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NEWS SECTIONS: World news | Election news | News from Europe | News from North America | News from Latin America | News from Asia and Australia | News from Africa | Urban events | NEWS SPECIALS: Local elections in England & Wales 2008 | London elections 2008 | Latest news story | London and Glasgow terrorist attacks 2007 |Mayors will present urban
plan to next US president
Philadelphia, 19 July 2008: Miami Mayor and newly elected President of the US Conference of Mayors, Manny Diaz, announced the Mayors ’08 Action Forums, a national tour to five major American cities, where the nation’s mayors will forge an action agenda for cities and metropolitan areas. These recommendations will be presented to the next President of the United States during the critical first 100 days of the new administration.
The Mayors’ Action Forums, which will be held in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami between August and October, will focus on five areas that mayors believe are in need of significant federal investment and are at the center of the Mayors’ 10 Point Plan: crime, poverty, arts – culture - tourism, infrastructure and environment.
Last month at the Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting held in Miami, Mayor Diaz, the newly-elected President of the mayors’ organization, stated that Washington has ignored the role, value and promise of the nation’s cities and metro areas - which is where 85 per cent of American people live. “Hard working Americans send their tax dollars to Washington and now it’s time for Washington to return those resources to our nation’s families and cities,” Diaz said. "National problems demand national investments,” he continued.
Mayor Diaz chose forum cities in every region of the country to further emphasize the national scope of inaction coming from Washington and the immediate need to help suffering Americans. The first stop on this national tour will be in Philadelphia in early August with a focus on crime and public safety. This forum will bring together the nation’s mayors and police chiefs to work on a new agenda to advance community policing, provide police officers with new innovations and technology, and create a plan that will involve city residents in reducing neighborhood violence and street crime.
The forum in Philadelphia will be followed by forums on poverty in Los Angeles, infrastructure in New York, arts – culture – tourism in Chicago, and environment in Miami in October. Senior advisors with Senator Obama’s and Senator McCain’s campaigns will be invited to attend each of the forums.
New York mayor offers
new poverty yardstick
New York City, 16 July 2008: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called America’s system of measuring urban poverty as outdated and claimed it seriously under-estimated poverty in his city. In a speech prepared for the annual conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the mayor introduced a new poverty gauge. “"If we are serious about fighting poverty, we also have to start getting serious about accurately measuring poverty," Bloomberg wrote.
The current measures used by the US government show New York City with a poverty rate of 18.9 per cent. But the new measure shows that the rate is 23 per cent. And the new measure shows wide differences within that spectrum. There are fewer people in extreme poverty, reflecting the impact of anti-poverty assistance programs. But under the new measure, the number of elderly poor nearly doubles, from 18 per cent to 32 per cent, mostly because of health-care costs.
According to Mayor Bloomberg, the old system, in use since 1969, is based on how much people spend on food. “In the 1960s food accounted for more than 30 per cent of household spending, while today only one eighth is spent on food. The cost of housing and transportation take up a much larger slice of family income,” the mayor’s advisers explained. The new poverty measurement, devised by New York's Center for Economic Opportunity, takes into account household spending on food, clothing, housing, transport, utilities and medical expenses.
Three years after Katrina residents
are moving back into New Orleans
New Orleans, 12 July 2008: Three years after Hurricane Katrina devastated large part of the city, New Orleans is attracting back its people. Research published by the US Census Bureau revealed that it was America’s fastest growing large city. In the year ended 1 July 2007, New Orleans’ population grew by almost 14 per cent to 240,000. However, two months before the city’s flood defences broke some 450,000 people lived in New Orleans.
Some New Orleans officials claim the figures by Census Bureau under-estimate the city’s true size. They point out the Bureau collects its data by looking at available housing units, while other research looks at mail deliveries and utility connections. Based on this methodology, there are now 320,000 people living in the Louisiana coastal city.
The US 2008 population figures also show that the country’s ten fastest growing are all in Sun Belt states. The Census Bureau said the second fastest growing city in the nation was Victorville, southern California, with California and Texas each recording five cities on the list of the 25 fastest-growing cities between 2006 and 2007.
In numerical terms, Houston grew fastest during 2006/2007. The Texan city added 38,932 residents to reach 2.2 million.
Four of the top ten cities that showed the greatest numerical increases for the year were in Texas. In addition to Houston, San Antonio came in 3rd, Fort Worth was 4th and Austin was 8th. Other cities in the top 10 of greatest numerical increases were Phoenix, which ranked 2nd, New Orleans, which was 5th, New York, which was 6th, Atlanta, 7th on the list, and two North Carolina cities, Charlotte in 9th place and Raleigh in 10th.
New York City remains the largest US city with 8.3 million residents, followed by Los Angeles with 3.8 million and Chicago with 2.8 million.
American mayors not hopeful
about solving real estate crisis
Miami, 29 June 2008: The real estate crisis is causing many US cities severe financial and social problems. In a survey by the US Conference of Mayors, more than 70 per cent of questioned city leaders said that the number of vacant and abandoned properties in their locales had increased as a result of the nation's current mortgage foreclosure crisis. More than half the mayors responding reported that the crisis is a serious or very serious problem for their cities.
The 42 cities that participated in the survey reported having an estimated 79,186 vacant and abandoned properties. Estimates ranged from about 16,400 in Baltimore, 10,000 in Buffalo, 8,000 in Las Vegas and 4,900 in Columbus (OH).
Further, well over half (55 per cent) of the surveyed cities report that the foreclosure crisis has affected their efforts to address problem properties, and 28 per cent say these efforts have actually lost ground since the crisis began. In fact, survey responses indicate that as a result of the crisis, 38 per cent of the cities have been required to allocate more money for the upkeep of problem properties and 45 percent have had to change local ordinances and/or policies to respond to problems resulting from the crisis.
The US mayors' outlook is decidedly negative: More than 70 per cent anticipate that, over the next year, their mortgage foreclosure problem will increase; 24 per cent anticipate the problem will stay the same. Only two of the cities expect the situation will improve.
Asked how additional federal resources would be used to mitigate the impact of the mortgage foreclosures on their vacant and abandoned properties, most mayors (61 per cent) said they would use the funds to acquire these properties; many (56 per cent) said they would use it to clean up the land and to rehabilitate structures on the properties, and many (54 per cent) said they would use it to demolish structures on the properties.
US mayors want to cut
back on bottled water
Miami, 26 June 2008: American mayors gathering at the annual conference of the US Conference of Mayors passed a resolution, proposed by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, calling for the phasing out of bottled water and emphasising the quality of public water supplies. "Cities are sending the wrong message about the quality of public water when we are spending taxpayers’ dollars on water in disposable containers from a private corporation," Mayor Newsom said.
According to the pressure group ‘Think Outside the Bottle’ more than 60 US mayors have already cancelled bottled water contracts. "The resolution will send the strong message that opting for tap over bottled water is what's best for our environment, our pocketbooks and our long-term, equitable access to our most essential resource," a spokesman for the group said.
However, the American Beverage Associations described the resolution as tainted with hypocrisies and inaccuracies. "While some mayors oppose the use of bottled water by city governments, most mayors across America gladly welcome bottled water when disaster strikes. Our beverage companies continually come to the aid of communities ravaged by floods, fires, hurricanes, other natural disasters and compromised municipal water systems," the Association explained in a press statement. A spokesman also pointed out that plastic water bottles were 100 per cent recyclable.
Obama outlines economic
programme for US cities
Miami, 24 June 2008: Speaking at the US Conference of Mayors, Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, praised several mayors, including New York's Michael Bloomberg's efforts to find new ways to improve his city's economic and crime rates. He also put forward ideas to encourage economic growth in communities, particularly those, which have been left behind in the race to attract fourth-generation industries. Obama proposed a programme which would provide planning and matching grants for regional business, government and university leaders to collaborate on leveraging a region's existing assets.
"There's no better place to start than by investing in the clusters of growth and innovation that are springing up across this country,” Obama told America’s city leaders. He cited Pennsylvania's Keystone Innovation Zones as an example, which he said had led to the formation of some 200 new companies. Obama promised that, if elected, his administration would offer US$200 million a year in competitive matching grants for state and local governments for regional economic growth.
Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged Jewish voters in Florida, many of whom are former residents of his city, to ignore rumours about Barack Obama, which have recently appeared on right-wing websites.
New York mayor as popular as ever
but he should leave office next year
New York, 19 June 2008: According to a New York Time opinion poll, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is as popular as ever. The paper writes that while the mayor should do more to ensure safety on construction sites – recently two cranes collapsed on neighbouring buildings – some 67 per cent of New York residents approve of the mayor’s work, a score which matches his hitherto highest rating achieved in 2005 when he defeated Fernando Ferrer to win re-election to a second term.
However, while New Yorkers are happy with Mayor Bloomberg, they also want him to step down when his term ends in December 2009. Some two-thirds of respondents to the poll said they thought New York’s term limit was a good idea. At the moment the city’s mayors can only serve a maximum of two terms.
While the mayor remains hugely popular, very few of New Yorkers, who took part in the NY Times poll, could name any particular achievements by his administration. The paper writes that while Bloomberg’s predecessor Rudolph Giuliani was widely credited with reducing crime, when residents were asked to name the best thing Bloomberg had done as mayor, there was no single achievement or area identified by a broad swath of respondents. “When asked to name the worst thing Bloomberg had done, the most frequent response referred to taxes, at seven per cent, followed by congestion pricing, his handling of finances and education, all at four per cent,” the New York Times says.
House prices continue
to fall across the USA
New York, 10 June 2008: During the first three months of 2008, house prizes in the US declined for the third straight quarter, dropping by 6.7 per cent at an annualised rate. Nationwide, 262 housing markets out of 330 experienced declines, accounting for 84 per cent of all US housing units and 89 per cent of real estate value. California, Florida and Michigan accounted for the steepest losses and contained 45 of the 50 worst performing metropolitan areas for this period.
California and Florida had been among the most overvalued states for the past several years and Michigan is reeling from the impact of a slumping economy. Other housing markets in the bottom 50 include Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada and Bend, Oregon, areas cited in earlier House Price studies as being precariously overvalued and likely to be the next "shoe to drop."
House prices are being pushed down across the nation by fewer high-priced home sales and an abundance of foreclosed properties being sold at discount. Contributing to the downward pressure are significantly tighter credit standards, which are reducing the amount of borrowing available for home purchases.
However, researchers for Global Insight, a company that specialises in economic and financial analysis and forecasting, believe that only eight housing markets in the US were grossly overvalued. “In 2006, the number of overvalued markets stood at 56,” the company says. Areas of the Pacific Northwest, including Bend, Oregon and Longview, Washington, continued to be among the most overvalued. However, other areas once extremely overvalued - the Northeast and coastal California and Florida - are now rated as fairly valued.
Toronto mayor gets support
in calling for ban of handguns
Toronto, 4 June 2008: The mayors of Montreal and Halifax joined Toronto Mayor David Miller in calling for a national ban on handguns. At present, the only people legally entitled to own handguns in Canada are police and security officers, target shooters, collectors and Olympic-style athletes. Now Miller wants to extend the ban to also include collectors. The mayor argues that that between 30 and 40 per cent of guns used in crimes in Toronto come from local owners. “They're stolen from them. That's a huge public safety issue,'' the mayor said.
Toronto has posted an anti-handgun petition on the city’s official website and the mayor is broadcasting his message in a video on YouTube. Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay and Mayor Peter Kelly of Halifax have come out publicly in support of their Toronto colleague. However, Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion reacted more cautiously. "You can ban handguns, but that won't eliminate guns. People who want to get them will get them,'' she said.
Mayor Miller’s initiative came after police confirmed the seizure of some 125 rifles and handguns from a collector, who was charged with storing them unsafely. "The man had a permit for 125 guns. Think of the public safety threat if one of the criminal gangs found out he had them. If they got there before police, all of those guns would have been on the streets and eventually used in crimes," Miller explained.
Meanwhile, Toronto’s mayor was forced to compromise on the location of two shooting ranges in the city. In an ideal world, the mayor said, there would be no gun clubs in the city. “If you want to stop gun violence you must do everything you can to eliminate the availability o weapons,” he said. The mayor has now proposed that the two clubs, which operate from city-owned premises, move to private clubs. The mayor admitted there were other gun clubs in Toronto on private property and that the city had no legal means to close them.
According to Mayor Miller more than 85,000 guns – 44,000 of them handguns – have been reported stolen in Canada.
US ethanol subsidies cause
starvation, says NYC mayor
New York City 30 May 2008: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg described America’s policies of subsidising corn ethanol while taxing sugar ethanol, imported from Brazil, as hampering the effort to combat climate change and causing starvation around the world. The mayor told the World Science summit that the food shortages and riots that have wracked the world in recent months, from the Philippines to Egypt to Haiti, had starkly dramatized the moral bankruptcy inherent US government's continued subsidies for the production of corn ethanol.
“Right now, hard to believe though it may be, the US is taxing sugar-based ethanol at 54 cents per gallon and is subsidizing corn-based ethanol at 45 cents per gallon - even though sugar-based ethanol is cheaper and producing it generates less carbon dioxide,” Mayor Bloomberg explained. He described the situation as special interest politics, plain and simple.
“For years, politicians have hailed corn ethanol as the answer to climate change. It was all so simple. Instead of requiring fuel efficiency, or funding mass transit, we could have our cake and eat it too - or in this case corn - and drive cars with it, as well, and in the process divert millions of tax dollars a year to farm states. The only problem was this policy wasn't based on science. For years, research has questioned the environmental benefits of corn ethanol and now widespread production of corn ethanol has turned out to be an environmental and economic calamity. Not only does it take so much energy to produce that it has just a marginal benefit to our carbon emissions, but it also is driving up the cost of one of the world's most important cereal crops,” Michael Bloomberg told his audience.
The mayor also praised Florida governor Charles Crist: “It is phenomenally interesting that last November, Florida Governor Charles Crist - the governor of the state that produces more sugar cane than any other, and about a fifth of all American sugar cane - visited Brazil and advocated lifting America's tariff on sugar ethanol from that country. It may seem counter-intuitive for a governor to appear to undercut one of his state's biggest industries but I think it's true, real leaders can see the bigger picture. Importing sugar-based ethanol from Brazil will create a market for that product in the U.S. - and that will produce a sweet new market for Florida sugarcane growers, as well. That makes sense, for Florida and for America - and a far sight more sense than the status quo.”
Kansas mayor proposes
public transport system
Kansas City, 30 May 2008: Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser has announced a US$1.2 billion rail transport plan for Kansas metro region. The mayor’s vision includes five types of public transport services, including light rail and modern trams for the city itself and a commuter train service for suburbs.
Funkhouser has been calling for regional public transport and the plan details out new details of his idea. The plan affects a dozen suburbs on the Missouri side of Kansas metro region, but it excludes suburbs in Kansas State because authorizing legislation exists only in Missouri. Mayors of communities in Kansas have shown little interest for a public transport tax.
Mayor Funkhouser will discuss his plan with other metro-area mayors and county officials. Although a poll in the three Missouri counties showed that people would support a half-cent sales tax for public transport, the questions did not include the specifics of the mayor’s plan. If the regional concept doesn't get enough support, Kansas City officials are prepared to ask voters in November to decide on a city-only light-rail starter route.
The Kansas City mayor believes a regional system would work better than the light-rail starter line, which is being proposed by the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority. Funkhouser said more people would be served by a regional system.
Portland’s mayor-elect
helped by Obama-mania
Portland, 24 May 2008: On the day when Barack Obama probably secured the nomination as presidential candidate of the Democratic Party by winning the Oregon primary election, another young politician from a minority made history in the state capital. Sam Adams, Portland’s commissioner was elected mayor of his city, thus making him the first big city mayor in the US who is openly gay. No doubt, Obama-mania helped the mayor-elect to win more than 58 per cent of the vote and thus avoiding a second-round ballot in November. Post-election research showed that Obama and Adams both attracted younger liberal voters who favour green policies such as bike lanes and public transport.
Sam Adams (44) has spent his entire adult life in politics and government, becoming Portland's youngest chief of staff at the age of 29. He was elected to Portland's City Commission in 2004. He helped create a domestic-partner registry in the city and expanded its anti-discrimination statute to include gender identity.
During the election campaign Portland’s new mayor made no secret of failures in his earlier life, including personal bankruptcy in the late 1990s due to credit-card debt.
Chuck Wolfe, president of the Gay Victory Fund, said in a statement that in Oregon, fairness had won the day. “This victory means that people who are openly gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender can also be seen as capable, committed city leaders whose sexual orientation or gender identity is less important than what they plan to do for their communities. That's a step toward full equality that we want to replicate across America," he concluded.
In his victory speech Adams thanked his mentors former Portland Mayor Vera Katz and Congressman Peter DeFazio. He added that entire life had been an apprenticeship leading up to this moment.
Foreclosures to cost
America $202 billion
San Francisco, 20 May 2008: Cities in California are the biggest losers in America’s current real estate crash. House prices in the state capital Sacramento dropped by 29 per cent, while further south, home owners in San Diego saw their the value of their properties fall by some 23 per cent. A study by the US National Association of Realtors revealed that the average price for a family home fell in 100 out of 149 metropolitan areas. “Across the US the average price for a single-family home in the dropped by 7.7 per cent during the first three months of 2008, the biggest decline in at least 29 years,” say the authors of the report.
Contributing to America’s real estate misery are the increasing numbers of foreclosures, affecting even many middle-class neighbourhoods. Foreclosures more than doubled during the first quarter of this year compared to 2007. “Home prices are falling as foreclosed properties reduce the value of nearby real estate,” said Lawrence Yun, the realtor group's chief economist. And according to the US Center for Responsible Lending, homeowners who lived near a house repossessed by a bank will see their property values drop an average of US$5,000. “Nationally, foreclosures will result in $202 billion of lost real estate value.”
Meanwhile US local authorities have began to take legal actions against banks and other real estate lenders, claiming that financial institutions had offered inflated mortgages thus precipitating the crisis. Communities are also asking mortgage companies to keep re-possessed in good repair. Officials from St Paul, Minnesota, have written to lenders threatening a lawsuit if they don't fix their foreclosed properties.
Greg Squires, a professor of sociology at George Washington University, believe there are hundreds or cities across the US that are in a similar position. “I think there will be more lawsuits. If we get an early decision in one of these cases, it will either encourage or discourage other cities from going to court,” he explained.
However, a spokesman for America’s Mortgage Bankers Association warned that lawsuits might be counter-productive. “These lawsuits can scare lenders out of the market. Lenders simply won't make loans in areas where they perceive a risk of a lawsuit. It's not the best means to help the local housing market,” he said.
SF mayor vindicated as court
rules for same-sex marriages
San Francisco, 19 May 2008: The California Supreme Court has ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry, overturning a state ban on gay marriage. California will become the second US state, after Massachusetts, to allow gay and lesbian unions. In 2004 at the start of his first term, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom defied the state ban and his city issued marriage licenses to nearly four thousand same-sex couples before the courts stopped the practice. Two dozen gay and lesbian couples, the city of San Francisco, and gay rights organizations filed suit challenge to law.
The court overturned a gay marriage ban that was based on a 1977 state law and a voter-approved initiative from 2000. Both limited marriage to unions between a man and a woman.
California has a domestic partner law that gives same-sex couples many of the rights of married couples, but the majority on the court said that is not enough, and that sexual orientation should not be a bar to marriage.
One group opposed to the ruling called the majority justices out of touch. Another called the decision arrogant judicial activism that it said destroys the civil institution of marriage. Conservative organizations are circulating petitions to put a measure on the November ballot that would outlaw same-sex marriage in the California constitution. If the voter measure passes, it would overrule Thursday's decision.
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is opposed to changing the constitution and said Thursday he will respect the court's decision and uphold the ruling.
Kate Kendell is executive director of the National Center on Lesbian Rights, lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the same-sex marriage case. She says gay and lesbian unions could begin in California in as little as 30 days. She notes that a number of U.S. states have amended their constitutions to ban gay marriage, and she says same-sex couples in California will now turn their attention to the election.
The California decision affects only one state, the nation's most populous. But in this election year, its reverberations will be felt around the country, and it will probably inject the issue of gay marriage into the presidential election. (Report by VoA News)
Californian city hopes for
new start after bankruptcy
San Francisco, 14 May 2008: Mayors from many financially struggling cities across the US will be carefully monitoring Vallejo, which declared itself insolvent. Vallejo, a city of some 117,000 people in northern California, opted for bankruptcy under US Chapter 9 rules. By using this procedure, the city hopes to be able to continue to provide vital services while freezing its debts. The city’s finances were hit by a double whammy of expensive public employee contracts and falling revenue due to America’s real estate crisis.
According to reports, Vallejo would have started the new fiscal year on 1 July with a US$16 million deficit and no financial reserves. Mayor Osby Davis, who won last November’s election by just two votes over incumbent mayor Gary Cloutier, hopes the bankruptcy proceedings will allow the city to re-negotiate its contracts with the police and fire unions, which account for 74 per cent of the city’s $80 million general budget. “We hope a judge will declare void part or all of the contracts allowing the city and unions to start from scratch,” a councillor told reporters.
Because Vallejo is only the third Californian city to declare itself bankrupt – Orange County opted for bankruptcy in 1994 and Desert Hot springs in 2001 – there are few predictions about the eventual outcome of the court proceedings. The unions maintain that the city had plenty of money hidden away and was using bankruptcy to avoid paying police and fire fighters. They demand an independent state audit of Vallejo's books.
Canada’s big cities not
ready for road pricing
Toronto, 12 May 2008: Canadian cities are not ready for a London-style congestion charge. In an article for the Toronto Star newspaper Mario Iacobacci, director of research for the Conference Board of Canada, writes that charging motorists to enter the centres of Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver was not viable at present. The author reasoned that “the percentage of people travelling by car into these cities every day remained substantial and there were no feasible public transit alternatives (either because too many interchanges were required or because the transit services did not reach certain parts of the city). A congestion charge that could not change travel behaviour would be perceived as nothing but a tax grab.”
In his article, Iacobacci makes some suggestions for a road pricing system to gain public acceptance. He said that, unlike in London, a congestions charge should take into account commuting patterns and where congestion principally occured. But many of his ideas mimic the measures introduced by former London mayor Ken Livingstone. For example he said, congestion-charge revenues had to be used to improve public transport. Iacobacci acknowledged that Londoner broadly accepted the charge, which was introduced in 2003, because the money raised resulted in a vastly improved bus service.
Mario Iacobacci concludes his article by saying that first and foremost the implementation of a congestion charge required a powerful political champion such as a mayor.
This year's most outstanding mayors World Mayor
Mayors will present urban agenda to next US president (Photo: Miami Mayor Manny Diaz)
New York mayor offers new poverty yardstick
Three years after Katrina residents are moving back into New Orleans
American mayors not hopeful about solving real estate crisis
US mayors want to cut back on bottled water
Obama outlines programme for US cities
Mayor Bloomberg as popular as ever but he should leave office next year
House prices continue to fall across the USA
Toronto mayor gets support in calling for ban of handguns
US ethanol subsidies cause starvation, says NYC mayor
Kansas mayor proposes
public transport system
Portland's mayor-elect helped by Obama-mania
Foreclosures to cost America $202 billion
SF mayor vindicated as court rules for same-sex marriages
Californian city hopes for new start after bankruptcy
Canada's big cities not ready for road pricing