National Urban League
Greg Nickels, Seattle Mayor and U.S. Conference of Mayors President
July 29, 2009

It is a great honor to speak with you today as you begin celebrating your 100th year of existence and service. In 1910, as African Americans recognized that there were opportunities in America’s cities, the Urban League helped thousands adapt from Southern rural life to the challenges of the cities. For 99 years, the National Urban League has been a powerful voice urging our nation to fulfill its promise of equal opportunity for all our citizens. America has never fully kept those promises but the remarkable thing about our country is that we never stop trying, and today there is a renewed sense of hope that we can get closer to achieving a society of race and social justice.

Now, as we face global financial turbulence not seen in a generation, the Urban League’s mission of economic and social empowerment is more important than ever. I speak to you today as mayor of the great city of Seattle, and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. There has been a long partnership between mayors and the Urban League. One person who knows that well is Marc Morial, who served as our conference president in 2002.

We share much of the same agenda. And today, we face many of the same challenges. Everyone in this room understands the cost of this economic downturn. We know the conversations taking place around kitchen tables. We know when businesses are struggling in our communities. And we know this: our nation’s cities will lead us out of these economic bad times. At the leading edge of this recovery will be the Urban League, where it has always been, shining the light that leads towards a better America.
The four cornerstones of the Opportunity Compact – thrive, own, earn, and prosper – represents not only the Urban League’s agenda, but a roadmap for progress.

In Seattle, I’m proud that we passed a Families and Education Levy to support academic success. Our city departments have helped folks facing foreclosure, and, despite a tough budget situation, I’ve proposed cutting business taxes to help entrepreneurs. Over at the White House, they say a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, so I guess we should be thankful for all the opportunities to try new things. As president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, I am laying out a vision for a new relationship between the federal government and the nation’s cities. When you look at the numbers, it becomes clear that cities are the foundation, pillars and roof of our national economy: our top metropolitan areas account for 75 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Consider where patents are issued, where new businesses begin and grow, where people learn new skills to take on fresh challenges – it’s in our cities.

During the 1930's, FDR created the New Deal to get this country through tough times, re-defining the federal government's power with the states. The Conference of Mayors was founded in 1932 in order to work with his New Deal. Today, facing this Great Recession, I submit that we must forge with the federal government a New Deal with America's Cities. This nation is a network of cities, each with its own promise and potential. But for too long, we've been trapped in a structure that put the federal government at the top of the chart, followed by the states. It doesn't work today.

We need a New Deal with America's cities that is flexible and focused on achieving goals on which we all agree. We need a New Deal with America's cities that views the diversity of our metro areas as a strength instead of a burden. We need a New Deal with America's cities that reflects our power as economic communities able to compete with the very best in the world.

Fundamentally, the New Deal with American cities is this – if the U.S. invests in our metropolitan areas, we will return that investment many times over in new jobs and economic prosperity for all.

The Energy Efficiency Block Grant is a great example. This program, conceived by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and part of President Obama’s federal stimulus, provided $3.4 billion directly to state and local governments to implement conservation and energy efficiency strategies. It will help reduce our nation’s climate pollution and create more than 56,000 good-paying, cutting-edge jobs that can’t be outsourced. I hope all of you join me in urging Congress to included permanent funding of the Energy Efficiency Block Grant in future legislation. We know that our urban workforce is key to helping this country climb out of the recession and creating a clean-energy economy.

Nobody understands the promise of our metropolitan areas better than the Urban League. I am proud that Seattle mayors have had a long and close relationship with the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle since its establishment in 1929. Joseph Jackson served as Seattle’s first Urban League director and took on finding employment opportunities for African American workers as his top priority. History books tell us that Joseph successfully worked with local utilities, good government groups, and the Mayor’s Office. I’m proud of that, and I’m proud that my administration was able to help Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle president James Kelly realize a decades-old community dream by opening the city’s first African American Heritage Museum in 2008. I know Marc has had an opportunity to tour this wonderful asset to our city.

I also thank James for supporting us in our most important work: making sure kids grow up without falling victim to street violence. Our Youth Violence Prevention Initiative brought together community leaders, principals, members of the faith community and others to develop a new approach to preventing youth and gang-related violence. The Urban League has been a vitally important partner in this effort, and we have made great strides in meeting our goal of a 50 percent reduction in juvenile violent crime. Government can’t do this work alone.

As President Barack Obama said: “We must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can’t replace parents, that government can’t turn off the television and make a child do her homework, that fathers much take more responsibility to provide love and guidance to their children. Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility, that’s the essence of America’s promise.”

The Urban League and America’s big-city mayors have a long and successful record of helping America keep its promises. This much I know for certain: the recession will end. Together, the mayors of this country and the Urban League will ensure that this nation emerges stronger, cleaner and kinder from the storm. I thank all of you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today, and I ask you to join me as together, we lift from this Great Recession and create a better, more just America for ourselves and children. Thank you.