US Conference of Mayors begins with renewed plea to government and protest

The 84th Winter Meeting of the US Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting began in spirited fashion in Washington DC.

The introductory address by Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, USCM President and outgoing Mayor of Baltimore, at the opening press conference at the Capital Hilton hotel was interrupted by protesters from African-American activist movement Black Lives Matter.

The protesters were unhappy at the participation of Rahm Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago, following the release of a video showing unarmed black teen Laquan McDonald being shot and killed by a white police officer as well as Karen Weaver, Mayor of Flint, who has been criticised for her handling of the toxic water catastrophe that has afflicted the town.

Rawlings-Blake has also faced criticism for her handling of Baltimore riots that engulfed the city last April following the death of Freddie Gray.

April Goggans, one Black Lives Matter protester, ran to the front of the podium holding a banner calling for Emanuel to resign. She was permitted to remain in front of USCM officers as Rawlings-Blake renewed her campaign for the federal government to support cities in stronger ways than it has previously been doing.

“Cities have brought this country back from the greatest recession since the great depression and driven much of our economy’s growth,” said Rawlings-Blake. “Clearly the future of this country rests with cities so the needs of cities should be front and centre in the presidential campaign.

“We believe that this presidential campaign is an ideal time to change the policy discussion. We invest and protect in our cities–invest means the federal government investing in our deteriorated and worn-out D-plus rated infrastructure and protect means a federal partnership to support the mayors, police chiefs and police departments as we work together to have modern, humane community policing that will protect people who live in our cities including pending criminal justice reform. Cities have growing needs and those needs have to be addressed–that is the sole focus of this winter meeting.”

Her comments came as the USCM released its US Metro Economies report disclosing that at the end of 2015, 232 US cities (61 percent) had more jobs than they did prior to the 2008 recession, while 149 had not. While nearly all cities are projected to have positive job growth in 2016, only 17 cities will see job growth of 3.0 percent or higher.

But Kasim Reed, Mayor of Atlanta, pointed to Congress passing a recent US$325 billion Transportation Bill as evidence of “progress” for the US cities agenda. He said: “It’s not what we all wanted but we think it’s the opportunity for a breakthrough for real job creation in the US. We should get back to basics dealing with our infrastructure systems in a bipartisan manner in the way that it used to be done. We need to take the next step as we enter the election phase and that is to get more power to mayors locally because we have the ability to fund projects.”

Emanuel, Mayor of Chicago, who has low public opinion approval ratings in Chicago, spoke at a panel meeting on reducing violence and community trust. “The biggest thing we can do in Chicago is we can either patrol a community or be part of a community,” he told the panel. “If we’re patrolling it, you’re going to have a limited impact. If you’re going to be part of a community, you’re going to build trust and co-operation that is essential for safety and legitimacy in the police department.”

Representatives of Black Lives Matter held an impromptu press conference afterwards with a spokesman saying: “Nobody’s investing in our communities, nobody’s protecting us in our communities otherwise we wouldn’t have had done what we did today.”

The USCM also announced the winners of grants totalling US$160,000 in value, through GRO1000, the landmark garden and green space development grant programme it runs with the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. Winners included Atlanta, New York City, Providence, and St Louis.

Tom Cochran, USCM CEO and Executive Director, said: “Through our focus on supporting gardens and green spaces in America’s cities…the GRO1000 initiative is a partnership whose investments bear fruit many times over–both figuratively and literally.”