In the Government Shutdown, Mayors See a Moment to Shine

Half a decade ago, politicians from both sides of the aisle were urging New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for president. Today, Bloomberg's distaste for the federal government couldn't be more pronounced. During the opening session of The Atlantic’s CityLab summit, he showed off a new communications strategy for city-level leaders: us vs. them.

“We certainly aren’t waiting for national governments to lead the way, because we would be waiting for a very long time,” he said. “In cities, people are working across party lines to solve problems; in Washington, the partisanship has gotten so bad that the two parties can’t even agree on how to keep the lights on. We are pioneering new ideas; they are paralyzed by dysfunctional politics. The fact is, Washington is increasingly unresponsive to the needs of our country, and cities are filling the void in a very big way.”