MayorTV and the Presidential Contenders

Out of shared frustration with the absence of discussion about cities this campaign season--after all, only 20 percent of Americans live in rural America--The Nation and the Drum Major Institute teamed up on an innovative video project. We decided that the best way to put cities in their rightful place at the top of the presidential candidates' agenda was to hear directly from those who know best: America's Mayors.

Together we've launched Mayor TV, a new collaborative project striving to underscore the critical importance of a sound urban agenda to our national politics. In ten lively and insightful interviews, the mayors of Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, Rochester and Salt Lake City offer their prescriptions for a reinvigorated urban agenda and, in many cases, issue their own presidential endorsements.

Last week, New York Times' columnist Clyde Haberman surveyed the videos which he wrote help fill the "silence" on urban issues in the presidential campaign to date.

The contrast between the mayors' priorities and the presidential candidates' rhetoric couldn't be more stark. Watch our current featured interview with Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and check out MayorTV to see the exciting ways in which these mayors are taking the lead to innovate new solutions to old problems.

Youth Journalism Conference
The Nation and Campus Progress are hosting our first-ever West Coast Youth Journalism Conference on January 26 in Los Angeles on the campus of UCLA. It's entirely free of charge and open to all student and aspiring journalists. Featuring Katrina vanden Heuvel, Robert Scheer, Marc Cooper, Tom Hayden, Abigail Goldman and many others. Click here for info and to apply to attend.

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Peter Rothberg,
The Nation

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