It is refreshing to hear presidential candidates talking these days about what they might do to help struggling low- and middle-income workers, most of whom live in or near urban centers like Baltimore. Urban needs haven't been on the White House's to-do list for the past eight years. Both Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama say they would seek increases in the Earned Income Tax Credit, raise the federal minimum wage, provide comprehensive health care assistance and make massive investments in job training, infrastructure and energy research .
But this piecemeal approach is not enough. The candidates should offer an overarching vision of assistance that recognizes the central role urban centers play in America's social and economic life and the dangers the nation faces after years of neglecting urban problems. The evidence of the urgent need is everywhere. More and more students are dropping out of city schools; urban bridges, sewer systems and roads are deteriorating; and money for housing assistance is in short supply.
Metropolitan areas, such as the Baltimore-Towson corridor, deserve significant attention because they power the nation's economy. Take the Baltimore area, for example; it is home to half of the state's jobs and nearly half of its gross domestic product. Nationally, 83 percent of our population lives in urban areas where most of America's wealth is created, a recent Brookings Institution study shows.
But urban areas also are home to a majority of the poorest Americans, the places with the biggest gaps between average income and the cost of housing and other living expenses, the places with the most decrepit infrastructure, with the largest pollution problems, the places where struggles with crime, drugs and unemployment are the most challenging, and transportation needs are growing exponentially, exacerbating gridlock.
The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that it will cost more than $40 billion over the next 20 years - about $13.5 billion more than expected - to pay for the operation, preservation, enhancement and expansion of the state's transit system.
In Maryland, these problems are festering in the inner suburbs as well as the city, and they require national solutions. Cities can work to reduce income disparities, but they can't close the gap between wages and prices. Cities and states lack regulatory power to push environmental reforms.
The candidates - including Republican John McCain - need to propose a unified policy that would focus hundreds of billions of dollars, including funds diverted from less urgent needs, on coordinated efforts to improve urban transportation, help urban centers meet environmental goals and rebuild infrastructure. An increased minimum wage, significantly more affordable housing, improved access to quality education from Head Start on, and enhanced job training programs that reflect changing economic priorities would go a long way toward helping the urban poor - and fortifying America's cities.