Trump Rep a No-Show at Mayors Conference

By RENEE SAFF

Six mayors from some of the nation’s largest cities gathered in Manhattan on Thursday to question representatives of Donald J. Trump and Hilary Clinton’s campaigns about the presidential candidates’ plans for improving city infrastructure as Election Day crept closer.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell represented Clinton, the Democratic candidate, but Trump, the Republican candidate, failed to send a surrogate to represent his opinion at the forum. In his opening remarks, Tom Cochran, CEO and executive director on the United States Conference of Mayors, addressed the “elephant in the room,” attributing Trump’s lack of representation to his “recent political turbulence.”

“It’s not because we have not tried,” Cochran said. “The idea for this proposal forum started last March, and so we have pursued the Trump campaign.”

Although cities and metro areas accounted for 99 percent of the nation’s economic growth in 2015, the presidential election has hardly broached the subject of city infrastructure, choosing instead to highlight topics like illicit behavior and political corruption.

Despite the absence of a Trump representative, the participating mayors proceeded with the forum, which was hosted in partnership by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the New York University Wagner Graduate School for Public Service. The forum’s focus was to discuss why infrastructure in U.S. cities “is key to both economic security and public safety, and to urge a stronger federal partnership with cities.”

“We don’t have the luxury of not innovating, we don’t have the luxury of accepting a status quo,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. “We haven’t had a consistent federal partner helping cities to advance and helping us to deal with the realities of this time.”

According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 85.7 percent of the nation’s population and 90.8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product came from cities in 2015. Most of the discussion was centered around the transportation, water, and energy infrastructure needed to provide for the country’s cities – which, in some cases, have larger economies than entire states. The six mayors repeatedly stressed the importance of the next president giving mayors around the country direct funding and increased attention from the federal government.

“The next president of the U.S. has got to recognize that cities need help with the infrastructure,” said Mick Cornett, mayor of Oklahoma City and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “This is a ticking time bomb that is not going away, and it’s just something that we are going to leave the next generation to deal with.”

Rendell stressed that Clinton, if elected president, would increase federal infrastructure funding by $275 billion over a five-year period, fully paying for these investments through business tax reform. He said that Clinton seeks to invest in public transportation, ensure that mayors receive a direct cut of state-allocated funding, make “smarter and faster” investments, and cut red tape.

Stepping back from his role as Clinton’s representative, Rendell urged the mayors that regardless of who the next president might be, mayors that come with good ideas and good plans typically get the best funding.

“Although there is a cost, there is also a cost in doing nothing,” Rendell said.

Photo by Renee Saff

 

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