Mayor Hannemann has heard about Senator Obama's agenda for cities, but is waiting for Senator McCain's plan. The Mayor Hannemann also argues strenuously for the benefits that rail will bring to Honolulu, if only the federal government would do its share.

Mayor Dean expresses his frustration with Nashville's lack of action on mass transit, criticizes an English-only ballot initiative, and encourages the federal government to combat growing economic inequality.

Mayor Martin J. Chavez of Albuquerque, New Mexico talks to MayorTV about multilingualism, the middle class, and a green economy.

Mayor Wilder talks with MayorTV about how urban areas have been misrepresented in the past.  He says urban issues have been "simplified" into implying "urban crime".  He calls for the redevelopment of cities from the inside out, just as "you would bake a cake or make a pie."

Lexington, KY is famous for its horses and its Bluegrass pastureland. Does that mean that Mayor Jim Newberry thinks the presidential candidates should worry more about rural development than urban issues? Nope.

MayorTV sat down with Mayor Newberry to ask him about the role cities play in the United States today and about some of the innovative policies implemented in Lexington that the rest of the country can replicate.

Mayor Newberry: "The presidential candidates absolutely must have an urban agenda... Cities are confronted with a multitude of challenges, but they are the economic engines of our country."

"I really haven't been completely satisfied about the conversation by the presidential candidates of both parties as relates to cities and the so-called urban agenda."

As President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Mayor Douglas Palmer of Trenton has pushed hard for a national conversation about cities. Under his leadership, the Conference of Mayors developed an urban agenda labeled "Strong Cities...Strong Families...for a Strong America" that the Conference has used to press the presidential candidates to address city issues.

But the Mayor's advocacy of a conversation about urban issues is not simply political. He sees cities as the drivers of national and global prosperity. "[Every year] the U.S. Conference of Mayors puts out our report on the metro economies. It shows how much the metro economies in the cities are important to our national economy. We continue to press upon how, with the right kinds of tax incentives...with the right kinds of investments for affordable housing and job training and creation, they help our whole global economy."

Pennsylvania Hangover in Urban America

As we nurse our collective hangover from the political bender that led up to Tuesday's primary, with heads now clear we can reflect for a moment on what we learned.  Beyond the various foibles and overstatements that Wonkette and The Onion covered so deliciously – or was it so honestly? – there was hope on March 25, 2008 that the candidates would be forced to debate at least one serious issue on camera.  On that day, the Mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter wrote an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer in which he endorsed Hillary Clinton, not because of her “experience” or even because he prefers her health care plan.  He endorsed her, he wrote, because of her commitment to cities.