Mayor Nutter on ‘Press Pass,’ asking feds to do more for cities

Via msnbc.com

America’s mayors want Congress to stop the infighting and lend us a hand.

Last week Mayor Michael Nutter was in Washington D.C. with the U.S. Conference of Mayors to bring the case for investing in cities to Congress. Nutter, along with D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, sat down with David Gregory for a Meet the Press online feature to talk about what big cities need in the face of grim budget forecasts.

The mayors talked shop about poverty, job creation, the deep cuts to the Community Development Block Grant program, and the need to invest in infrastructure. They argued show us the money and we’ll show you real results.

When Gregory asked Mayor Nutter what specific projects he’d like to get help from Congress on, much to my delight, Nutter went right for the waterfront. He said: A “huge project for us is 7 miles of waterfront on the Delaware… That would revitalize not only that part of the city, but it’s a major attraction all across the region. It would put thousands and thousands of people to work.” After all these years of planning, and early action projects, the Delaware waterfront is a perfect setting for federal investment. That is if Congress decides it wants to pay attention to the plight of cities, and President Obama’s urban base. Nutter opined: “You can just run the country on philosophy. Millions of Americans are out of work. What is the Congress doing about that?”