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- Mayor Douglas Palmer
- Trenton, NJ / Pop. 83,923 / Elected 1990
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“Our cities are where it’s at.”
— Mayor Douglas Palmer
- Mayor Douglas Palmer of Trenton: “Cities are where it’s at”
- By Harry Moroz, DMI Blog
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“I really haven’t been completely satisfied about the conversation by the presidential candidates of both parties as relates to cities and the so-called urban agenda.”
As President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Mayor Douglas Palmer of Trenton has pushed hard for a national conversation about cities. Under his leadership, the Conference of Mayors developed an urban agenda labeled “Strong Cities…Strong Families…for a Strong America” that the Conference has used to press the presidential candidates to address city issues.
But the Mayor’s advocacy of a conversation about urban issues is not simply political. He sees cities as the drivers of national and global prosperity. “[Every year] the U.S. Conference of Mayors puts out our report on the metro economies. It shows how much the metro economies in the cities are important to our national economy. We continue to press upon how, with the right kinds of tax incentives…with the right kinds of investments for affordable housing and job training and creation, they help our whole global economy.”
Mayor Palmer views cities as places where important and innovative policies can take root and begin to resolve the challenges facing our nation. He is a champion of such a policy, Live Where You Work, that Trenton is currently implementing with the help of Governor Jon Corzine. Live Where You Work provides low-interest mortgage loans to homebuyers purchasing homes in towns – currently Trenton and Jersey City – where they are employed. “Live Where You Work helps us repopulate our area, especially in the downtown, with people with disposable income,” the Mayor explained. “It helps our tax base. It helps our image. It helps public safety…it also helps the local businesses because if you have more people living downtown and walking it opens up tremendous opportunities for retail and commercial businesses, as well.”
Mayor Palmer has noted that the presidential candidates have been eager for mayors’ endorsements during the campaign season. But he hopes that this eagerness will eventually translate into conversation about, and then action on, the 10-point urban agenda that he believes can spur American prosperity by focusing a national spotlight on the nation’s cities.
- Read the full article on DMI Blog >
- Mayors We Interviewed
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Antonio Villaraigosa
Los Angeles, CA
“Poverty, work and opportunity, bolstering the middle class, housing, infrastructure ... it is absolutely criminal that the federal government has failed to address these issues.”
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Shirley Franklin
Atlanta, GA
“We must invest in infrastructure, or Atlanta's economy -- and the national economy -- is going to shrivel up and die.”
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Manny Diaz
Miami, FL
“The media and the pollsters focus on issues like war, abortion, gay rights. Quite frankly, for those of us in the trenches, they're not the hot button issues.”
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John Hickenlooper
Denver, CO
“Cities are America's laboratories. But once we figure out solutions, we need the federal government's help to roll them out to the entire country.”
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R.T. Rybak
Minneapolis, MN
“I want a community organizer in the White House, because that's what I do every single day.”
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Douglas Palmer
Trenton, NJ
“Our cities are where it’s at.”
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Christopher Doherty
Scranton, PA
“The strength of a city is the combustion engineering that takes place inside it.”
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Pegeen Hanrahan
Gainesville, FL
“Use our cities more effectively.”
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Byron Brown
Buffalo, NY
“The presidential nomination process certainly has a negative effect on the coverage of cities.”
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Tom Menino
Boston, MA
“I challenge you, presidential candidates - talk more about cities. It will be beneficial to you, it will be beneficial to the country.”
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Rocky Anderson
Salt Lake City, UT
“President Bush has not only neglected cities, but has hurt our cities in such enormous ways.”
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Sheila Dixon
Baltimore, MD
“We have wars here in our city. We should be making strides against drugs and gang violence, but it's something I never hear the presidential candidates talk about.”
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Bob Duffy
Rochester, NY
“Our cities across this country are proud. They have a great history. But like a boxer, they've taken one knee, and they have to bring themselves back.”
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Antonio Villaraigosa
- More About:
- The Nation
- Drum Major Institute
Sascha on 4.21.08:
Thanks for the Video!