Our ignored cities
As you read this, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with 8 million people, do you ever shiver with the strange feeling that you are being ignored? No wonder. We city dwellers are forgotten: The presidential candidates pay lip service to urban America while Congress argues about a farm bill on swine genome research and the Domestic Pet Turtle Equality Act (really).
Though we have learned quite well to fend for ourselves, the federal government and, in particular, our presidential candidates have all but ignored urbanites.
After 24 debates, the closest the Democratic presidential candidates have come to addressing urban issues is vague statements about fighting inner-city poverty and limiting gun control. The urban issues bullet points buried in the nether regions of their campaign Web sites have rarely seen the light of day and have rarely been “speechified,” unlike almost every insignificant issue imaginable. Meanwhile, Sen. McCain appears oblivious to city dwellers’ existence.
Our electoral system seems to damn cities to second-class status. Unlike the House of Representatives, the Senate gives rural states with relatively insignificant populations as much voting power as populous states with large cities. Further, the Electoral College’s winner-take-all allocation of most state’s electoral votes dilutes the voting power of concentrated city dwellers and permits combinations of small rural states to counterbalance urban centers.
This assessment would be bleak if cities were not so vital to the economic and social wellbeing of all Americans. Not only do metro areas contain the majority of the nation’s population and generate the majority of its gross domestic product, but cities are in fact solutions to issues such as climate change and sustainable development. Encouraging people to live in urban centers where they can ride mass transit or bike to work and concentrating workforces
diverse in both culture and intellectual pursuits in metro areas are remedies for our sickly economy.
But the lack of a national conversation about cities has made urban achievements seem like curios dreamed up by oddball local politicians. An urban agenda articulated by our presidential candidates ought to exchange tired clichés for a fulfillment of the promise of our metro areas. This is no repudiation of the maxim “Think globally, act locally.” Far from it. We city dwellers, and our politicians, will always act locally. But for our nation as a whole to flourish, the presidential candidates — and the media — must embrace the important role that cities play in generating national and international prosperity.
Harry Moroz is a research associate at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy.
