After a long decline, American cities are beginning to ,bounce back as places of opportunity and hope, and are now poised for a "bright and promising future," Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams '79 asserted during a March 4 tea at Pierson College.
Williams spoke about the rejuvenation of the nation's cities both at the tea and later that evening in Battell Chapel, where he delivered the second annual Eustace D. Theodore '63 Fellowship Lecture. In both talks, he proclaimed that the nation is now entering "the century of the city."
During the tea, Williams said that the massive migration from cities to the surburbs that was so widespread between the 1950s and the early 1990s has come to an end. In fact, he said, some cities have begun to see a reverse in that trend over the past decade. Washington, D.C., he noted, experienced an increase in its population last year, which he said is "a tremendous achievement for an American city."
This change in urban demographics is in part due to the strength and prosperity of the American economy, Williams told his audience. Since the early 1990s, the economy has relied on cities for its labor, and this need will only grow in the future, the mayor predicted.
Williams said that his dream as mayor is to help his city become "a living, breathing example of democracy" for all communities. In conjunction with that aim, he said, his goals are to improve the educational system of the nation's capital and to work toward achieving voting represention of the District of Columbia in Congress.
Acknowledging that the educational system in his city has had "serious management and leadership problems," Williams said improving education there requires "intensive local effort." The future of the nation, however, depends upon the success of its cities at providing equal educational opportunity to all young children, he asserted. He told his audience that he supports affirmative action, saying, "I would not be standing here as mayor if it weren't for affirmative action. ... I'm sure I was at Yale under affirmative action. ... You can't say a child has an equal chance unless that child has equal opportunity in terms of resources and in terms of a level playing field."
Well-educated urban citizens are especially crucial to the nation's economy as its largest workforce population, the "baby boomer" generation, begins to retire, he said.
"We have two choices. We can either meet our labor needs by training our children for the jobs that are going to be there, or we can meet that need through immigration, and I think that's a recipe for combustion," he stated.
The future of Washington, D.C. is also linked to the future of its unique status as a city without a state, and thus, without Congressional representation, asserted the mayor.
"In Washington, we don't have representation and are limited in our tax source," he noted. "In other words, our revenue base in the city is automatically constricted 50% by law, and we don't have representation in Congress."
He likened that status to a four-engine airplane forced to fly with only two engines running and to a 100-table restaurant in which only half of its customers pay for their meal.
"The 50 tables who don't pay have a say in how the restaurant is run, while the 50 who do pay have no say,"
he said. "The people who are paying are going to complain about the lousy service ... and the people who don't pay but have a say are going to nickel-and-dime you and nag you about running a better restaurant."
Washington, D.C. should be given a greater contribution from the federal government for city services and taxes it doesn't receive on federal property and international embassies, and the city's government should have greater budgetary and legislative autonomy, Williams maintained.
"Right now, our budget has to be approved by Congress," he explained. "They mess with it, talk about it, but don't really do anything to it but add eight months to the budget process." Williams noted that bumper stickers with the words "Taxation Without Representation" are affixed to cars throughout the Beltway in support of Congressional representation of the District of Columbia.
The mayor said that New Haven will benefit from one project that he is engaged in, to bring a state-of-the-art, high-speed train service called Magnetic Levitation or "Maglev" to eastern seaboard states. "If you got on a train in New Haven, you could get to New York in about 10 to 15 minutes," he said to the amazement of his audience. A former alderman in the Elm City, Williams told his audience that his time at Yale convinced him that "New Haven is a great city, too."
As mayor, Williams said that he is helping lead a renaissance in his city while protecting the citizens that have long made Washington, D.C. their home. While luring in more well-to-do tax-paying residents who invest in the city, for example, he said measures have also been taken to prevent the displacement of elderly or less-affluent citizens. He compared some of his city's initiatives to some undertaken in New Haven, such as the renovation of the Elm Haven housing project into a mixed-income neighborhood comprised of both resident-owned homes and rental units.
"If you stoke the downtown economy to the detriment of its neighborhoods, you've got a train without cars," Williams stated.
After his talk, the mayor answered questions from ,members of his audience, including a number of students from Washington, D.C. interested in catching up on their home city. The mayor encouraged all of his listeners to take an interest in the nation's capital city beyond the historic monuments and cultural institutions for which
it is famous.
"All of you ought to care about your nation's capital," he urged. "We ought to care about Washington, D.C. the same way citizens in other countries care about what happens in their nation's capital. We ought to care about its major monuments and tourist attractions but also about what happens in the city's neighborhoods and to its children and families."
-- By Susan Gonzalez
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