Washington, D.C.
November 17, 2005

Denver - O’Neill Transportation Forum

Conference President Beverly O’Neill convened our Transportation Forum in Denver, November 2. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Chair of our Transportation Committee, hosted and gave much of his time to the event.

The evacuation of American cities was the hot topic of the day. Beaumont, Texas Mayor Guy Goodson gave the participants an in-depth discussion of the Beaumont evacuation after Hurricane Rita.

Houston Mayor Bill White sent his team to Denver too. Dennis Storemski, Director, Public Safety and Homeland Security, gave a most impressive briefing on how difficult it is to use an interstate highway system for the evacuation of an American city. He cited the use of rails as a possibility. It was interesting to hear him discuss how difficult it is to get the State Highway Department to implement a reverse flow so that you can have eight lanes full of traffic going one way.

He urges more in-depth discussion and strategy on evacuations and suggested alternative arrangements must be made for persons stranded without cars, SUVs or trucks for the aged and infirmed populations.

The Governor of Texas came to Washington (DC) and testified in Congress that everything went well as compared with what happened in Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma. Most agree that Katrina was a little different than Rita. But even with Rita, 31 people died on a Texas highway – some heat related and others because of carbon monoxide. According to the Houston officials, the Governor’s plan did not include a reverse flow component.

Another issue was the fact that according to Houston, 42 percent of the people who evacuated did not have to evacuate. Dennis Storemski says we must remember that we must “run from water and hide from wind.” After the hurricane pushes the ocean surge inward and it comes out – then you have the wind. And protecting persons from wind as a hurricane heads inward is dangerous but not as life threatening as a 12-15 foot wave surge Biloxi experienced.

The so-called zone departure did not work either after Rita. People panic and they flee. So many families take all their cars – when all could load into one and cut down the volume of traffic. We were reminded that an ambulance can haul only one person and over and over we heard that passenger and freight trains must be used for the aged and infirmed. Transfer, hauling and trucks moving were also mentioned.

It took 12 hours for the Rita evacuees to go 90 miles. Again, no reverse flow in the state plan — and 31 people died.

No doubt — we must continue the evacuation issue as we come to our Winter Meeting. City officials in Houston were most honest. No one is criticizing anyone, but state officials in Texas and Florida sometimes don’t sound like the local officials and the people sound who went through Wilma and Rita. Even after 9/11 and Katrina, we still have a long way to go before we have an evacuation plan that will involve federal, state and local governments.

The Chicago Team in Denver headed up by Pat Daly, Chief Security Officer for the Chicago Transit Authority, stressed that our USA cities will continue to be threatened as long as we have a military presence in the Middle East and as long as we have a pro Israel policy in the region.

Daly presented a slide show with faces of supposed transit riders. He asked us to pick out the terrorists from the faces. The fact is that even though the faces were different in structure and color, all photos shown were indeed terrorists.

Daly also talked to us about suicide bombers and cautioned all to understand that suicide bombers are educated people and so many of the one million Chicagoans who ride the rails and one half million who ride the Chicago buses look like terrorists.

Daly points out that the Madrid bombings were not suicide bombers. Instead these were the back pack bombings. And today Americans of all ages and incomes carry backpacks. Madrid backpacks had just 22 pounds of dynamite, light but powerful enough to destroy, maim and kill.

Daly also says the Brits are the best at stopping the terrorists because of their 35 year history against the IRA. The camera system used in England is helpful and more cameras are needed in the USA but there is a tremendous funding gap in security funding to provide USA cities the cameras they need.

These issues and other transportation issues will be carried forward as a part of a dynamic USCM Winter Meeting here in Washington January 25-27. Thanks again to Mayor Hickenlooper and President O’Neill for their leadership on this critical issue facing our nation.

Delivering on the promise The United States Conference of Mayors gave the Gulf Coast Mayors and New Orleans officials in September, this past week Charleston Mayor Joe Riley took our Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) into the Gulf Coast region where extensive discussions took place with the Mayors of Biloxi, Gulfport, Ocean Springs and other mayors. Mayor Joe Riley founded our Institute 20 years ago. Over 630 mayors have graduated from the “teachings of Joe Riley.” The Institute has three partners, The United States Conference of Mayors, National Endowment for the Arts and the American Architectural Foundation. Within that partnership there is a stellar group of accomplished architects and urban planners who have done so much in our nation to improve the quality of life and the beauty of American cities.

With Mayor Riley’s careful leadership, it was remarkable to hear the Mississippi Mayors raise so many pertinent questions centering on the design of rebuild that will take place in the Gulf Coast Mississippi cities. There will be follow up meetings as requested by the Mississippi mayors.

Following the meetings in Mississippi, Mayor Riley’s team went via bus to spend time with the officials of New Orleans and Louisiana.

In New Orleans we received a most comprehensive tour of the housing situation which was led by Mayor Ray Nagin. The housing situation is devastated beyond what is being reported. TV reports center on just the 9th Ward and yet there is devastation in middle income and upper income residential areas that is almost unbelievable.

Following our tour, we had extensive sessions with Mayor Nagin, City Council President Oliver Thomas and Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu. These three very active politicians stayed with us and worked with us as we saw Mayor Riley facilitate the experts he had assembled into a most successful exchange.

We have promised a sustainable presence to New Orleans and to the Gulf Coast Mayors. We are delivering on that promise. Conference President Beverly O’Neill raised our flag with the Mississippi Mayors and the City of New Orleans on September 15 when she went to the region promising support and action.

This past week with Mayor Joe Riley and our MICD partners, we are continuing to deliver on the requests we are getting from our cities in that region. We will continue to follow through and before leaving the region there were discussions of more teams continuing to go there with the Conference of Mayors support and direction.

We are committed and we will bring our progress reports from the mayors of the region and from our President O’Neill at our Winter Meeting next year.

FEMA has announced all hurricane survivors must be out of hotels by December 1st. Great timing FEMA. Happy Holidays!

Houston Mayor White wrote FEMA, “great nations, like good people, keep their word.”

FEMA has given the mayors and officials until December 1st to sign leases for alternative housing. Mayor White says it can’t be done. He is asking FEMA to rescind its order. Surely they will.

As Thanksgiving comes, we once again are thankful for all of you and the thousands of volunteers and the millions of dollars as the USA mayors have been involved in our efforts with Katrina, Rita and Wilma survivors.

As we go forward we can learn from the challenges of the Autumn of 2005 with the fervent belief that mayors and local government – our first responders – must be involved as we continue to correct old flawed systems and create new dynamic systems people will believe in and trust. There’s so much work to be done. Mayors welcome the challenge and the opportunity and together we can make it better for our people, our cities and our nation.

On behalf of our President, Mayor Beverly O’Neill, our officers and our staff, we wish you peace and quiet and the opportunity for you to be close to those who are close to you at this very special time of the year.