Stephen K. Benjamin is Mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, and incoming President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Reelected by a 30 percent margin in November 2013, Mayor Benjamin’s administration has been characterized by his firm belief in Columbia’s potential and intense focus on job creation. In his first term alone, his leadership helped cut unemployment in the metro by roughly half and secured billions of dollars in new regional capital investment in the midst of a national recession.
Combined with the rebirth of Main Street, these accomplishments have drawn national attention and accolades including his being awarded an Aspen Rodel Fellowship and receiving an Honorary Doctor of Humanities from Francis Marion University. He has twice been named to The Washington Post’s “The Root 100 List” (2011 and 2013) as well as the 2014 GRIO 100 and was honored to receive a 2014 Triumph Award from the National Action Network as their 2014 Public Servant of the Year.
Mayor Benjamin will be speaking at the Smart Cities New York conference in May, 2018.
Smart Cities: Technology, Equity and the Future of Work
The amazing thing about smart cities is that you can talk to a mayor from any city anywhere in the world, and the answer you will get will be a little bit different. That’s actually a pretty cool thing. At its core, we’re all talking about how we use data much more effectively to make better policy decisions…The larger discussion around being a smart city has gone even way beyond data analytics, as we watch just a rapid exponential growth in technology. What does it mean for the future of cities, the future of work, the future opportunities to building equitable inclusive cities?
Diminishing Federal Contributions to Infrastructure
The reality is this, that—at least for the last 100 years—the delivery of infrastructure around this country has been primarily led by state and local governments. 75% of all infrastructure in this country is built by cities and states, primarily using tax exempt municipal bonds. Private activity bonds, of course, are important in the mix as well. But we have seen, year after year, the federal commitment in infrastructure continue to wane and recede. It’s been disappointing. In 2014 alone, we saw our state and local governments invest about $106 billion in water and sewer infrastructure. The corresponding federal investment was about $2.5 billion, just as an example of the challenge that we’re facing.
Can Cities, States and the Federal Government Finally Work Together?
It would be wonderful to have a partner in Washington D.C. That’s been a challenge that we’ve faced every year since the Nixon administration. Some innovative ideas have come out of the Obama administration and the Bush administration, the Clinton administration as well, and look forward to doing a deeper dive into some of the ideas that President Trump has put forward as well. Again, we’re optimistic. We’re going to keep doing what we need to do to build what we aspire to build here in Columbia. We’re trying to build the most talented, educated, entrepreneurial city in America.
How Mayors Fit Into the Conversation
…Across this country, 85% of our citizens now live in cities and metropolitan economies. 89% of the jobs are in the cities and in metropolitan economies. 91% of America’s nearly $20 trillion GDP is created in cities and metropolitan economies. We are driving the economic growth of this country. And our message is that by partnering with mayors, by looking at the creative solutions that are being deployed all across this country, seeing the innovative ideas, seeing the massive investment in infrastructure, but also embracing the idea of inclusion and ways in which we can all move forward together, is the way to go…We’re always coming around the table. That’s the strength, I believe, of being a mayor and having to always listen to every opinion, not gerrymandered ideas with narrow constituencies. We’re going to continue to do that.
Download full transcript (PDF): Stephen K. Benjamin on The Infra Blog
Tags: Columbia, Mayors, SC, South Carolina, Stephen K. Benjamin, U.S. Conference of Mayors
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