Transportation, housing and income inequality are on the agenda in Boston today at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Cities of Opportunities task force, which convened Sunday.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio were among a group that met at the University of Massachusetts Boston yesterday to address what their cities were doing about income inequality.
“This crisis of inequality now has taken on a form really unprecedented in this country,” de Blasio said. “The material reality is so harsh for so many families, that the notion of getting ahead is simply being able to pay the bills again, as opposed to having to decide among what bills you’re going to pay this month and what will have to wait until next month. … That shows you just how far off the mark we are.”
All of the meetings are closed to press, but the mayors are holding a press conference at 12:30 p.m. in Faneuil Hall to discuss the need for Congress to pass a long-term federal surface transportation law. They’ll urge the feds — as chambers of commerce across the U.S. also did recently — to localize spending control on projects.
Here’s what attendees had to say about yesterday’s panel.
“What we need is a natl urban agenda. We can't do this without a reenergized federal govt.” @Mayor_Ed_Murray @usmayors #CitiesOfOpportunity
— Katharine Lusk (@KathLusk) March 22, 2015
Mayor @deBlasioNYC stating the crazy fact that over 800k NYC residents don't have bank accounts. #bospoli #mayorsdo pic.twitter.com/TVpTJ4BPtE
— Brendan Little (@blittle86) March 22, 2015
@deBlasioNYC laying into federal inability to form a coherent policy to address income inequality and how mayors go it alone #mayorsdo
— Joel Barciauskas (@jbarciauskas) March 22, 2015
Big kudos to @marty_walsh for highlighting that #IncomeInequality is really just another way of saying #poverty #CitiesOfOpportunity
— Daniel E. Levenson (@DanielELevenson) March 22, 2015
Jenn Stanley is a freelance journalist, essayist and independent producer living in Chicago. She has an M.S. from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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