A recent National League of Cities study analyzed one hundred state of the city speeches delivered by mayors from across the country. These speeches summarize the most important issues facing urban America today and the initiatives that mayors are using to address them. Based on as assessment of these speeches, economic development is the most pressing issue in urban America today.
As reported by the New York Times, three quarters of the year’s speeches stressed economic development, with significant focus given to job growth, business expansion, minimum wage increases and the revitalization of downtowns. While a number of large U.S. cities have become focal points in twenty fifteen due to expanding violence, public safety was a secondary focal point in many large city mayoral speeches.
However, issues related to public safety represented the most covered subject among cities with fewer than fifty thousand residents. Other issues that received significant focus in mayor speeches included roads, drinking water sewers and broadband. Housing represented a top-five concern in cities with more than one hundred thousand people, but did not make the top five in smaller communities.
