Not too long ago, 4 Black mayors, leaders of the nation’s 4 largest cities, participated in a panel dialogue throughout the 2023 Nationwide City League Conference held in Houston. Mayors Eric Adams (New York), Karen Bass (Los Angeles), Brandon Johnson (Chicago) and Sylvester Turner (Houston) mentioned a number of matters throughout the dialog facilitated by NUL President and CEO Marc Morial, the previous mayor of New Orleans.
Right here is an element two of their dialog, specializing in mainstream media, psychological well being and extra.
MEDIA
TURNER: What I would definitely suggest to each mayor, and particularly mayors of shade, is that it’s a must to have your personal efficient communication crew. In each one in every of my 23 departments, we have now public data officers that report as much as my communication crew. I view each a type of PIOs as a reporter of their division working for my communication crew. And what I’ve stated to my communication crew, if this paper or this tv can do a greater job of telling our story than my communication crew, then we’re lacking the mark.” So, what I’ve stated to my communication crew, nobody is aware of our story higher than us. Don’t depend on the newspaper or tv stations to inform our story.
ADAMS: Now we have to shift the dynamic and not be held captive by the media. We should do direct-to-consumer communication to point out what we’re doing on daily basis. As a result of should you have been to choose up the tabloids, you’d assume all of us are failing, when we have now so many successes.
MENTAL HEALTH
BASS: Marc, you and I labored diligently, so exhausting on the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, and after Floyd was killed, I bear in mind taking a look at 100 officer-involved demise shootings and in any other case, and I might say 30% to 40% of them have been psychological well being. It was a psychological well being disaster as a result of we shredded the psychological well being system. We permit individuals to deteriorate into violence, committing a criminal offense, after which they wind up with police encounters. So, we have now to handle these points that end in actually damaging encounters with police whereas we maintain law enforcement officials accountable
PUBLIC SAFETY
TURNER: We put collectively this One Secure Houston technique; holistic. We’re offering the help to police that they want. I would like them to go to work, and I would like them to go house safely. So, we offer them with the help that they want. We’re additionally investing in expertise. We’re doing all that. Our reentry program, we have now 12,000 to 13,000 thousand individuals yearly which might be popping out of our state felony justice system, coming again into Houston, Harris County. So, we’ve put collectively a reentry program as a result of they want jobs they usually want housing. And should you don’t present these issues for them, they’re gonna find yourself in your streets.
HONORING LEGACY
JOHNSON: Whenever you develop up and also you’ve skilled the eighties, and also you hear out of your father, your grandfather, your uncles and aunts, a couple of time of promise and hope. And Chicago is wealthy in legacy. So, I might be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge Chairman Fred [Hampton], who stated “Healthcare for all.” He stated Each little one ought to eat earlier than they go to high school. And that comes up within the Black Panther Get together ideology and motion that was birthed on the west aspect of Chicago the place I stay. And after I take into consideration, in fact, the time that Dr. King spent on the west aspect of Chicago, he understood the significance of the civil rights motion and the labor rights motion, and understanding that that coalition had monumental potential.
PRESSURE
ADAMS: You could have athletes that gained’t play in New York Metropolis as a result of our media is difficult. What I believe is crucial for Black individuals normally, however particularly for Black males, we’re so afraid of getting the title that may destroy our lives. When you get the title of Indignant Black Man, you’ll not increase up in company society. You’ll not increase up in Hollywood. You’ll not increase up on the sports activities crew. You’ll not increase up in politics. Due to our concern of “That’s an offended Black man,” we maintain all of it inside. And holding that stress inside manifests itself by coronary heart illness, hypertension, all kinds of diseases… Pay attention, the media should critique us… However there’s a distinction between doing a correct evaluation of what you could have completed, and being deliberately harmful. So, what I all the time do, I’m not holding in my anger. I’m going to let you understand how I really feel in the mean time. And I’m not gonna go to a thesaurus to seek out the right terminology to make you are feeling comfy in the way you made me really feel uncomfortable. I’m gonna clarify to you what I really feel on this second, after which I’m gonna transfer on, as a result of I obtained metropolis to run… with a $106 billion finances.
YOUNG VOTERS
JOHNSON: My older brother is an ancestor now. He had an habit and died unhoused. One of many issues he would all the time say to me rising up, “When you’re in a struggle and also you’re ducking, you’re shedding that struggle.” He stated, “Swing.” So, on this second. It nearly doesn’t matter what I do, they’re not gonna prefer it. “They” are these forces that also don’t just like the outcomes of the Civil Battle. These are people who need a rematch. So, there’s not a lot you may say to them. What I’m impressed by although is that the election that (elected me) was a multicultural intergenerational motion. And 27,000 new voters voted in April that didn’t vote in February; all of them underneath the age of 34. I gained by 26,532 votes. So, the youth vitality is alive and we’re bringing individuals collectively.
