U.S. Neglects Cities, Boston Mayor Says : Urban life: He accuses Washington of ‘callous indifference’ toward homelessness, drugs, crime and other problems.

WASHINGTON —  The head of the U.S. Conference of Mayors said Sunday that American cities are fast becoming endangered institutions because President Bush and Congress refuse to address acute problems of homelessness, drugs, crime and unemployment.

“There has been a really callous indifference towards America’s cities,” said Raymond L. Flynn, two-term mayor of Boston and president of the mayors’ organization.

“And that’s the reason why we’re seeing some of the problems that are being played out each and every night in our communities--problems of crime and problems of violence and homelessness and problems with our young people,” he said.

Flynn, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said “it would be a mistake to say that it’s just the President alone that has been ignoring American cities,” although he said that Bush had not responded to a letter Flynn sent in early August asking for a meeting to talk about urban problems.

“It has been the whole Washington bureaucracy, and that includes the White House, the Congress, Democrats as well as Republicans,” Flynn said. “There has been no policy whatsoever dealing with building strong families, strong neighborhoods, strong American cities.”

Bush and his top aides have blamed congressional Democrats for a lack of action on an array of domestic issues, including a $105-billion highway construction and bridge maintenance bill. Democrats counter with charges that Bush has paid little attention to domestic problems.

Joining Flynn on the program were Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson and Indianapolis Mayor William Hudnut.

Jackson agreed with Flynn.

“We are a nation of failing cities. And therefore we are a failing nation, because 80% of the people in America live on 2% of the land,” Jackson said. “We are a nation of cities. And we have an infrastructure . . . that is being completely ignored.”

Jackson estimated it would cost $2 trillion to repair the infrastructures of the nation’s major cities.

He said he is leading a coalition of 55 organizations that are “begging Congress to take action now” to repair and build bridges and sewers, develop an urban trust fund and create incentives for the private sector to invest.

Hudnut was not as critical, noting that Bush “is a master in the area of foreign affairs, and that’s what he’s had to deal with” during the Persian Gulf War and the crisis in the Soviet Union. He said accomplishments in the domestic agenda include increased funding for the war against drugs and for Operation Head Start, the education reform initiative called “America 2000” and Housing Secretary Jack Kemp’s tenant ownership program.

“As we look down the road, the agenda is education, the environment, economic development, efficiency and a better management of city affairs, crumbling infrastructure, and empowerment,” Hudnut said. “And it’s an exciting agenda, but I really think that America’s up to solving it.”