New NLC Report Analyzes Hot Topics in 2016 'State of the City' Speeches
Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Sly James. Carolyn Kaster / AP Photo
“We're all talking about the same things,” Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Sly James said Thursday.
Economic development and public safety are among the top issues getting attention this year from U.S. mayors, based on an analysis the National League of Cities released Thursday, looking at dozens of state of the city speeches from around the country.
“We do this report because it's important to understand mayoral priorities in a national context,” Clarence E. Anthony, CEO and executive director of the National League of Cities, said during a conference call with reporters on Thursday as he discussed the report.
The analysis looked at 100 state of the city speeches from U.S. cities across the Midwest, Northeast, South and West, with populations ranging from under 50,000, to over 300,000.
Its findings, Anthony noted, will help guide the issues the National League of Cities raises with federal policymakers and at the upcoming Republican and Democratic national conventions.
Of the speeches that the analysis looked at, 75 percent devoted significant attention to economic development, and 70 percent to public safety. Rounding out the top five issues in this year’s report were budgets, which received prominent mentions in 52 percent of speeches. Infrastructure checked in at 48 percent and education at 42 percent.
The findings mostly matched those from last year. Infrastructure, however, was bumped to the fourth most-popular spot from the second. Data and technology also received less attention.
“We're all talking about the same things,” Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Sly James said during Thursday’s conference call, referring to his mayoral colleagues.
He added: “It may differ in terms of scale and scope, but we have the same issues before us.”
Some of the other trends The National League of Cities analysis points to include: mayors are seeing improvements in city revenues; they’re concerned about upticks in murders amid low overall crime rates; and they’re focused on problems related to opioid addiction.
Using data and technology to drive government efficiency and decision-making was another common topic, as was encouraging entrepreneurship.
Affordability issues came up as well. “The price of growth cannot be that the cost of living is growing so much that people can’t afford to live in Austin,” Steve Adler, mayor of Texas’ fast-growing capital city, said in his speech, according to the report.
Pension costs also surfaced. In her speech, the report says that Evanston, Illinois Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl said: “Every time I think we are making substantial progress on pensions, we are not. We are making incremental progress.”
A full copy of the report, “State of the Cities 2016”, can be found here.
Bill Lucia is a Reporter at Government Executive's Route Fifty and is based in Washington D.C.
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