It is no ordinary time to lead a city. Budgets are in flux. Divisions are deepening. Political violence and misinformation are growing concerns. And as President Trump aggressively pursues his agenda, national politics are becoming an inescapable reality in city halls.
The New York Times sat down last month with 16 mayors at a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Tampa, Fla. We asked them many of the same questions. Their answers revealed deep, bipartisan uncertainty over federal funding and concerns about rising incivility. Mayors of some of the nation’s largest cities, including New York and Los Angeles, did not attend.
Some Republican mayors spoke hopefully about this new Trump era. Many others, especially Democrats, who hold the majority of big-city mayoral jobs, voiced alarm about how the administration’s policies were playing out.
Here’s what we heard.
Across party lines, this one issue was a persistent concern.
Americans have been telling their mayors that they are worried about everyday costs and struggling to afford a place to live.
With home prices rising and supply limited, several mayors said they were trying to build more units and meet demand. It was a challenge playing out in nearly every city, with young professionals struggling to buy their first houses and growing homeless populations straining city services.
Mayors told us what else was keeping them up at night.
They described spending significant time outside the office worrying about local and national problems. As the mayor of Noblesville, Ind., put it: “My job is not nine to five. I’m mayor regardless of where I am.”
Some described the fear of receiving a phone call with news of another shooting. Others spoke about wanting to fix endemic issues like homelessness and drug addiction.
Governing a city feels different under President Trump, most mayors said.
With the Trump administration seeking to rapidly overhaul parts of the federal government, mayors from both parties described uncertainty over the fate of federal grants and other programs that Republicans in Washington have targeted.
Many Democrats said they had strong relationships with former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s staff members and had not yet built those same connections with Mr. Trump’s team. Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, whose city has been singled out for criticism by Mr. Trump, said that “the very basic fundamental rights of our democracy are under siege.”
Some Republicans described optimism about working with the new president, and not all of them had seen major changes. Mayor D.C. Reeves of Pensacola, Fla., said that “it’s probably too early to say that there’s a distinct difference.” Mayor Acquanetta Warren of Fontana, Calif., said it was “not at all” different. “We work with anyone,” she said.
We also asked whether mayors had changed their routines because of political violence.
Several mayors said they had taken additional steps to ensure their safety since the killing of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband in June and other recent attacks. But political violence, many of them noted, was not new. Mayor Regina Romero of Tucson, a Democrat, pointed to the attempted assassination of Representative Gabby Giffords in her city in 2011.
And Mayor Indya Kincannon of Knoxville, a Democrat, said she had been inside a local church with her young daughters when a gunman opened fire in 2008, killing two people, in an attack linked to hatred of liberals and gay people. She remembered escaping with her daughters. “I picked them up and left as soon as the gunman was tackled,” she said.
“Es un momento difícil para las personas en cargos públicos, y cuando vemos la tragedia que acaba de suceder en Minnesota, siempre tienes que preguntarte, ¿sabes, ¿soy el siguiente?”
“No. Pero lo que puedo decir es con la violencia política que ha estado promulgando, no hay lugar para ello”.
“Lo he hecho. Diría que a la luz de la violencia reciente, soy mucho más consciente de mi entorno y también de los de mi familia”.
“Para aquellos de nosotros que somos funcionarios electos, es un momento incómodo”.
“Como ex jefe de policía y que pasa 40 años en la aplicación de la ley, soy muy consciente del hecho de que siempre existe una potencial para una amenaza de violencia contra usted, pero no significa que siempre somos constantemente conscientes de esa amenaza. Pero me he vuelto mucho más alerta en términos de mi entorno”.
“Una de las cosas que hemos hecho de inmediato fue tomar más precauciones dentro del Ayuntamiento”.
“No he realizado cambios en cómo interactúo con mi comunidad, pero admitiré que mi nivel de estrés y ansiedad es un poco más alto”.
“Nada permanente todavía, pero ciertamente lo estoy viendo”.
Immigration enforcement is creating fear in many cities, too.
Mayors from both parties called on the federal government to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws.
“You couldn’t talk to a mayor who doesn’t want immigration reform,” said Mayor Kathy Sheehan of Albany, a Democrat. “We want Washington to fix this.”
But as the Trump administration works to increase deportations and remove legal status for some immigrants, mayors said that some in their cities were living in constant fear of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Mayors also pointed to local programs that could be national models.
“Hice que un terapeuta local se acercara a mí y me pregunte: ‘Oye, ¿irías a Facebook y hacer una sesión de terapia en vivo para hablar sobre lo que es ser un líder durante Covid?’ Por supuesto, mi respuesta inicial fue: “Absolutamente no, no quiero compartir mis emociones con mi comunidad”.
“Pero terminé cediendo y haciéndolo. Fue una de las mejores cosas que hice. Fue literalmente una sesión de terapia de una hora hablando sobre mis sentimientos, sobre ser un líder durante un momento tan incierto. Ese proyecto se ha transformado, ahora, un programa mensual llamado ‘Mental Health Lunes'”.
Añadió: “Ahora hemos consolado una comunidad y una ciudad y demostramos que está bien no estar bien”.
“En este momento, el mayor desafío en nuestra ciudad es la falta de vivienda. Eso es lo que nuestro público está buscando vernos resolver, por lo que estamos en esteroides haciendo eso. Acabamos de comprar un hotel el año pasado, lo que nos permite poner a las personas fuera de la calle en un entorno donde pueden obtener una gran ayuda para transformar sus vidas”.
“Hemos plantado más de 150,000 árboles en los últimos seis años. Creamos un mapa de árboles de calor donde echamos un vistazo a las áreas de nuestra ciudad que tienen menos dosel. Porque los árboles son una solución basada en la naturaleza para el calor y el clima”.
“El año pasado, a pesar de las altas tasas de interés y la alta inflación, permitimos unas 8.800 casas nuevas en mi ciudad, más del doble de lo que hemos estado haciendo históricamente. Las reformas que estamos estableciendo para hacer posible construir más casas por menos y construirlas más rápido está funcionando”.
We wanted to know what policy change under Trump was having the biggest impact, too.
We spoke to the mayors before Congress passed Mr. Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill. They told us they had spent months bracing for severe cuts to federal funding for local programs, though many of their worst-case fears had not materialized at that point.
Some described the pausing of grants while the Trump administration re-evaluated previously approved projects, leaving cities in limbo. In places where the local economy is highly dependent on international trade, mayors voiced concern about the uncertainty around tariffs.
And mayors told us what they had learned about the United States in the last year.
Both Republicans and Democrats said the depth of the country’s political divisions had become even more clear in recent months. Some Democrats said they were still processing Mr. Trump’s return to power and what it means for the country’s future.
We also asked some lighter questions, like which TV or streaming show they liked best.
Mayors also revealed their favorite after-work beverages.
Many mayors were eager to plug local craft breweries. Mayor Daniel Rickenmann of Columbia gave a shout-out to the Kentucky distillery that he cofounded. Others preferred a particular soft drink.
We asked them to brag about their cities’ signature dishes, too.
They boasted about a Friday night fish fry in Milwaukee, fish tacos in San Diego and Mexican food in Fresno and Fontana. Knoxville’s mayor suggested “meat and three,” the local term for meat and three side dishes, while Pensacola’s mayor highlighted his city’s seafood.
Two mayors shared different theories on hot dogs. And two Midwestern mayors boasted about their pork tenderloins.
Their bookshelves are also as varied as their cities.
When asked about the best book they had read recently, mayors shared a range of fiction and nonfiction titles.
Mayor Alyia Gaskins of Alexandria said much of her reading time was spent with her young children, who enjoy “Little Blue Truck” and “Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site.” The mayors of Fontana, Knoxville and San Diego all praised “Abundance” by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson.
“One Blood” de John M. Perkins
“Un caballero en Moscú” de Amor Towles
“El patrón de sabiduría” de Richard Rohr
“Una tierra recordada” por Patrick D. Smith. “Es una novela, pero es una especie de historia de Florida”.
“Cerrar el nuestro” por James Forman Jr. “Recomiendo que las personas en todo Estados Unidos lo echen un vistazo, particularmente en un momento en que el estado carcular es algo que está siendo promulgado, especialmente por este gobierno federal”.
“Rockets ‘Red Glare” de William Webster y Dick Lochte
“El proyecto 1619” de Nikole Hannah-Jones, quien es de Waterloo. También “Anesa, No Skola hoy” de Anesa Kajtazovic, un libro para niños sobre crecer durante la guerra de Bosnia.
“The Circle Maker” de Mark Batterson. “Se trata de grandes oraciones, grandes ideas audaces”.
“A Little Life” de Hanya Yanagihara. “Probablemente el libro más triste que he leído, pero fue realmente, muy bien escrito y maravilloso”.
“El cerebro adolescente” del Dr. Frances E. Jensen. “Eso realmente me ha ayudado a entender a mis adolescentes y por qué hacen las cosas que hacen”.
“Sobre el liderazgo” de Tony Blair. “Es increíblemente provocador como líder. Probablemente debería haberlo leído al comienzo de mi administración, pero he aprendido bastante”.
“Lo estoy leyendo ahora mismo: ‘una tierra prometida’ de Barack Obama. Estoy un poco atrasado porque soy alcalde y tengo tres hijos, pero lo estoy compensando ahora “.
Finally, we wanted to know what gave mayors hope for the United States.
Across party lines, mayors spoke about frightening political divisions, seemingly intractable problems and serious fears about the future. But most also voiced optimism about the country, drawing hope from America’s history and especially from the people they meet in their own cities.
