By Crystal Swann and Larry Tate
June 19, 2006

During the mini-plenary session on poverty, work, and opportunity, one of three issue specific sessions held during the 74th Annual Meeting of the Conference of Mayors, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Task Force Chair, opened the session by recalling how the sight of the people trapped on rooftops by Hurricane Katrina, and the endemic poverty their plight revealed, “precipitated a debate among mayors and leaders across the country about the need for us to stand up and do something about this issue.” Villaraigosa, chosen to lead the Conference of Mayors effort in January, has already hosted two task force meetings. The third meeting, a mini-plenary session, was moderated by former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. Included on the panel were: Jack Kemp, former Secretary of HUD and vice-presidential candidate; Connie Rice, public-interest lawyer and co-Director, Advancement Project; Bruce Katz, a vice president of the Brookings Institute and chief of staff to former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros; and Matt Miller, Forbes columnist and NPR talk'show host. Villaraigosa added, “We’re facing these issues in an era of federal retreat and surrender, when federal resources have been reduced to almost nothing.”

Each panelist was asked to give a five-minute presentation focusing in on what can and should be done about poverty, work, opportunity and the working class. Jack Kemp said, “I like getting people into ownership positions in America.” He stressed “the importance of housing in the war on poverty,” and suggested that housing-related agencies such as Fannie Mae set aside some percent of their income to “invest in affordable workplace housing.” He supported full funding of CDBG and charter schools, as well as his own concept of “enterprise zones” or “empowerment zones” where capital gains tax would be zero for private investment. He quoted Robert Kennedy’s statement that “to fight poverty without private enterprise is to fight a war and leave your grand army on the sidelines.” Finally, he suggested drastically reducing taxes on the working poor, who currently pay the highest tax rates in America. Brown told Kemp, “That’s the most radical address I’ve heard you give.”

Rice, who has won over $2 billion in class-action lawsuits for the poor in various cities, combined broad analysis with specific suggestions. “The default system in America,” she said, “is to channel money to the upper-middle and upper classes. We’ve buried the poor. The question is, can we save the middle class.” To mayors she said, “You don’t have what you need–you’re doing triage, and smoke-jumping.” She especially focused on databases, think tanks, economic advisers, the kind of informational resources that would make it possible for mayors to map out the economic issues in their cities and make a solid case for anti-poverty initiatives.

Bruce Katz highlighted the issue of “not just poverty but concentrated poverty,” inner-city areas where the poverty rate is above 40 percent and where 30 percent of poor blacks live. In these areas, all factors (bad schools, overstretched public services, predatory businesses) conspire to maintain and aggravate the endemic poverty. He said, “We did something about this in the 1990s,” through eliminating the worst public-housing projects and providing housing vouchers, giving the poor “the power to exercise market choice” and move to better neighborhoods. These programs are currently under attack. Housing redevelopment, he noted, “can be used to leverage up school reform” and make bad neighborhoods more attractive.

Matt Miller told mayors, “I would encourage you to be ambitious and frame the debate in ways that go beyond what’s considered politically easy … think about what constitutes a minimally decent life in America” and how to provide it to the working poor. His idea of that minimum is a $9-10 per hour minimum wage and basic health-care for everyone, which he said could be funded by one percent of America’s GDP. “The conservative view of the decent minimum is: you’re lucky to be in America, you’re lucky to have a job, you’re lucky to have the emergency room,” he said. True as far as it goes, he acknowledges, but in his view, “That shouldn’t be good enough for America,” which should be “a beacon” for the world.

In the lively question period, the issue of inner cities versus suburbs whose residents feel poverty is “not their problem” was raised, and the political dangers of confronting people with harsh truths about poverty. The issue, panelists suggested, was to frame the question so that people saw that it was in their self-interest to alleviate poverty, that no metropolitan area could be truly healthy with areas of entrenched poverty draining resources and causing a variety of social problems for all.

Kemp said, “The level of poverty is rising, and the level of despair is rising.” Villaraigosa said, “We want to force the debate, put this on the agenda in a non-partisan way,” and a delegation of mayors will later in the year travel to Washington to voice their concerns. The session may be viewed in its entire at usmayors.org.