|
A town hall meeting to discuss inequalities and the National League of Cities' (NLC) Resurrecting the American Dream Campaign was the highlight of a meeting of NLC's Equity and Opportunity Panel, held last month in Burlington, Vermont, in conjunction with the Sustainable Cities 2004 Conference.
The Panel's meeting and conference offered an opportunity to highlight the importance of equity in sustainability efforts. The panel convened the town hall meeting to raise awareness of increasing disparities and inequalities in America's cities and towns as part of NLC's Resurrecting the American Dream Campaign to work for hope, opportunity and fairness for all citizens. Residents of Burlington and participants of the Sustainable Cities Conference participated in the meeting. Gordon Quan, a City Council Member from Houston, Texas and chair of NLC's Equity and Opportunity Panel, began the meeting with a Resurrecting the American Dream PowerPoint presentation.
Kara Kelty, a City Council Member from Flagstaff, Arizona, and James Perkins, Mayor of Selma, Alabama, joined Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle on a panel to describe how issues of equity and opportunity had affected their cities. Phil Fiermonte, Burlington City Council Member and outreach director for Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders, moderated the town hall meeting. Fiermonte read a letter to the participants from Sanders that described growing inequalities as the most pressing domestic problem facing American communities today.
Kelty cited the lack of affordable housing options as one of the most serious challenges in her city, observing an increase in gated golf course communities that provide no place to live for the people who work there. Perkins focused on racism as a component of every issue cities address related to equity and opportunity. According to Clavelle, elected officials need to acknowledge that inequalities exist, that the gaps between the haves and have-nots are growing larger, and that government has contributed to these gaps. Then they need to commit to action to remove barriers to equity. Of the four components to sustainable development - environment, economy, equity and education - equity was often the most neglected, Clavelle.
Questions were posed to those attending the meeting regarding the components of the American dream and the roles of government at all levels. Many of the responses focused on policies that weren't working, and that the goal of increased consumption needed to be replaced by one of community building.
NLC President Charles Lyons, a Selectman from Arlington, Massachusetts, and Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy were the featured dinner speakers at the final banquet of the conference.
We are all here to learn more about creating sustainable communities around the world. The message of this conference is that we need strategies in all our communities, not just American communities, but communities in all countries that meet the needs of every individual for economic security, social services, good governance, and environmental health, said Lyons in his address to the 400 conferees from 36 countries and 48 states.
My message is that in order to have healthy economies, we need strong cities, towns and villages. As representative of leaders of America's cities and towns, I know first-hand and close-up that we cannot be a truly strong nation if we fail to invest in the fundamental needs of the nation's communities, he said.
For more information and periodic updates on the Resurrecting the American Dream Campaign, visit the website www.nlc.org.
Copyright © 2004 National League of
|
