading up and during the C-40 meeting. Mayor Palmer and I talked to him about his addressing our 75th Annual Meeting in LA next month and we hope he will be with us.

We regret very much Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels could not be with us in New York. The death of his father prevented his participation. Our hearts go out to him at this time. And, once again, we salute his pioneer leadership in pushing the Mayors Climate Protection agreement to get us where we are today with our 500th Mayor Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor.

Before flying to New York for the C-40 Meeting, we held a most important and productive meeting in Warsaw. It wasn’t our first international meeting on design and arts, but it was a first in that we partnered with another organization, The American Architectural Foundation.

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, along with Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy and Meridian Mayor John Robert Smith joined 16 Polish Mayors and three American architects and Polish architects in Warsaw and Cracow for most stimulating discussions with most lively question and answer sessions. We thank The American Architectural Foundation for their partnership for our 2007 Poland Mission.

And we are forever grateful for the support, friendship and leadership of our dear friend Ambassador Victor Ashe who as our President was a champion for cities and who as Ambassador continues to strengthen our long historical relationship with Poland and Polish citizens. Mayor Ashe does not sit in his office and receive cables and the ordinary things we think Ambassadors do. He travels to cities throughout Poland; he invites Polish Mayors to share their best practices. Thanks to him and his style based on his being the Mayor of Knoxville and President of The United States Conference of Mayors, Polish mayors are coming together, becoming stronger and they all are most appreciative of Ambassador Ashe’s efforts. No doubt, this Administration and our nation has some serious challenges with our image and support at this time. But in Poland, thanks to Ambassador Ashe and his bipartisan mayoral leadership style, the long history of the Polish-American relationship is strong and it will continue to be even stronger as long as Victor Ashe stays there and works it 24-7 as he does. His boundless energy, his curiosity, his vision is a model for all future Ambassadors for all countries to study and to learn as they serve our nation in the other nations of our world.

We are almost one month away from what will be an Annual Meeting you do not want to miss. Both LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, our 2007 Host, and Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer are working hard with LA staff and my staff as we build this meeting.

We continue to press the Presidential candidates from both parties to be with us. It’s getting to be closing time for them as they set their schedules for the month ahead. I, along with President Palmer, urge you to contact the candidate of your choice or the ones that you know or don’t know to explain to them how important it is for them to come to our LA meeting and present their vision as to how we would work with him or her as President to make our nation stronger for our cities, our families, and our people. The nation’s mayors are coming together under one roof for the last time before this campaign gets into the crazy season. The place for all Presidential candidates to be over the days of June 22-26 is at our 75th Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. Scheduling is no excuse. We are flexible. We can work them in. And if they don’t come, they should have to explain to the media and the public as to why they don’t care enough to come and present their comprehensive thoughts and learn from our mayors who work each day to keep our metro economies strong and thus keep our nation strong.

Please, if you have not done so, reach out to the Presidential candidates now. Encourage them to be with us. It is most important

I look forward to seeing many of you at the Annual Meeting of the International Council of Shopping Centers next week in Las Vegas.

Following that meeting, we welcome Chinese Mayors to Chicago for our Fifth Sino-American Mayoral Summit, chaired by Mayor Richard M. Daley.

I look forward to seeing many of you also, along with President Palmer and Mayors Villaraigosa and Kilpatrick, for our continuing series of hearings and meetings of our Poverty, Work and Opportunity Task Force in Detroit.

As U.S.Mayor goes to press, Maryland Congressman Albert Wynn is introducing on the House side our proposed Energy and Environment Block Grant legislation. Conference President Palmer recently met with Congressman Wynn and we are most pleased with the response we continue to get as we are moving this legislation through Congress. We need your help and need it now. Pay special attention to my request for action. We can’t win this one without you. And we have come this far because of your response to support this new legislation giving you new tools and resources to implement climate protection initiatives in cities, counties and states throughout America.