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During the past 20 years, immigrants and young people have transformed the demographics of urban America. Now, they're transforming its politics and mapping the future of liberalism.

Pittsburgh is the perfect urban laboratory," says Bill Peduto, the city's new mayor. "We're small enough to be able to do things and large enough for people to take notice." More than its size, however, it's Pittsburgh's new government-Peduto and the five like-minded progressives who now constitute a majority on its city council-that is turning the city into a laboratory of democracy. In his first hundred days as mayor, Peduto has sought funding to establish universal pre-K education and partnered with a Swedish sustainable-technology fund to build four major developments with low carbon footprints and abundant affordable housing. Even before he became mayor, while still a council member, he steered to passage ordinances that mandated prevailing wages for employees on any project that received city funding and required local hiring for the jobs in the Pittsburgh Penguins' new arena. He authored the city's responsible-banking law, which directed government funds to those banks that lent in poor neighborhoods and away from those that didn't.

Pittsburgh is a much cleaner city today than it was when it housed some of the world's largest steel mills. But, like postindustrial America generally, it is also a much more economically divided city. When steel dominated the economy, the companies' profits and the union's contracts made Pittsburgh-like Detroit, Cleveland, and Chicago-a city with a thriving working class. Today, with the mills long gone, Pittsburgh has what Gabe Morgan, who heads the local union of janitorial and building maintenance workers, calls an "eds and meds" economy. Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh, and its medical center are among the region's largest employers, generating thousands of well-paid professional positions and a far greater number of low-wage service-sector jobs.

Peduto, who is 49 years old, sees improving the lot of Pittsburgh's new working class as his primary charge. In his city hall office, surrounded by such artifacts as a radio cabinet from the years when the city became home to the world's first radio station, the new mayor outlined the task before him. "My grandfather, Sam Zarroli, came over in 1921 from Abruzzo," he said. "He only had a second-grade education, but he was active in the Steel Workers Organizing Committee in its early years, and he made a good life for himself and his family. My challenge in today's economy is how to get good jobs for people with no PhDs but with a good work ethic and GEDs. How do I get them the same kind of opportunities my grandfather had? All the mayors elected last year are asking this question."

They are indeed. The mayoral and council class of 2013 is one of the most progressive cohorts of elected officials in recent American history. In one major city after another, newly elected officials are planning to raise the minimum wage or enact ordinances boosting wages in developments that have received city assistance. They are drafting legislation to require inner-city hiring on major projects and foster unionization in hotels, stores, and trucking. They are seeking the funds to establish universal pre-K and other programs for infants and toddlers. They are sketching the layout of new transit lines that will bring jobs and denser development to neighborhoods both poor and middle-class and reduce traffic and pollution in the bargain. They are-if they haven't done so already-forbidding their police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities in the deportation of undocumented immigrants not convicted of felonies and requiring their police to have video or audio records of their encounters with the public. They are, in short, enacting at the municipal level many of the major policy changes that progressives have found themselves unable to enact at the federal and state levels. They also may be charting a new course for American liberalism.

New York's Mayor Bill de Blasio has dominated the national press corps' coverage of the new urban liberalism. His battles to establish citywide pre-K (successful but not funded, as he wished, by a dedicated tax on the wealthy), expand paid sick days (also successful), raise the minimum wage (blocked by the governor and legislature), and reform the police department's stop-and-frisk policy (by dropping an appeal of a court order) have been extensively chronicled. But de Blasio is just one of a host of mayors elected last year who campaigned and now govern with similar populist agendas. The list also includes Pittsburgh's Peduto, Minneapolis's Betsy Hodges, Seattle's Ed Murray, Boston's Martin Walsh, Santa Fe's Javier Gonzales, and many more. ...(Click title for more)

April 25 - While legislation to lift the state's minimum wage has been pending in the legislature for some time now, Chicago Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) said he and his fellow Progressive Reform Coalition council members are working to drum up support for a $15 minimum wage in the city.

At a minimum wage forum Thursday night hosted by Action Now's "Faith in Action" coalition in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood, Sawyer said the council's progressive caucus is looking to put forward a $15 minimum wage ordinance, though the details are still in the works.

The first step, Sawyer said, is to get more aldermen and residents involved in the discussion.

"I think (raising the minimum wage is) a basic level of respect to your constituents that are working out here hard," he told Progress Illinois. "I was at one function where a young lady worked 10 years at McDonald's and she talked about how she can't even afford the food to eat where she works. So it's frustrating, and we need to get these wages to a level where they are respectable to the citizens."

Is the mayor on board with a minimum wage hike?

"Based on what I'm hearing, he's amenable to a raise in the minimum wage," Sawyer said. "Where that level is yet, I don't know. But I'm encouraged by that, that he does understand that it should be raised. So we'll just see where it goes."

Progress Illinois asked Sawyer whether an ordinance to lift the wage floor in Chicago to $15 would have any legs in the city council at a time when lawmakers at both the state and federal levels are weighing a minimum wage hike of just over $10. The state and federal minimum wages are currently $8.25 and $7.25, respectively.

"I think we're going to try to pitch the $15 level right now, and we'll see where it takes us," Sawyer said in response.

"Hopefully, it will spread enough conversation where we can get something raised. I think we just need to press the conversation, and get (a possible wage increase) up to a level that's respectable. I think $15 is respectable. I think there's some numbers that are a little less that are also respectable, but without having some sort of benchmark, you'll never get any progress. So right now we're sticking with the $15 option."

He pointed out that Chicagoans are in support of the idea. During the March primary election, Chicago voters overwhelming supported a non-binding ballot referendum to increase the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour for employees of companies with annual revenues over $50 million. The referendum appeared on the ballot in 103 city precincts, garnering support from 87 percent of voters....(Click title for more)

Koch Brothers Demand Tax
on Sun to Thwart Solar Growth

US Solar Capacity up 418% Since 2010

        Senate Bill 1087, which Gov. Abercrombie signed on June 27, makes solar photovoltaic systems, as well as solar thermal water heaters and big-ticket energy efficiency upgrades, available to all these underserved customers by eliminating the thorny issue of the upfront costs.

        On-bill financing enables residential or commercial property owners or renters to avoid the initial out-of-pocket expense to install energy improvements. Upgrades are instead financed with loans paid back via a line item on the customer's monthly utility bill. If the property is sold or transferred, the loan stays with the meter and would be taken over by the new property owner or tenant.

It's better when our bridges don't collapse.

There are 63,000 structurally deficient bridges in the United States. Let that sink in for a minute.

Then ask yourself: How is this not seen as a national scandal? After all, even though "structurally deficient" doesn't necessarily mean "likely to collapse tomorrow," we have seen some major bridge collapses in recent years, and 63,000 is a lot of bridges. Collectively, these bridges are crossed 250 million times a day. So again, why is this not something the government is aggressively working to fix? Oh, wait:

    With an ample boost in federal money, $100.2 billion was spent by governments on all levels in 2010 on capital improvements for the nation's 604,493 bridges and 4.1 million miles of roads.

    That sort of spending brought progress in the first decade of the 21st century, leading to a slight decline in the number of deficient bridges.

    But with much of the nation's post-World War II infrastructure wearing out and the federal gas tax that built it steadily declining, experts say more than 1 trillion dollars of investment is need to shore it up.

That's right, it would require the government spending money to bring 63,000 bridges up to standard. Therefore, not only does it not rank at the top of the Republican priorities list, it's almost seen as some kind of outrage to suggest, even though it would be a major job creator. You don't put $1 trillion into bridges without taxing someone, after all, and low taxes rank well above jobs on that Republican priorities list. Hey, maybe if Republicans cut our taxes enough, we'll be able to afford rowboats for when bridges become a weird 20th-century anachronism.

In the shorter term, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association suggests posting signs identifying bridges as structurally deficient. That's a great idea-want to bet politicians would get a lot more pressure on this issue if every time anyone crossed a structurally deficient bridge, they passed a sign labeling it as such?...(Click title for more)

    Pressure on Adidas and Nike. Letters from U.S. unions targeting these brands would be very helpful. Supporters also plan to leaflet customers outside Adidas stores in Taipei, Melbourne, London, and several U.S. cities this week. Click here to locate a store near you and download leaflets. Here's info for an April 24 action in New York City.

    Solidarity messages encouraging workers to keep on with the strike. American consumers should take pictures with signs saying they support Yue Yuen workers. The best way to post solidarity messages and photos is to post them to your own Facebook page and using the hashtag #ChinaSolidarity. This will allow Hong Kong supporters to find them and forward them to workers' social media groups. If you're not on Facebook, email them to teresac710@gmail.com.

Film: Welles's Tattered, Glorious Othello Returns

Solidarity, Carl Davidson, CCDS