For Release Sunday, September 28, 2008
Citiwire.net
Just 20 years ago, as Michael Dukakis and George Bush were preparing their acceptance speeches for their respective nominating conventions, two mayors– one a Democrat from Seattle, the other a Republican from Indianapolis– sat down together in Washington to write a document entitled “Hometown America.”
Both writers had served as president of the National League of Cities. Together, they had undertaken a year-long, bipartisan fact-finding tour of the nation’s cities and towns.
And their message was straightforward. The presidential candidates should discuss local issues in their campaigns, because these issues were central and critical not only to America’s strength at home but also to our competitiveness in the world.
The mayors had heard elected officials all around the country call for investment in three critical building blocks of a strong and healthy nation: our children, our jobs and economic competitiveness, and our communities.
“Hometown America” was based on those findings. It called on the federal government to invest in our future, and suggested ten priority issues to be debated in the 1988 campaign.
Sadly, these issues are just as relevant, pressing, and unresolved today as they were in 1988.
But we believe they are even more relevant today, and very much worth noting. Each point was posed in the form of a question to both candidates for president– Namely, what should the federal government do about
– increasing our nation’s investment in education?
– reducing poverty, which is growing everywhere?
– reducing the use of illegal drugs, which is costing us $100 billion a year in health care, lost production, and drug related crime and violence?
– improving the safety of our people, some 6 million of which are victims each year of some form of violent crime?
– helping at-risk children by reducing infant mortality rates, giving more attention to problems of child neglect and abuse, and averting teen-age pregnancies?
– meeting the challenges of a changing job market and the need for new skills in the New Economy?
– developing a national infrastructure plan and a first class transportation network, so essential to local and national economic growth?
– achieving adequate, affordable housing for all Americans?
– solving the plight of homelessness, which is growing worse?
– reducing unfunded mandates on local governments?
Twenty years have passed and one has to wonder: Is our country in better shape than we were in 1988? Shouldn’t these issues still at the forefront of our nation’s domestic agenda?
We admit that 20 years ago we did not anticipate global warming. We were not yet aware of the deep divisions in our country over the treatment of illegal immigrants. We did not see the oncoming, life changing speed of the energy crisis, and we did not yet call our country the “Homeland” or have a Department of Homeland Security.
Nor did we anticipate the global economic context of the changed world in which our home towns must compete. Today, we need to realize and act on the fact that our communities–especially our metropolitan regions–not only exist in a global economy, but in fact are the nation’s front line in global competitiveness.
What we heard on our journey through Hometown America, and what we wrote down for Michael Dukakis and George Bush in 1988, still requires discussion as the 2008 presidential campaign enters the final weeks.
We are the two former mayors who appealed in 1988 for a focus on these issues. We believe this election must indeed still be about issues, because investing in our children, our economic competitiveness, and our infrastructure will go a long way toward keeping our country strong, secure, and competitive in the world.
Our national strength is in our roots, in Hometown America, today as it was in 1988.
William H. Hudnut III was Mayor of Indianapolis, 1976-1991. His e-mail is bhudnut@uli.org.
Charles Royer was Mayor of Seattle, 1978-1989. His e-mail is croyer@instituteforcommunitychange.org.
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