You've got a friend in ... Ed Pawlowski? In Charlotte, Allentown mayor evangelizes for Obama urban agenda.

If President Barack Obama?s looking for someone to sell his agenda to help America?s cities, he might not have to look any further than Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski.

In a telephone interview from the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C, last week, Allentown?s top elected official took the entirely unsurprising step of pronouncing the current administration?s urban strategy a success.

?The president has been extremely responsive,? to the needs of cities, Pawlowski said, ticking off a list of federal largess that he said included funding for 20 new city police officers, $60 million for work on a bridge over the Lehigh River and $7 million in additional federal stimulus funds for road and infrastructure projects around the city.

The Democrats? official platform for 2012, adopted in Charlotte, makes prominent mention of the need for thriving urban centers, pronouncing them ?incubators of innovation and job creation.??

?Cities and metro areas represent over 80 percent of this country's gross domestic product and 80 percent of this country's population,? the platform reads. ?We are committed to supporting and revitalizing these communities around the country.?

The National League of Cities, an advocacy group, helped draw up that plank of the party platform, Pawlowski said.

The official Republican platform, meanwhile, includes only indirect mentions of cities, noting that many face bankruptcy because of ballooning public pension costs. To Pawlowski, that?s a marked difference between the two parties.

?There?s no mention in the Republican platform,? he said, characterizing the GOP?s treatment of cities as ?dismissive.?

Urban mayors featured prominently in last week?s Democratic gathering, with keynote spots going to San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, among others.

?If you look at the future of the party, it?s coming from mayors,? said Pawlowski, whose motives might not be entirely altruistic. He's been mentioned more than once as a possible Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania governor in 2014.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/morningcall/news/CapitolIdeas/~3/SbWCWpya0xc/story01.htm

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