In Washington, D.C., three Black mayors sat down for the first time as they lead the country’s biggest cities. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and Houston’s Sylvester Turner sat down to talk about common issues their cities face. Together they lead 20 million people.
The mayors were together at the Annual Conference of Mayors last week.
Part of the talk was about migrants that have caused issues for many cities in the country. Whether they are border cities or sanctuary cities, all of these cities have had to adjust, find funding, and spend money supporting migrants.
Mayor Turner said about current policies on immigration:
"Allowing people to apply from where they are instead of coming over, I think is a significant step forward, so I think we have to wait and see whether or not the new policy that they put in place will have a positive impact.”
Then Mayor Bass said her concerns were:
"In Los Angeles, without a doubt, it's homelessness. But it's the intersection of income inequality and also public safety. And because income inequality is so severe in Los Angeles, the most extreme manifestation of that is 47,000 people [sleeping] on the streets in tents, every night, in the city."
When asked about the slogan Defund the Police, Mayor Bass said:
"What I believe is that over time, especially the federal government, state, and cities have divested, defunded social services. So I think when a person goes into the academy, they don't go in to address homelessness, addiction, mental illness. And so we need to refund our communities, build out the social safety net so that people don't fall into crime."
Mayor Turner added:
"If you look at many of the cities, they were funding their police. The city of Houston never defunded its police."
We’ll see if the mayors bring some new ideas back to their city.
What do you think Mayor Slyvester should do to help Houston?