We just got back from the 87th Winter Meeting of the US Conference of Mayors (USCM) in Washington, DC. This is an opportunity to hear from national leaders, compare notes with other mayors, find out what are the latest best practices, eat a lot, get up early and stay up late.

There were over 260 mayors, including 50 from California. Locals included Mayor London Breed of San Francisco, Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland, Mayor Jesse Arreguin of Berkeley, Mayor Lily Mei of Fremont, Mayor Jill Techel of Napa, Mayor Amy Harrington of Sonoma, Mayor Dutra-Vernaci of Union City and many more.

We heard from Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Cory Booker, Bill DeBlasio, Michael Bloomberg and many more. We attended a half dozen plenary sessions and forums on veterans, renewable energy, housing and homelessness, climate change and gun violence.

On Facebook, I joked that we were there to end the shutdown, and sure enough, it ended just as we were leaving for home!

Figure 1 - Opening Plenary with USMC President Steve Benjamin, Mayor of Columbia SC.


Figure 2 Former Richmond cop Amy Bublak now mayor of Turlock


Figure 3 - Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser: “While the Federal government is shut, down, mayors and cities are hard at work, taking care of business.”


Figure 4  - No Me Davis, first girl to pitch a no hitter in Little League history!


Figure 5 - Trump’s nemesis talks shutdown chaos. “It must end now!”  “Our biggest challenges: income inequality, climate change and housing/homelessness.” “Not a time for incrementalism.”


Figure 6 - Local Solutions to Affordable Housing workshop. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms presiding.

Figure 7 - Dinner at Latino Leaders Network. Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia Texas 29th District speaking.


Figure 8 - London Breed speaking at Best Practice Forum on New Challenges and Solutions to Homelessness.


Figure 9 - Mayor de Blasio: “The shutdown is adversely affecting 2 million New Yorkers and costing half a billion dollars a week.” “ A man made crisis.”


Figure 10 -  David Hogg talks about ending gun violence in America.


Figure 11 - Cory Booker: “We have got to get back to a country that makes smart investments in infrastructure, health and education.”


Figure 12 -  After a rousing early morning ( 4:30 AM PST) Burning Man themed session on the arts, we are getting down to business with a workshop on City Initiatives to Reduce Gun Violence.


Figure 13 - Michael Bloomberg: “A mayor would never get away with closing down city government, and the president shouldn’t get away with it either.”