Among Long-Term Impacts of Pandemic, America’s Mayors Are Most Concerned with Residents’ Mental Health and Learning Loss, According to Survey of US Mayors
22 Novembro 2021 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
Mayors Are Far Less Concerned with Crime and
Fallout Due to Shift to Remote Work and Outmigration
Four-in-Five Mayors Plan to Use Funds from
American Rescue Plan Act for “Transformative Aims” on Housing,
Homelessness, Infrastructure, and Equity – Not to Fill Budget
Gaps
Findings Among Those from the Boston University
Initiative on Cities’ Menino Survey of Mayors
Despite the conventional wisdom that rising rates of violent
crime, shifts to remote work, and outmigration of residents will
have long-term effects on American cities, mayors find these risks
least concerning, according to a survey of 126 mayors across the
United States. Instead, mayors say they are far more concerned with
the pandemic’s long-term effects on their residents’ mental health
and learning loss among young people. These are some of the
findings related to COVID-19 recovery from the Menino Survey of
Mayors, the only nationally representative survey of America’s
mayors conducted annually by Boston University’s Initiative on
Cities. A full report on mayors’ attitudes regarding their cities’
COVID-19 recovery can be found here.
More than half of mayors (52%) believe mental health challenges
and trauma is a top long-term consequence of the pandemic. Learning
loss among young people ranked second (37%), closely followed by a
third of mayors expressing concern for the financial insecurity of
low-income residents. Only around a quarter (26%) said rising rates
of crime and violence are of great concern to them, and strikingly,
only a handful (7%) of mayors cite a shift to remote work as a
significant worry and a mere 2% are concerned about
outmigration.
“Earlier in the pandemic, mayors were worried about immediate
threats to their residents, cities, and budgets,” said David
Glick, Menino Survey Co-Author and Associate Professor of Political
Science at Boston University. “Now, as the pandemic and
government response have evolved, we're seeing mayors focusing on
potential long-term and persistent impacts, and the ways the
pandemic has changed their residents, and at the same time, we're
also seeing them focusing on making long-term investments."
While stimulus efforts early in the pandemic focused on critical
stopgaps, mayors have big plans for American Rescue Plan funds,
seeing the direct and flexible support as an opportune moment to
pursue meaningful investments for the future of their cities.
Nearly four-in-five (78%) mayors believe that ARPA resources will
allow them to accomplish transformative aims—including around
housing and homelessness, infrastructure, and equity—while much of
the remaining mayors (18%) anticipate using these federal funds to
fill gaps in normal expenditures.
“The American Rescue Plan will help shape the future of our
cities,” said Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. “These
much needed dollars offer the opportunity to address longstanding
issues that we face in Jackson like modernizing our city’s
infrastructure and investing in a dignity economy with programs
like guaranteed income. While the pandemic has illuminated the
depth of our challenges, these resources will help us emerge
stronger.”
The Menino Survey of Mayors, named after the late Mayor of
Boston Thomas Menino and supported by Citi and The Rockefeller
Foundation, is an annual project to understand the most pressing
needs and policy priorities of America’s mayors from large and
mid-size (over 75,000 residents) cities. In total, 126 mayors from
39 states were interviewed throughout the summer of 2021, providing
a representative sample of mayors and cities nationally.
“While we don’t know what the long-term impact remote working
will have on cities, it is clear that mayors aren’t waiting to find
out,” said Ed Skyler, Head of Global Public Affairs at Citi and
former Deputy Mayor of New York City. “They are taking action
and investing in their cities’ future by spending federal funds
from American Rescue Plan to address major, long-overdue issues
facing the future of their cities, like housing and other
infrastructure projects. These important investments will create
more inclusive, livable, and affordable cities for
generations.”
“While the Covid-19 pandemic laid bare deep racial injustices,
the possibility of small business as a lever for BIPOC wealth
creation still holds great promise,” said Otis Rolley, Senior
Vice President of Equity and Economic Opportunity at The
Rockefeller Foundation. “We are heartened to see direct
insights from mayors and municipalities on how they plan to support
small businesses in achieving an equitable recovery, which aligns
squarely with the vision of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Equity and
Economic Opportunity team to reduce the racial wealth gap through
asset ownership and job quality.”
Additional findings related to COVID-19 recovery from this
year’s Menino Survey include:
- The pandemic worsened a stark housing crisis across American
cities, featuring dramatically increased costs and a looming
eviction crisis. However, there was no agreement among mayors about
the best pathway forward towards addressing this crisis—reflecting
perhaps the complexity of the challenge. At least half of mayors
believe that housing programs should emphasize homeownership rather
than renting (including 73% of Republicans and 55% of Democrats.)
And while more than half (56%) also agree that strong protections
for tenants are important, even if costly for landlords, it was the
least popular of the housing priorities surveyed. It was also the
policy with the biggest partisan split: 69% of Democratic mayors
support strong eviction protections for tenants, compared with only
36% of Republicans.
- An overwhelming majority of mayors (71%) agree that the
pandemic reveals the need for significant changes in how their
cities support small businesses. They mentioned changes that range
from reducing barriers—such as those in the permitting process—to
better data collection, increased communication, and heightened
focus on equity and minority-owned businesses. But while six in 10
mayors believe that they are held responsible by their residents
for the state of small businesses in their cities, only two in 10
think they wield strong influence over the fate of small
business.
- Moreover, when it comes to small businesses, mayors foresee
looming labor shortages. Seventy percent cite access to the
workforce they need as one of the two biggest challenges facing
their small business community over the next couple years. Notably,
mayors express much more concern about access to workers than they
do about labor costs (less than one-fourth cite labor costs as a
top challenge.) The second most cited challenge, by 43% of mayors,
is access to capital and credit—an area that 81% feel
disproportionately burdens minority-owned small businesses.
Additional findings from the 2021 Survey – related to
homelessness and closing the racial wealth gap – will be released
as separate reports in the coming months.
About the Initiative on Cities The Boston University
Initiative on Cities leads research in, on, and with cities in
pursuit of sustainable, just, and inclusive urban transformation.
We marshal the talents and resources of wide-ranging disciplines
across Boston University spanning the social, natural,
computational, and health sciences. The Menino Survey is named for
the late Mayor Tom Menino, who co-founded the Initiative on Cities
in 2014 following 20 years as mayor of Boston. Additional
information may be found at www.bu.edu/ioc and at
www.surveyofmayors.com.
About Citi Citi, the leading global bank, has
approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in
more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers,
corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of
financial products and services, including consumer banking and
credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage,
transaction services, and wealth management.
Additional information may be found at www.citigroup.com |
Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Blog:
http://blog.citigroup.com | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi |
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi
About The Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller
Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative
partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and
innovation to enable individuals, families, and communities to
flourish. We work to promote the well-being of humanity and make
opportunity universal. Our focus is on scaling renewable energy for
all, stimulating economic mobility, and ensuring equitable access
to healthy and nutritious food. For more information, sign up for
our newsletter at rockefellerfoundation.org and follow us on
Twitter @RockefellerFdn.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211122005327/en/
Media: Stacy Fox, sfox@bu.edu and (617) 358-8086
Stephanie Hyon, stephanie.hyon@citi.com and (212) 816-3397
Citigroup (NYSE:C)
Gráfico Histórico do Ativo
De Abr 2024 até Mai 2024
Citigroup (NYSE:C)
Gráfico Histórico do Ativo
De Mai 2023 até Mai 2024