Obama hails pre-eminence of American cities

The US President, Barack Obama, has reinforced the prioritising of cities at the United States Conference of Mayors’ Annual Meeting as he expressed his support for tighter gun laws in America.

Addressing the USCM in San Francisco, President Obama said mayors are in a unique position to understand the impact of gun violence blighting America which came under renewed spotlight with last week’s racially-motivated attack at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, which killed nine people.

“These tragedies have become far too commonplace,” said President Obama. “Few people understand the terrible toll of gun violence like mayors do. Whether it’s a mass shooting like the one in Charleston, or individual attacks of violence that add up over time, it tears at the fabric of a community. It costs you money and it costs resources. It costs this country dearly.”

The president added: “If Congress had passed some common-sense gun safety reforms after Newtown, after a group of children had been gunned down in their own classroom–reforms that 90 percent of the American people supported–we might still have some more Americans with us.”

President Obama has appointed half a dozen former mayors to leading positions in the cabinet and he heaped praise on the elected officials present at the USCM’s Annual Meeting. He said: “Mayors have to get the job done. If you’re a mayor, it’s not sufficient to just blather on. You actually have to do something.

“Whatever the problem, large or small, you got to do everything you can to solve it. You don’t let partisanship stop you. You don’t let cynicism stop you. You’re always in the hunt for good ideas, no matter where they come from.”m

The president illustrated his respect for mayors with a story about Jerry Abramason now Director of Intergovernmental Affairs in the White House, having previously been Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky. President Obama said: “He took his wife, Madeline, to Paris a few years after they got married and she took in all the splendor of the Champs-Élysées and he took photos of garbage cans.

“Soon enough, downtown Louisville had garbage cans that looked a lot like the Parisian garbage cans. That’s a mayor, right there. Somebody who’s always thinking about how to make his or her city better, even on vacation in Paris!”

President Obama added: “I love the country, I love the suburbs, but I’m a city guy and I know that when cities thrive suburbs thrive, when cities thrive, states thrive and when cities thrive, America thrives.”

In a keynote speech, the morning after the President’s remarks, Hillary Clinton, the president’s former Secretary of State, who is seeking to be his presidential successor, echoed his support for municipalities, hailing the “renaissance of urban innovation”.

Clinton said: “Whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent, if I am president America’s mayors will always have a friend in the White House.”

She added: “We look to mayors for leadership in times of crisis. Mayors are delivering results with what Franklin Roosevelt called bold and persistent experimentation.”

Clinton called her vision of the relationship between national government and local government ‘flexible federalism’. She said: “We need what I call a new flexible federalism that empowers and connects communities, leverages their unique advantages and adapts to changing circumstances.”

The fact President Obama and Hillary Clinton, together with fellow Democratic Presidential candidate Martin O’Malley addressed the conference testifies to the continued influence of the USCM, which was hosting its 83rd Annual Meeting, under the direction of CEO Tom Cochran.

Nancy Pelosi, Minority Speaker of the US House of Representatives, told mayors: “Your vision is invaluable to the future of this nation. You are an inspiration because you know of what you speak and you bring the values of your constituents and the people you represent to serve as a mayors.” She called on them to “make your cities affordable to thrive”.