01-29-2017, 12:23 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-29-2017, 12:29 AM by Eric the Green.)
America’s liberal cities are readying to battle Donald Trump on almost every front
WRITTEN BY
Max de Haldevang
"America First"
January 28, 2017
https://qz.com/862380/americas-liberal-c...ery-front/
As a candidate and now as US president, Donald Trump has seemed hellbent on alienating urban voters.
During the campaign, the New Yorker repeatedly and, some would argue, offensively spoke of America’s “inner cities” as “war zones” where life was “hell” for African-Americans. City voters returned the slight—Trump lost badly in urban areas on Nov. 8. Showing little interest in making amends with this slice of the electorate, he then nominated Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon with zero experience in either government or urban policy, as secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
So it was somewhat surprising when Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, dropped in on the US Conference of Mayors winter meeting on Jan. 17, three days before taking the oath of office as US vice president, and told the 300 assembled city leaders that “this administration is going to be a friend to America’s mayors.”
When guessing at Pence’s motives for reaching out to urban leaders, one fact stands out: Cities are the only major layer of US government where Democrats are in control—and massively so. While Republicans hold the presidency, both houses of Congress, and 31 of 50 state governorships, Democrats are in charge of all but three of the country’s 20 biggest cities. And the political leanings of the 32 million residents they represent tend to align very closely. Trump garnered just 10% of votes (paywall) cast in Manhattan, his longtime home, and 4% in his new stomping grounds of Washington DC.
With the blessing of their base, liberal big-city mayors have been among the only elected US politicians to openly and meaningfully defy Trump. Right after his election, the heads of over a dozen major cities said that, even at the risk of losing federal funding, they would refuse to cooperate with any Trump-ordered immigrant deportation force. On Jan. 25, the new president signed an executive order officially declaring he would defund them—and they’re still refusing to acquiesce, with Boston mayor Marty Walsh noting Trump’s inability to reroute funding without authorization from Congress and New York’s Bill de Blasio threatening a lawsuit.
A “constructive alternative” to Trump’s agenda
Mayors hold a fair amount of heft in America’s devolved political system. At a time of sustained sclerosis in Washington, cities (arguably with some exceptions) are “the one institution today that still works, where government functions, where trust levels are double the levels of other institutions,” according to Fordham University’s Benjamin Barber, an acclaimed social scientist and author of If Mayors Ruled the World.
They also pack a serious economic punch. In 2013, America’s 23 richest metropolitan areas produced almost half the country’s GDP. If the New York metro area (which includes Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey) were a country, it would rank above Canada as the 10th-biggest economy in the world.
Just after the US election, Barber told us, “Cities are going to become the most important, constructive alternative to a Trump agenda.” He argued they will shore up civil rights and labor protections for millions, and take up the charge on the environment.
To do so, mayors plan to take collective action. “If you combine the power of America’s cities, that could really be a game changer in terms of moderating [Trump’s] agenda,” de Blasio said in November. “Maximum coordination. Maximum simultaneous activity.”
Plus, as de Blasio found during Trump’s campaign, they can get a handy approval-ratings boost from picking a fight with the new president.
WRITTEN BY
Max de Haldevang
"America First"
January 28, 2017
https://qz.com/862380/americas-liberal-c...ery-front/
As a candidate and now as US president, Donald Trump has seemed hellbent on alienating urban voters.
During the campaign, the New Yorker repeatedly and, some would argue, offensively spoke of America’s “inner cities” as “war zones” where life was “hell” for African-Americans. City voters returned the slight—Trump lost badly in urban areas on Nov. 8. Showing little interest in making amends with this slice of the electorate, he then nominated Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon with zero experience in either government or urban policy, as secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
So it was somewhat surprising when Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, dropped in on the US Conference of Mayors winter meeting on Jan. 17, three days before taking the oath of office as US vice president, and told the 300 assembled city leaders that “this administration is going to be a friend to America’s mayors.”
When guessing at Pence’s motives for reaching out to urban leaders, one fact stands out: Cities are the only major layer of US government where Democrats are in control—and massively so. While Republicans hold the presidency, both houses of Congress, and 31 of 50 state governorships, Democrats are in charge of all but three of the country’s 20 biggest cities. And the political leanings of the 32 million residents they represent tend to align very closely. Trump garnered just 10% of votes (paywall) cast in Manhattan, his longtime home, and 4% in his new stomping grounds of Washington DC.
With the blessing of their base, liberal big-city mayors have been among the only elected US politicians to openly and meaningfully defy Trump. Right after his election, the heads of over a dozen major cities said that, even at the risk of losing federal funding, they would refuse to cooperate with any Trump-ordered immigrant deportation force. On Jan. 25, the new president signed an executive order officially declaring he would defund them—and they’re still refusing to acquiesce, with Boston mayor Marty Walsh noting Trump’s inability to reroute funding without authorization from Congress and New York’s Bill de Blasio threatening a lawsuit.
A “constructive alternative” to Trump’s agenda
Mayors hold a fair amount of heft in America’s devolved political system. At a time of sustained sclerosis in Washington, cities (arguably with some exceptions) are “the one institution today that still works, where government functions, where trust levels are double the levels of other institutions,” according to Fordham University’s Benjamin Barber, an acclaimed social scientist and author of If Mayors Ruled the World.
They also pack a serious economic punch. In 2013, America’s 23 richest metropolitan areas produced almost half the country’s GDP. If the New York metro area (which includes Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey) were a country, it would rank above Canada as the 10th-biggest economy in the world.
Just after the US election, Barber told us, “Cities are going to become the most important, constructive alternative to a Trump agenda.” He argued they will shore up civil rights and labor protections for millions, and take up the charge on the environment.
To do so, mayors plan to take collective action. “If you combine the power of America’s cities, that could really be a game changer in terms of moderating [Trump’s] agenda,” de Blasio said in November. “Maximum coordination. Maximum simultaneous activity.”
Plus, as de Blasio found during Trump’s campaign, they can get a handy approval-ratings boost from picking a fight with the new president.