MayorTV Seeks to Reframe Political Debate

The Nation and the Drum Major Institute have joined forces to launch MayorTV, a new web series featuring interviews with mayors from all across the country. MayorTV’s mission is to generate a conversation about urban issues in this year’s presidential campaign — issues that all too often get lost in the midst of a general election where other concerns take center stage.

“MayorTV came about from the relatively simple realization that urban issues just haven’t been talked about at a national level for quite a few years now,” Harry Moroz from the Drum Major Institute told CitizenTube. “And, when we stopped to think about it, common political rhetoric had come to portray urban issues as synonymous with poverty, minorities, and crime.”

Hoping to change that perception, and influence future public policy, MayorTV has put together an impressive roster of interviewees, including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, and most recently (see below) Richmond Mayor and former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder.



Moroz continues: “Our goal is to press Senator Obama to keep and Senator McCain to start talking about cities (and to do so in public, of course). At the same time, our goal is to highlight the innovative policymaking that is occurring at the city and local level as examples of why the presidential candidates should view cities as solutions.”