PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The country’s economic crisis dominated the agenda Friday at the opening of the national mayors’ conference, with big-city leaders telling of their struggles with mounting foreclosures, double-digit unemployment rates and falling tax revenues.
“Every one of us are on the front lines of an historic and unprecedented economic crisis facing our cities, at least in our own lifetimes,” said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
The 77th annual meeting, which started Friday and runs through Monday, is the first for the U.S. Conference of Mayors since the throes of the recession began and is focused on the federal economic-stimulus package. Mayors from 200 cities attended.
The gathering has largely been overshadowed by the absence of Vice President Joe Biden and other officials from the Obama administration, who skipped the event to avoid crossing a picket line and taking sides in a labor dispute between Providence Mayor David Cicilline and the city’s firefighter union.
