Santa Fe's Mayor Coss Discusses Urban Issues on MayorTV

Santa Fe Mayor David Coss is featured on MayorTV today, lamenting the feds' "ignorance" in neglecting cities, criticizing overly harsh immigration raids and wondering when we're going to get serious about solar energy. MayorTV is a project organized by the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy and The Nation, and it's been interviewing mayors from around the nation about what's going on in their cities and what kind of help they need from the federal government.

Harry Moroz, a research associate at the Drum Major Institute, described the project this way:

One of our goals is to get the presidential candidates to start talking more about urban policy and the issues that really matter to cities- things like health care, infrastructure, public transportation, and education. Taken as a whole, these interviews have spoken to the fact that cities matter and can be the test-centers for policies that could be implemented on a nationwide scale. Often mayors are at the heart of this change and the presidential candidates need to start paying attention.

A few weeks ago, MayorTV visited Miami and interviewed mayors at the Annual U.S. Conference of Mayors including Mayor Coss, who had introduced a resolution calling for comprehensive immigration reform that passed unanimously at the conference.

The Drum Major Institute and The Nation take the position that urban issues -- housing, transportation, infrastructure, crime, education -- are being neglected by the presidential candidates, even though more than 80% of Americans live in cities and urbanites drive 90% of our economy. We've witnessed hundreds of photo-ops of the candidates at county fairs, tractor pulls and other agricultural settings, but much fewer in urban environments.

Have the presidential candidates lost touch with urban America? Are "urban issues" code for poor people and ethnic minorities, and thus to be avoided at all costs? Should the candidates have an urban agenda? What should it be? MayorTV is designed to get answers to these questions and more from those who are on the front lines dealing with city issues.

At MayorTV, you can check out videos of a diverse and influential group of mayors -- like Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, John Hickenlooper of Denver, Rocky Anderson of Salt Lake City and Marty Chavez of Albuquerque -- giving their prescriptions for an agenda that supports American cities large and small.

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