-- c-span.org/classroom. >> up next, "washington journal" takes a look at challenges facing several u.s. city, followed by a discuss on u.s. foreign aid and global development efforts. former national security advisor h.r. mcmaster joins a discussion about threats to free and open societies. .ost: good morning we are spending this morning on the washington journal focusing on the issues facing america's cities. having this conversation in the wake of president trump singling out baltimore and pointing to the nation's 30th largest city as a symbol of problems with urban areas. this morning we're are going to hear from city residents only. ellis -- tell us what your top issues are where you live. you areidents only, if in the eastern time zone, (202) 748-8000.

mountain and pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. you can also catch up with us on social media. .witter.com/cspanwj you can start calling you now. a reminder, when you do call in, turn the volume on your tv down. you will -- you will be able to hear the program when you are on hold. as you are calling in, we want to take you back to the first of this month. the president was in cincinnati at a campaign rally. he talked about the problems facing american cities. [video clip] has paid a: no one higher price than our nation's inner cities. you see what is happening. you see our inner cities, we years, and it for is stolen money. it is wasted money. it is a shame.

for decades, these communities have been run exclusively by democrat politicians. it has been total one party control of the inner cities. for 100 years it has been one party control. look at them. we can name one after another, but i won't do that. i don't want to be controversial. host: that was the president with his concerns about american cities. one of the candidates looking to run against the president is the mayor of the nation's largest city. this is mayor bill de blasio of new york from the iowa soapbox speech he gave talking about his city of new york. [video clip] >> we have the nation's largest city. wen i ran for mayor, i said can make big changes.

there were many doubting thomas es. we change people's lives, and we did it fast. pre-k years time we gave to every child for free. you think we need that in iowa? do we need that all over america? [applause] we gave the $15 minimum wage to hard-working people. we need that in this country because people should not work so hard and not be able to make ends meet. we gave paid sick leave to folks who were working and they had to choose between going to the doctor, or -- peoples of thousands of who needed health insurance and weren't getting it, are getting it. we decided to do something for them, and now we are guaranteeing health care for anyone who does not have health

insurance. we are guaranteeing it. [applause] we are guaranteeing a health care card to make sure they can get a primary care doctor. in a public hospital. we want people to go to the doctor, not to end up in the emergency room, right? we are doing that in new york, we can do that all over the country. host: bill de blasio over the weekend. we are talking to city residents only. we want to know with the top issues are in your city and what you think city leaders are doing to fix those problems. give us a call. if you are in the eastern or central time zones, (202) 748-8000. mountain or pacific, (202) 748-8001. we will also look for tweets and facebook comments. , "every city has bad drinking water."

about the need for bottled water in newark." that newy noting jersey's largest city started handing out bottled water. letter fromter a the environmental protection agency warned about high levels of lead in two of three homes that were tasted -- tested. pipesents for the lead found that there were high levels of lead in the water. eric olson of the national research defense counsel which is suing newark says the parallels to flint, michigan are clear. the new york post today, just one of the issues we can talk about as we talk to city residents only. walter is up first in hartford, connecticut. walter, tell us about hartford.

caller: are you there? host: yes sir, the gun issue? caller: the gun issue. all the shootings are getting people to realize -- we have a killing problem in this country. we have a killing problem, not a gun issue. people like to kill people rather than talk and work things out. that thetanding is president needs to go and talk and discuss issues. not talk about rat infested things and all that, and the immigrants taking jobs and all that. -- the problem we have also in hartford is the guns. on the moon, we can solve the gun issue. for some reason, everybody has

guns. you can't buy a gun if you have a criminal record. host: what do you want to hear from the president if he were to come to hartford? that when you go to a gun fair where they have guns, you can buy a gun at a fair. without identification. , or some virginia -- i am just saying, why --k about he is the president of the united states, he should be talking about every state, every town. he shouldn't be talking about people -- you are there to help them solve problems, not give people grief about where they came from. host: that is walter from

hartford, connecticut. this story on the washington post, people are fed up after shootings. gun control groups are building momentum. that story noting that this weekend volunteers from the group mom's demand action will hold rallies in all 50 states to urge senators to expand background checks, red flag loss -- red flag laws and others that would take firearms away from people deemed danger. we had to baltimore, robert, good morning. how long have you lived in baltimore? caller: about four years. the biggest issue we face in baltimore is that nobody talks about the -- happening here. they always talk about when a white pilsen -- a white person kills a black person. what they need to do is they ,eed to come together

partnership with the community and police and fix it. and do something about it. stuff comelling and up with the guns. for every criminal that has a --, [indiscernible] -- go to jail faster than the criminal you are trying to defend yourself against. host: why did you move to baltimore four years ago? caller: i moved to baltimore because i was living in georgia. where that --e where there is better wages. i like baltimore because baltimore is not a bad city. criminalt you have elements like you have criminal elements everywhere. host: were you worried about crime when you moved? caller: no, because in the

mid-80's i used to live in south-central los angeles. south-central los angeles in the mid 80's is what baltimore is now. there is no real difference for us when we moved here. in los angelesme went down because people got sick of people getting killed and did something about it. it is just the world we live in. that -- it something going to have to partnership with the leaders. for the call from baltimore. next up -- bob is next. portland, oregon. that inmy statement is the shooting in texas, which is

an open carry state. it is for self protection yet thedy return fire after shooter started firing. that if itondering is protection, why weren't they doing it? host: what are gun laws like in portland? you can have a permit to carry. host: do you do that? caller: yes. has your interaction been like with people in portland when it comes to gun laws? do they think that that is working? caller: yes, it has. a 747 up here in years.

permitcealed weapon allows you to if you have a concern to carry one. host: we are talking with viewers this morning in cities only about the top issues in your city. how do you think your city is addressing those issues. you are in theif eastern or central time zones. (202) 748-8001 if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. jersey. in newark, new we were talking for the top of this program about the lead concerns in the water in newark. james, tell us about that issue. are you seeing that? --ve years ago everybody is wondering why. illegals, they

stopped buying bottled water for some reason. on when into it late was getting sick. drinking the tap water. now i drink poland springs water. -- container is colder than the -- i am very happy with my 5 gallon poland springs bottle of water. the little money i have to pay to make -- host: do you think you will make use of the city handing out free water? caller: no. the poland springs is good.

container ister good. [indiscernible] host: that is james in newark, new jersey. the city of newark handing out bottled water- warning about high levels of lead. the headline there saying new jersey now has its own version of flint. let's go to bill in flint, michigan. bill good morning. as you hear that story about what is happening in newark, what were you thinking? caller: good morning. to the c-span listeners. we all know the history of flint michigan has been publicized internationally. complaint, the problem as i see it is we just had an election last week. we had four candidates.

turnout was less than 12% of the population. 73,258 registered 9,051 turnedonly out to vote. int means 64,000 people light of the fact of the lead emergency, emergency managers and all the turmoil that flint has went through in the last five years, the vote was suppressed. not by any governmental agency, but the apathy of the voters. host: before you go, after the concerns about the water in flint and have state and local officials treated that issue, why don't you think people are more interested in coming up to

vote? do they not trust that change will happen if they vote? caller: absolutely. altogetherst adopted a new voter law that allows same-day registration, same-day voting. .ou can have satellite polling voting sites. -- 30 days before the election. it is voter apathy in my opinion. they don't care. from flint,s built michigan. bill, how long have you lived in flint? caller: -- years. host: have you ever thought about leaving? caller: i love flint. in 1980, flint was the highest per capital -- highest per capita than any city in the world. flint has been good to me, my and anybody who has been

here for 77 years. it is a wonderful city. host: do you think it will get back to what it was back in the 80's? caller: never. no. it is all over. the manufacturing moved offshore. to china, vietnam, japan, mexico. we all know that. your pitch to somebody who is considering moving to flint? flint is going to be an industrial juggernaut. the infrastructure from the plants have left here -- the infrastructure is under the ground. , even theater electricity, the gas, you need all those.

it is the junction for the expressways. you have got airports, trains. , but not asome back a residential metropolis, but an industrial metropolis. host: thanks for the call. the story from michigan live talking about projections for voter turnout. it was expected even before the elections that turnout was going to be 10% or less in the city's precincts. taking phone calls. we are also going to check in with reporters -- editorial writers and opinion writers in some of the nation's largest cities this morning. we are going to be doing that in detroit, michigan in about 10 minutes. we will have those conversations interspersed with your phone calls about the issues that are impacting your cities.

alan is here in washington dc. what is the biggest issue in washington? caller: this doesn't go just for d.c., but for large and medium-sized cities, it's homelessness. i will give you an example, in los angeles maybe 25 years ago there was a homeless district in east l.a. which was nine square blocks. there recently, that homeless area is tent encampments. 150 if not 200 square blocks. washingtono spokane, city.h is a rural-ish if you go there in the wintertime there are on any given night, probably 150 or 200 homeless people. salt lake city, same thing.

i have been across the country probably three times in the past 10 years. i am seeing this everywhere. everywhere this where 25 years ago it was maybe a blip. host: how do you think d.c. is doing handling this issue? caller: not as bad as many. the section eight housing in d.c. is -- there are blocks and blocks of section eight housing. little it is maybe a better in d.c. than the rest of the country. also, they have got a lot of federal money to throw around whereas other cities outside of the capital don't have that. homeless population in ,.c. in the beginning of 2018

almost 7000. that compares to about the same for san jose, california. san diego, 85 hundred. seattle, 12,000. 49,900.eles, what do you think about those numbers? that from a recent forbes piece about homeless population. i do not know where they get those numbers from. it sounds about right if maybe a little low. see what those numbers were 25 years ago. are oneexpect they third or maybe one quarter of the size. -- a sourcenumbers to the office of housing and urban development. the total homeless population in the united states in january of 2,830.55

this is sarah back in baltimore. we just moved to baltimore a couple of years ago. it is a beautiful city. it has got so much going for it. it's biggest problem our vacant real --nd the down downward spiral it since these neighborhoods into. it is almost like they can't recover. baltimore has lost a lot of its population. the housing market -- if you are being priced out of the housing market in d.c., i would say moved to baltimore. it is a short train ride away. of the houses are incredible.

there is so much to appreciate in baltimore. host: what do you do in baltimore? caller: i work in d.c.. i am driving to d.c. right now. -- i am asigner designer. host: does not commute work for you? caller: the commute is tough. i was not expecting to do it as much when we moved, but circumstances change. if my job was conducive to taking a train, i would go that route. i have done it before, it is a pleasant trip. being note that affecting my quality of life. if i could do that. -- a workday morning? caller: if i leave at 5:00, it takes an hour. if i leave at 6:00, it takes an hour and a half. if i leave at 7:00, it takes two

hours. it depends on when you leave your door. since i am in landscape, i leave early anyway. i assume you left d.c. to move to baltimore? caller: we left the alexandria area. collegeboys were off to and it was a way for us to trade in on an expensive house and get a less expensive house and pay for their college. that was our main motivator. my husband is a city boy, he always wanted to return to the city. he grew up in washington, but washington was -- there was no way to come out with college tuition if we moved to washington. what was the reaction in presidentwhen the sent out his tweets and made his comments about your city?

caller: baltimore is a fairly liberal city. general don't like anything that comes out of his mouth. everything he says is so ridiculous that it is hard. you don't want to pay attention to it because you feel like you are paying attention to the bad kid in the room. tantrums, yourd should ignore them. that is how i feel. i have not really talk to my neighbors about it. everything that comes out of his mouth is not really worth discussing. unfortunately, we have to. the only other problem with baltimore, which is correctable and is probably a problem in a

their cities is they let tree canopy go. it adds to the heat effect, and the global warming. about have got to think canopies.their tree washington has been good about that. it will improve the quality of life in poor neighborhoods. who suffer from asthma and don't have air conditioning. the hot neighborhoods in baltimore can be something like 12-15 degrees hotter than the shaded neighborhoods. on a day when it is 90 degrees or 100 degrees, that makes a big difference. host: washington d.c. is doing well with that issue, what are some other cities that you think are doing that issue well? outside ofave lived

washington, and baltimore. ,ities that are so built up parts of new york that are so built up there is no room for trees. that is not good. central park helps a lot. areas like brooklyn have a lot of trees. that is a problem i have to live in to analyze. looking ate were houses in baltimore, i could not live in certain areas that were nice [applause] there just weren't any trees. at pictures of the highest crime neighborhoods, you won't see -- i think that affects mental health and everything. i am a tree hugger, so take that with a grain of salt. you can listen on your commute on the free c-span radio app. you can download that on

c-span.org. also on the radio in the d.c. 90.1 fm. host: go ahead anthony, what is the top issue in san diego. caller: white supremacy and white racism. host: how are you seeing that in san diego? i am seeing a rise in white hatredtant emanating from all parts of the county. donald trump is a racist. the policies he advocates are racist. the issue in this country is not immigration. it is not the economy. it is not any other issue, ok?

people need to understand this. host: how long have you lived in san diego? caller: all my life. host: give me an example that you have seen of the uptick of the white supremacy that you are talking about. county, there is different parts, different areas -- a small city near san diego is very racist. host: how have you seen that in action? the people there -- it is all over the county. .hey say bigoted comments they make certain statements that would tick people off. host: do you try to engage or interact with them about this issue? caller: sometimes i try to educate them on people of color.

disengagei have to because it could lead to open conflict. is, in order to stop these problems of the mass shootings, what we need to be doing is embracing racial love and less race hatred. we have to start with the truth. the true history of this country -- host: more of your phone calls. talking about the issues in your city throughout the next two hours. we will also during that time be talking with columnists, editorial writers, at four major newspapers. we will start that conversation us thisth -- joins morning from detroit. she is an editorial page editor with detroit news.

what would you say is the number one issue facing detroit? guest: thanks for having me. a quick note, i am deputy editorial page editor. the two biggest issues i see are poverty and education. poverty and education. those have been the leading two issues. i think the city is starting to make progress on those two -- two fronts. those are top challenges facing detroit. to --how are they trying the poverty and education issue? detroit is the biggest u.s. city with the biggest -- poorest city in the country. only 25% of city residents are

considered middle-class. been a leading challenge for the city. even as areas surrounding downtown are seeing resurgence. a lot of exciting things going on in detroit right now. a lot of families in city neighborhoods are not feeling that yet. been a lot of leadership change in city government that has directed more resources to those neighborhoods. and offered basic services like picking up garbage, turning on street. our current mayor has made major strides in terms of making the city feel safer. interns of schools, detroit has had for over a decade the worst

urban school system in the country. students in detroit consistently scored lowest on national standardized tests. that has been a deterrent to new families coming in. there are millennials in detroit who moved downtown after college. they love the city. when it came time to starting a family, they thought of moving out of downtown because they did not trust the city schools. there is a new superintendent of schools. she is doing a good job as far as revamping the curriculum. putting new standards in place for teachers. i think things are slowly starting to change. those are just two deeply entrenched problems in detroit. the national assessment of educational progress where

detroit ranked dead last. that ranking came out in 2018. to fix the problem you have to define what the problem is. what did the new superintendent .2 as the cause for so many years of low rankings in the educational system? hit thattroit has lowest ranking since 2009. it has been a long time. the new superintendent took cover two years ago, and he has -- look atwn answering that question. a lot of the schools they didn't even have a curriculum. he is putting in place a new math -- new reading standards. he came from a very successful district in florida. he is bringing a lot of that experience with him to detroit.

problems facing detroit students go beyond the schools. in detroitf students public school system are chronically absent. worldst teachers in the aren't going to be able to help kids who are not in their classroom. beenuperintendent has putting a lot of emphasis on helping get kids in school. trying to draw issues surrounding transportation. . surrounding kids with the support they need to stay in school. is thengrid jacques deputy director of detroit news. we saw candidates in and around the city. what issues did they choose to highlight when they were there that were specifically targeted toward the city of detroit? guest: we would have liked to

hear them say more talking about issues fake -- facing detroit. for instance, the subject of schools really didn't come out much at all. i think that was a missed opportunity. think i did not hear a lot coming from the candidates that to thee super helpful issues specifically facing detroit residents. somenk there have been governments outreach coming from the trump administration with the tax overhaul. there were opportunities that were created to give capital gains tax breaks to incentivize investment. i think those are starting to --

some results. i think detroit has a lot of on the ground efforts among the business community here. -- to work with the schools. and to work with residents as far as addressing the issue of poverty, unemployment, and really working to get more detroit residents skills to be able to step into jobs. there is a lot of development going on downtown, but it has been frustrating to see that even though these businesses want to hire detroiters, a lot of the detroit residents either don't have the skills, the education to step in and of those roles. i think the business community has really stepped up to try to fill those gaps. it would be nice if the federal government could partner with

cities like detroit to really boost the educational and job opportunities that would help solve those problems surrounding poverty. detroitmind viewers why declared bankruptcy back in 2013, and what the impacts are today from that. becomedetroit had insolvent. was theg bankruptcy only option that our former governor rick snyder felt like he could turn to. she put a state appointed emergency manager in place that led to the city through bankruptcy. to go through something major a lot of -- it took state, cityamong

officials. union said to make compromises. dhey formed this grant bargain. the city has been on much more solid footing. our new mayor came on as the city was going through bankruptcy. has done a solid job. he and the city council, putting in policies that should keep detroit on a more secure financial footing. host: you are the deputy editorial page editor at the detroit news, what are one or two city issues that is being highlighted on the editorial pages this week? guest: i have written about challenges facing schools in , but also urban

areas that are facing challenges. the governor has recommended closing down its high school because of falling enrollment. what is going on in detroit is not alone in the state. ingrid jacques from detroit news. we appreciate your time. guest: thanks for having me. host: we are continuing to take your phone calls as we talk about issues facing cities around the country. our topic for today's washington journal. all three hours devoted to this topic. we are hearing you on phone lines for city residents only. if you're in the eastern or central united states, it is (202) 748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific regions, it is (202) 748-8001. ingrid jacques just then

mentioning the issue of opportuniti -- opportunity zones in detroit. that is one of the key efforts the trump administration has touted. president trump brought up the issue of zones in an interview at the end of last month when he talked about what he is doing for minorities in this country. here's a little bit from that interview. [video clip] ? if you look at what i have done for african-americans. president obama tried so hard to get it, he could not get it. you look at opportunity zones, and look out -- opportunity zones are tremendous success. we did that as an experiment. i think it is one of the most successful things ever done for inner cities. so many other people dead. it is -- it has really become a great success. thebiggest beneficiary are

african-american population. it is incredible what has happened between that criminal justice reform and that's the biggest thing is the lowest unemployment rate in the history of this country for african-americans. lowest in the history by far. it is not even close. more to come this morning about the issuewe're going to sn hour talking about that at 9:00 a.m. you can talk about that issue with us with morgan simon. more of your phone calls though about the issues facing the city you live in. frank lives in oakland. good morning. caller: that's oakland gardens, new york. new york city. it's right near bayside. host: what is the top issue there? here inthe top issue

the city is to get the illegal guns off the street. every morning i wake up and i least one or at two shootings somewhere in the area. it is mostly in the black neighborhoods. they are poor and all, but you've got 14, 15-year-old kids carrying guns. we had to stop and frisk, and it was working. .f course, they don't like it if i was a hard-working black an poor blackin area, i would want that. i wouldn't want my children to get killed senselessly just by walking home from school. that is a very big issue in the city. is stop and frisk the only way to do this? strict -- we have

strict gun laws. i have had a permit for over 30 years. i had to wait six months to get it. we are very strict. but we do a new -- they should put what we do in new york through the whole country. that still does not stop the illegal guns. host: what do you think about a ban on assault rifles? is that something you think should happen? caller: absolutely. there is no reason for them to be anywhere. forget about the rural areas, there is no elephants in this country. who goes shooting elephants with a gun like that? that is strictly for the military. nobody should be carrying them anywhere near populated areas. in oaklandis frank gardens, new york. the editorial board of -- today

taking on the issue in their lead editorial saying ban the sale of these weapons. military style rifles purchased employed in the latest american shootings are formidable killing machines. the call for an assault weapons were --ng from -- there 653 injured according to stats provided by every town for gun safety. they look at some of the deadliest modern mass shootings. parkland, las vegas, orlando, newtown. six of the 10 deadliest modern mass shootings where assault style rifles were used. if you want to read usa today's lead editorial, that is where you will find that information. back to your phone calls. norman in indianapolis. caller: i don't know about top

issues. first of all, i want to compliment you on your new format. you are doing a crackerjack job. host: which format are you talking about? caller: you yourself are different from the guy who is normally there. [laughter] host: we change of those quite a bit. go ahead, tell me about indianapolis. caller: we happen to live on the route of the newest rapid transit. it starts its operations september 1. i have mixed feelings about it. i am sure it is good for the city. since we can only enter our drive when we are headed south on the street, or we only have to go south, it is a bit of a disadvantage. some of the houses have access directly to the alley. i suppose we could open up a way to get to the alley. we are old enough that i don't

think changing that kind of thing is appropriate. this system is much like the one that was newer in albuquerque. some folks think that system works well, others are disillusioned. 's traffic and congestion a big issue in indianapolis? caller: certainly in the street now. taking out a couple lands in the middle. we will see. goingnot know how it is to operate in the long run. host: they took some of the lanes out of the middle, is that for bike lanes? caller: no. we had bike lanes developed, but this is mass ranjit. -- mass transit. host: would you ever take one? caller: since i am not employed

i don't have much reason to take a bus downtown. i am stuck with my vehicle. host: how long have you lived in indianapolis. caller: we lived in the same house for 50 years. host: have you thought about moving? caller: my wife has been ready for a long time. what keeps you in indianapolis besides the stuff? caller: i think it is a good city as compared to some. i think the mayor should be complemented. he had a high salary as the u.s. attorney, he gave that up. he is doing a very good job. the man who is posing him is a republican senator. probably not a bad person but i think you will have a hard time being reelected. beverly is next.

bedford, ohio. what is the big issue in bedford, ohio? caller: i guess you have heard the expression strike while the iron is hot? i will go for that to what the president said because everybody tells the truth sometimes. he told the truth about the cities. , the graffitis and the trash. thatshould put up signs fine you if you throw trash on the ground. if you graffiti of the walls, they should put up signs and enforce those fines. the problem is the parents. the parents don't raise the

children correctly. it does not take money to pick up trash. you don't have to pay a dime to pick up trash, but people don't pick up trash. they throw the trash down and expect the taxpayer to pick up the trash. these parents should raise these children. we would not have all these problems. i think that is all i'm going to say, thank you. host: beverly from bedford, ohio. here is a story about trash in the city of new york. this from the new york times earlier this week. to give you a sense about the issue of trash in new york, some 12,000 tons of trash are thrown away every day in new york. uniformed sanitation that trashl -- haul away. decade, newt

yorkers have been throwing away less. trash collection was down to 3 million tons. the new york times in that story deciding to publish some of the twitter and facebook photos that people talk about trash on the streets of new york. that story from yesterday's paper if you want to take a look. marcia out of portland, oregon. caller: hello. it is nice to see you again. portland, i would say we have gentrification -- i believe portland is the most gentrified city in the country. we also have the homeless problem that has gotten out of control. the messes that these people are beyondg in the city is

anything i have ever seen. in the 90's, i used to volunteer with potluck in the park. it was local homeless people, and every bun -- everyone knew them and watched out for them. the homeless now are from other states. i guess they are coming here because of the legalized marijuana. is hazmat city. i have never seen anything -- it is like something out of the medieval days. that ourhersome representatives -- oregon is i amanti-trump, but wondering what is going on. the things trump is saying about

the cities -- people are angry. at the same time, i am hoping that trump says something about portland because we need attention. host: on the gentrification about can you talk more how you are seeing that and when you first noticed it? i was born in portland and i lived in europe for a few years. portlandme back, always has been very red lined and segregated. its get that straight. really started in the 2000s's. there would be people moving -- we had the northeast side. that is where they said the black people lived. they have the southwest where blacks weren't allowed there

until the 90's. people started moving over and they were buying the cheap property. refurbishing places, and doing things like that. there was a person who would buy .ll this property this is what i heard, don't quote me, but he would buy this charge rent.then they would say, say it was 1980 and the rent was $250, they would ask for $600. if a caucasian came to look, they would say it's 650, but if you pay on time it is $325. so they were bringing people into the neighborhood like that.

i watched the neighborhoods go to now it isested completely full. my issue is a lot of people don't want to integrate. of businessany kind poncho is the last place i have seen close. it is a longtime hispanic where the kids would go and buy snacks. he has gone down. gone now. all of the barbecue place is gone. zero. the: portland number two on list of seattle times of the most gentrifying cities in the united states. this list looking at the percentage of census tract areas

and were low income in 2000 comparing those 22 -- undergoing gentrification. washington dc, the most gentrifying city. track3.7% of the senses considered to be gentrified. denver fifth, charlston sixth, austin seventh month boston eighth, and rounding out the top 10 richmond. taking your phone calls. talking to city residents only. we want to hear about your top issues. it is (202) 748-8000 if you are a city resident in the eastern time zones. (202) 748-8001 if you are a city resident in the mountain or pacific time zones. frank is in delaware. millsboro is doing fine.

any place you find democrats running something, you're going to have a lot of issues. very good ate spending other people's money. they run a city into the ground. i lived in baltimore and i got the hell out of there. i change parties and i've been happy ever since. host: when did you leave baltimore? caller: in the 70's. host: what kind of work did you do? --.er: i worked at fell's point, marilyn. i looked at my taxes, every time they needed money they used to come. they always want to spend the nothingd they don't get accomplished. at the end of the rainbow they say were broke. can you give us more money? it oregon, ending be delaware, california, they

always want more money. host: as a former baltimore resident, what was your reaction to the presidents tweets and comments two weeks ago about baltimore? caller: he is correct. that has been going on for years. money from a much it is never enough. nothing ever gets done. host: that is frank, former baltimore resident. we are having this conversation today about the state of u.s. cities. in the wake of the president's comments about baltimore and other cities. many ofident making those comments in a rally in cincinnati. here is more from the president about his concerns about u.s. cities. [video clip] the democrat record is one of neglect and decay. the democrats have taxed and regulated jobs and opportunity

out of these cities and out of existence. they have squeezed the blood out of them. left-wing mayors and city councils have opposed school choice. trapping children in failing government schools left and right. -- you of these mayors know where they are? if they are in jail. [applause] host: that was president trump from earlier this month in cincinnati. you can keep calling and as we talk to city residents only. again, phone lines split up by city residents in eastern time zones, and those in mountain and pacific. we are also having conversations with columnists, op-ed writers at major city newspapers. we continue that conversation now with mark brown. from the chicago set -- joined

the chicago sun-times in 1982. began writing a column in the year 2000. what has been the most important change that happened in chicago in that time? well, i think probably is ourgest change situation is going in two ways. we've got a younger more affluent group of people moving into the city and they are moving into a part of the city a large groupve of mostly african-americans who are fleeing the city because of the problems in their community. violence, unemployment, schools. host: talk about the issue of

violence particularly gun violence in this country. we've seen a couple shootings in the city of chicago just since those mass shootings that took place in el paso, in ohio. what is the city doing about this ongoing issue of gun violence in chicago? the city is doing a little bit of everything. , programs, trying different methods of policing. it's a very deep very complicated situation. we talk about gangs and drugs and certainly that's a large part of it. but it's something that goes deeper. after community is exposed to that much violence it's almost

like a contagion. it spreads. becomes a way of dealing with problems. and that's a really entrenched problem, and entrenched situation that you just can't deal with why throwing more police into the community. host: in the wake of dayton and el paso we have had plenty of conversations with callers on this program about the issue of gun violence. one last week and set on this program that chicago is proof that strict gun laws don't work. what would be your response to that caller? guest: i know they always say that. guns usedmber of the in crimes in chicago come from other states where the gun laws are lax. in prepping to come on here this morning i was told what do we

need. we could really benefit from a federal government that took posed by the danger guns and anybody's hands. a lot of our criminals go over to indiana to buy guns. up from the guns come mississippi. i'm not saying it's just a gun control problem. it goes on a lot of different levels. good start toa have a federal government that the danger posed to the community by the guns. host: you've covered city politics for a long time as a reporter and in your columns. his city politics different in chicago than other cities in this country? >> unfortunately i've only been a reporter in two places. iowa and here.

feel.on't have a good we pride ourselves unfortunately on having the most corrupt politicians. everybody wants to claim that we are the most corrupt. there's certainly a part of that that's true. chicago is a unique place. because of our segregation. sort of historically imposed that it feeds into this. we have a city that's thriving for many people. it's a beautiful place. a lot of prosperity. then you have another part of that is not sharing in that benefit and in fact seems to be going in the other direction.

that plays out in our politics. there's always a schism in our politics and part of it is racial unfortunately. host: on the corruption issue it was february of this year that the university of illinois at chicago name to chicago as one of the most corrupt cities in the united states based on federal corruption convictions from 1976 to 2017. what is the basis for that and why does it keep going on to such a degree in chicago? guest: [laughter] well, in chicago and in illinois in particular, government has always -- it's a business. people are in it to make money unfortunately. are our people inherently more corrupt, i don't know.

they are always looking for ways to make a buck on the side. that's what leads to this. if we can figure out how to stop it, we would. punishas an effort to one of our great offenders, the governor of illinois, rod blagojevich. now the president of the united states says we ought to let him out. we sent him to prison too long. 14 years. the president thinks seven years is enough. what is the solution? i don't know. brown, columnist at the chicago sun-times. he often writes about the issue of homelessness in the city of chicago. we have had a couple of callers this morning talk about the issue of homelessness in their own cities. what have you learned covering homelessness for so long? guest: i've learned a lot about that.

i've learned that homeless people are mostly people just like you and me and they are not to be feared. they are people who may be they are a little weaker in some respects. caught a bad break. having mental illness problems. havea job and just didn't the family support system to pull themselves up. a lot of mental illness as i said it also a lot of substance abuse. where does it begin and end? we have a lot of people in this country that unfortunately for frank and millsboro they need to be propped up a little. programs that help people have affordable housing, keep a roof over their head, that's all

it's a lot of other problems in our society. host: is chicago doing that? is it doing well on the issue of homelessness and affordable housing? has a real need for affordable housing right now. we closed down all of the projects. the high-rise projects. become those had weren'tdden and they healthy places for people to live. we can argue about whether we should have done that or not. in these folks are neighborhoods. a lot of them are having trouble making it. the city does not really have enough money to solve the housing problem of that sort. it's the sort of thing where you need to look to the federal government for help. homelessness, we don't have a

great deal of street homelessness in chicago compared to some other cities but we have what we call the doubling up problem where a lot of families are forced living together, short periods of time and then off to live with the other relative because they can't afford a place of their own. that's a major source of our homelessness. times.com if. sun you want to read dark browns column. what's your next column going to be about? guest: i've got a politician i'm working on. host: we appreciate your time this morning. as weo your phone calls talk with city residents only about your top issues. give us a call on phone lines. eastern and central time zones (202) 748-8000. mountain and pacific time zones (202) 748-8001.

we will head back to detroit this morning. glenn. good morning. caller: hello. i've been listening for years and never called in but i had to call in this morning because i heard the interview with a woman from the detroit news and you asked her a question about why the school system had problems for so long. she kind of danced around that issue. 1999 ourll you back in previous mail colton alexander young came to the people and said we have to help out our schools by getting a bond. we approved a 1.5 billion dollar bond. time coleman young became ill and could no longer serve as mayor. we got dennis archer in. he didn't have half the fight that coleman young had. who wasgot a governor

detroit,-- the city of had $93 million of rainy day fund. he was not going to allow us to have that money. they put a hold on that until they got the person in place and then they came in talking about the schools were bad and the schools need to be taken over and that's the twenty-year of republican governor in our business taking over our money and that's why the school is in the state it's in. in prior to the takeover that your guest didn't say detroit news, the company she works for, gave detroit schools a passing grade saying that the test scores had gone up and there was no need for any

takeover at that time. all they were interested in is the $1.5 billion bond and the $93 million rainy day fund. host: are you a product of choice schools? fromr: i came up here louisiana my senior year of high school and i went to a school called mumford high. about youralked concern of republican governors in the state. one of our followers tweeted in about detroit and education. is 60 years of democratic control. democrats at the helm of every elected and appointed office and this is the result. caller: no. i'm going to tell you now. when coleman young was mayor and he came in detroit, after the riot and 67.

things went up. people were moving. we had factories working. we had all these other businesses working. since coleman young was the first black mayor in the united states, suburbanites ran out of here. they packed up and they left. it wasn't because of detroit democrats didn't do anything right. coleman young had a good relationship with the republican governor at the time and they got a lot of things passed and they respected one another for their position. john england started this ball rolling and we had some weak democratic mayors like dennis archer that played along with the game. and i'm telling you right now i'm in the mix of this thing. fromchool that i graduated

, all they did is repainted the schools and now every school that they rebuild all of a sudden these public schools are charter schools. host: what do you think about your current mayor, mike dugan? caller: that's another reason why i called. everywhere he's been, his shadow is the fbi. he has so many skeletons, they are not even in the closet. newspapers like hers will not condemn this guy or the free in detroit will not talk about this guy. if he was a black man, they are on your case. this guy here, everywhere he's been. guy. got records on this this guy should not be mayor

right at this moment. he's not good for detroit. you see they built up downtown. he just made promises. she was talking about the lights. the lights and the trash pickup. we never had a problem with the trash pickup. we did have a problem with the lighting but that was done under mayor dave bing. waiting in is florida. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. cuban.lack this is an interesting perspective. one of our issues here is housing. housing prices. apartments. downtown miami is full of luxury condos. most of them are empty. most of them are bought by international clientele. so right now we have apartments

700 square feet, $1900 a month in downtown miami. income isdian $40,000. a lot of low income wage earners in the miami area. many hispanics. the average income doesn't line up with the housing prices. issue ofave the traffic. a lot of traffic so if you want to get away from having to pay $1900 for 700 square feet, you have to basically commute for an hour and a half. now there's this boondoggle of this double-decker bridge that is going to close streets and make things worse. real interesting the housing situation in downtown miami. host: what part of miami do you live in? caller: i'm right downtown. i'm a professional. hard.ke $80,000 and it's i also understand that it's not

fair. andle have to work two three jobs or commute an hour and a half every day. host: do you mind saying how or your pay in rent mortgage? month: i'm paying $1400 a just because i kind of was one of those trailblazers that came into downtown when it was blighted and full of homeless people and it was really close to a black area called overtown. it's all being gentrified. there's just a gluttony of luxury high-rises. are two or three blocks away from blighted areas and they are looking at $5 million for a two bedroom luxury unit. we are not even sure who buys them because they are surrounding me. did thatn gentrification start happening in miami?

caller: i would say 10 years ago. i've been in this building for 20 years. no one wanted to move here because it was so close to what they call overtown, a really black part of town. but i saw the potential and i knew miami was going to grow. it's just that i'm not really sure about our politicians and the plans that they make and the arrangements they make with these developers because they are not building housing for us. when there is elderly housing creating by a lot of the republican cubans, i'm a democrat cuban and i'm a black cuban so maybe that's why i have a different perspective. give theeems like they affordable housing to their relatives and then when i tried to get my mother into one there's all these hoops. do withit has to racism. even though we are cuban and it has sometimes open some doors

for us because of that unfortunately, it's not a level playing field. difficult and really disconcerting that $40,000 is what families make here and they are asking for $1900 for 700 square feet. host: thanks for the call from miami, florida. on the issue of gentrification, karen writes on twitter the downside of gentrification, unaffordable housing for those that work at low-wage jobs and those that keep the city going. the phone numbers if you want to join in, we are talking to city residents only. the eastern orin central time zones. in the mountain or pacific time zones. having this conversation throughout our entire program this morning so please do keep calling in if the phone lines are busy.

hear about the top issues in your city and how your city is working on those issues. we will go to berwyn, illinois. caller: the reporter you had from chicago, i don't know where he's looking in chicago but he didn't even mention the primary problem with it. it's our one-party system. this town has been democratic since only to larry's cow kicked over the lantern. a republican can even get on a ticket to run in this town. claim a want to world-class city by the democrats. we have a $180 billion deficit for the pension fund. the democrats have destroyed this town. , sanctuary cities, they bring in the illegals. youe's a lot of places can't walk where you use to.

west berwyn just to the side of chicago. how long have you lived there? caller: 40 years. host: has it always been democratic-controlled in chicago in the time you have been there? caller: yes. host: what is a republican like yourself to do? caller: i'm an independent. you don't have much to do. i still put my vote in. i vote every time there's an election. but it's of no consequence. already know the results of the election. people talk about paper ballots. in chicago that's really devastating. i remember when we had paper ballots. the election was going the wrong way. all of a sudden they would find a storage area where they had more ballot boxes and they turns the election. but it always turned to the democrats. jeff is in indianapolis. good morning.

caller: thank you for taking my call. i've been in indianapolis resident for almost 25 years now. the economy here is pretty decent. 3.6%. there are plenty of jobs here. the things is that the population is actually growing. it's not decreasing. because of the job situation here. but one of the main problems here in annapolis is the violence and the crime situation. and our public school situation here. host: do you think the city of indianapolis is addressing those problems? caller: they are trying to address the issue. just like in other areas of the

country, one of the problems with the crime situation, it is a microcosm of some of the social problems that are going families in of particular areas of the city. have aeas of the city lot of single-parent homes. and it is very hard to raise a child when you are a single parent. and because of that, children raised and they tend to gravitate towards violence and criminal activity because the majority of the homicides and the shootings around here are being committed by the younger males. host: how is the relationship and thethe police community in indianapolis, particularly trust issues in

minority communities? caller: kind of because of what has gone on with the police shootings across the country and the black lives matter movement and stuff like that, there is some distrust between the community and the police. i'm a person who supports the police department department 100%. who is faira person and just because you have a few bad apples in the police department doesn't mean the whole police department is bad. police have a very tough job to do. we want them to go into the worst neighborhoods in america and provide protection to the community when half the people in these neighborhoods don't even trust the police. you: we've been showing some of what both the president and democratic presidential candidates have been saying about issues in communities and cities around this country. recently mayor pete buttigieg

was speaking to the national urban league and talked about the issue of racism in this country and some of his concerns and what he has seen while traveling around the united states. here is what he said. >> i met some young high schoolers who were studying stem as part of an amazing program in chicago. really impressive young minds. hopeful about the future. they are also sharing with me experiences they were having with racism in school today. in the midwest. they're supposed to do about the stereotypes that are holding them back. and it's a reminder that if you are black and america right now, your experience puts you effectively in a different country. for so many people. if what you have to say in the hospital about the pain you are experiencing is less likely to be believed. if a resume that you send is less likely to get a call back. if redlining has first hand you into a certain neighborhood and now gentrification is pushing

you out of it. likelyare four times as to be arrested for the same offense as a white person. you are living in a different country. and i think for too long we have believed that we were on a path where systemic racism was going to take care of itself in this country. i'm going to be speaking about these issues not only with mostly black audiences but with mostly white audiences. because white america needs to wake up to this. my own city has seen the limitations of the progress we can make as long as we are in the shadow of systemic racism and my own city is not alone. it is a national problem that requires national solutions. and as a country we've learned the hard way that you can't just take a racist structure, replace it with a neutral structure and expect all the inequality to wash its way out of the system over time. it doesn't work that way because a lot of these inequities got

put in intentionally. therefore it will require intention and resources in order to reverse them. buttigieg before the national urban league at a recent conference they held. we are hearing from you this morning. city residents only. let's go to johnstown, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: hello. i lived in pittsburgh for two years. pittsburgh has never had in my lifetime a republican mayor and it's one of the shining examples of cities in the united states, it's considered one of the most livable cities and it's always had a democratic government. and i'm a proud democrat and i aink that you can't make blanket statement about democrats versus republicans running a government. a lot of it has to do with state governments and things like that. johnstown is close to pittsburgh. the best mayor we ever had here georgeemocrat, dr.

waller from 19 60 to 1964. cleaned up the town. did a lot of good things in this area. unfortunately because he was a , theysor at you pj -- upj gave him an ultimatum that he had to either teach or be mayor so he went back to teaching. to mention pittsburgh because pittsburgh is a shining example of a city that's been a democratic city as long as i've been on this planet i think and i'm 77-year-old. -- years old. it's a tremendous city. host: the president yesterday at in pennsylvania speaking the petrochemical complex in minorca, pennsylvania. is that how you say it? i think we lost john.

there's the pictures showing the president touring that shell petrochemicals complex there yesterday. when is next in birmingham, alabama. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm from birmingham, alabama. i'm offended that you are focusing on cities just because donald trump is saying this. we've got to focus on the rural areas also. host: tomorrow we are going to spend time talking to rural americans only about their top issues and we are going to set aside the phone lines just for them. i promise if you tune in tomorrow you will see that as well. go ahead. i'm an avid c-span listener and caller. i was a little offended with that because donald trump is making this like it's only in the cities. you've got methamphetamines in the rural areas. you've got opioid use. people that are on drugs and not

living any better than we are in the cities. like the gentleman just called in from pittsburgh, we have in cities that may be a state government needs to get more involved in and everything. we don't want donald trump to make this out of back people -- black people in the city. that's what he's doing it i don't like the statement he made yesterday that said the crime in the black community. let's get over this. because we have black people that are living wealthy. all of us are not on food stamps. this prison reform thing, all of us have not been to prison. i've never been and not planning on going because i am a law-abiding citizen so let's get over donald trump's talking points. host: that's gwen in birmingham, alabama. we will be talking with rural americans only tomorrow. we are talking about citizens today and showing you some of the comments that some of the presidential candidates have and one ofcities

those presidential candidates, new york city mayor bill de blasio. here is some of his statements about new york city from his stump speech at the iowa state fair. >> the nation's largest city. i have to tell you when i ran for mayor, i said we could make big changes. and there were many doubting thomases. the remaining naysayers. we put through the kinds of things that change people's lives and we did it fast. in just two years time, we gave pre-k to every child for free. do you think we need that in iowa? do we need that all over america? minimum wage to hard-working people. and we need that in this country because people should not work so hard and not be able to make ends meet. folks paid sick leave to who are working and they didn't have that paid sick leave they

would have to choose between going to the doctor or earning a day's pay. i will tell you two more things i'm very proud of. hundreds of thousands of people who needed health insurance and weren't getting them, we decided to do something for them and now in new york we are guaranteeing health care for anyone who does not have health insurance. we are guaranteeing it. a healthving people care card to make sure they can get a primary care doctor in public hospitals and clinics. we want people to go to the doctor, not to end up in the emergency room. we are doing that in new york. you can do that all over this country. host: bill de blasio this past weekend. skype byined via margaret o'mara, a history professor and contribute in opinion writer for the new york times. opinion writer

for the new york times. his old applause use administration -- is bill de blasio's administration addressing it? >> he's really talking about the social safety net programs that new york has really been struggling to fulfill for a long time. this is something that a lot of cities have been wrestling with. they are very large. they have large populations of people with very high incomes. and also a large population of people with low incomes who have not been as well served by social services at the local level as they might have in the past. problem isbiggest about addressing poverty and crime. but new york's problem is a lot of problem that a lot of big cities have which is that it's very prosperous. there's a lot of money there. and it's often squeezing people

out. host: who is it squeezing out? >> it's squeezing out the working class and poor people that dip lazio's programs like toversal pre-k are seeking target and create more equity. but also middle-class and a broadly defined middle-class. cities like new york and san francisco. cities like seattle. really grappling with affordable housing problems. talking about gentrification. this is something that cities from across the country are wrestling with. host: you mentioned joining us from the west coast. serve as a history professor. one of the courses you taught i believe last year is called the city. focused on the forces shaping the future in the past of u.s. cities. those forces, do you focus economic,cultural,

political forces? what are the key forces shaping cities today? >> it's a combination of all three. that's one of the things that makes some of these challenges really hard to address. how marketssue is and governments work together and we really see this vividly in new york. new york has always been a city driven by real estate. a lot of the things that are shaping and reshaping new york urban landscape as well as the landscape of other large american cities have to do with how land is being redeveloped and who is profiting from it. host: who is profiting from it in new york? >> one of the things that has been in the news the last couple of years is the opportunity zones program that was part of the big tax reform bill of 2017. this is a really interesting initiative. we don't hear a lot about

bipartisanship in washington, d.c. these days but this is a truly bipartisan initiative. you have people like cory booker of new jersey as well as a range policymakers and business leaders who have supported it. the organization that really drove the whole idea was founded by sean parker who was an early investor and board member and executive of facebook among other things. in addition to cities partially because i am based on the west coast i study high-tech industry. the tech industry is also shaping and reshaping urban growth. host: i know in addition to your work as a professor and opinion writer and author, your latest book the code, silicon valley and the remaking of american opinion -- america.

by cities to become the next silicon valley. how has that shaped the development of some of the cities on the east and west coast and in the middle of america as well? >> all over. it's been going on for a long time. i talked to economic development officials in any major city and over the past several decades there has been a real push to figure out how we can get some of these high-paying high-tech jobs. you bring in these educated workers. they are getting paid fat salaries. they are also paying taxes. really in the last couple of years one thing that a lot of this attention focused on was amazon's announcement that it was going to have a competition to find an hq 2. new york was very much part of that story. you had 237 places around the

country all the way from detroit even though it already has an hq for amazon. it already shows how much hunger there is for this high-tech development. the response to it and how it played out politically including and especially in new york showed how there is now a kind of reassessment of whether having these large tech companies come to town is entirely a good thing. your what would be prediction for what's going to happen in d.c., where amazon is building that second headquarters just outside the city in the arlington area across the potomac river? how do you think that will change d.c. and the surrounding area? >> i think it's really interesting. i'm so excited to watch and see what happens. it's not really clear. what's already clear in d.c. as well as in new york which amazon

ended up pulling out from, there are already high-tech cities to some degree. it isn't just on the west coast like seattle and the bay area. now you have thousands of tech workers in places already. it will change things but perhaps not as much as we might expect. we will see. o'mara is aet professor and author. we appreciate you getting up early for us on the west coast this morning. back to your phone calls. we are hearing from city residents only. we want to hear about the main topics driving the discussion in your city. we will head to mansfield, ohio. shirley is waiting period -- is waiting. caller: my problem with my hometown, a small place where i live in ohio, is the mayors. we've had mayors come through saying we don't want any more

union jobs. countryion jobs run the at that time years ago. who wanted toor get rid of all the union workers. we have no factories left. the biggest thing we had was general motors but they are no longer here which i thought they would never leave. i blame the mayors for a lot of this stuff. like, it's like a friend and family thing in our town. it's not hiring ordinary citizens. another thing in our town is housing. affordable housing for people. seniors and single parents. we don't have a whole lot of jobs. down ourjust tearing town and not building anything else. they have not built anything here in years except to sell to senior

citizens. i blame the mayors and the city councils for a lot of the stuff that goes on in these cities. even small cities. it's their fault. we have a lot of bars and pubs and wineries and things. that just contributes to the problems of drugs and alcohol. thisat's all i have to say morning. thank you for c-span. next fromin is chicago. good morning. caller: good morning. a kind of we've got funny -- the book used to say there are no children here. goingntrification we are through is just a deconstruction of all the housing projects. you have these old houses selling for nothing and developing into million-dollar townhomes. we are notorious for our crime. now all of our crime is in certain areas and the rest of it nobody can afford to live here. i'm a garbageman. we do very well and i can't

afford to live in the city. not even close. an hour away is the closest i can afford to live. host: how long have you been around chicago and have you ever lived in the city? >> i'm 39. i was born and raised here. we used to live in an area called rogers park which would be considered medium income. we lived there in the 1980's. my parents sold and moved an hour and a half away in 1999 and i stayed around renting. that the other thing. people that live in the city want to be around the bar scene, the lights, all of that. a lot of young couples, no kids. the schools here are terrible. they move to the suburbs and do the suburban thing out there. the people who can afford the prices either have really high-paying jobs or two adults and no kids. host: you said you have kids yourself. caller: baidu. they are away at college.

both of them are older. host: do you think they will come and live in chicago? caller: my daughter showed interest in moving down to north carolina and my son wants to go somewhere warm because they are sick of the winters here. they live in a really nice suburb with their mother when they are back home from college about an hour away and they like it there but i think they are looking for something better than illinois. host: what are they studying? what kind of work to they want to do out of college? caller: daughter is a senior and she's doing food chemistry and my son is a freshman and he's -- he wants to be a cpa. think they will go to cities where they graduate wherever they go? is that where the jobs are for graduates now? yeah.: i think for food chemists california would be a really good place to go. i told her you can go wherever you want as long as you don't work for monsanto. my son likes the suburban

lifestyle. my daughter would be right in an inner-city somewhere. i can tell by raising them for 20 years that's kind of what they are looking for. host: thank you for the view from chicago. we will head to cincinnati. thomas. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to talk about cincinnati, ohio. issue is it seems like every time a republican is elected, the roads just are horrible and they have no kind of program or incentive to help the motorists when damage comes to their vehicle. i can see gentrification. is the lack ofue gun control this country. host: what are the gun laws like

in cincinnati? caller: we have conceal and carry. is that does nothing about the black market of weapons. host: that's thomas in cincinnati this morning. we have been looking for your tweets and facebook posts throughout this three hour segment of the washington journal in which we are focusing on city issues. here's a few of them. matthew writing and that albuquerque has a liberal administration so we have a budget surplus and high rates of personal happiness. melissa saying that affordable housing and salaries that keep pace with inflation in the city of austin where rents are insanely high are the issue. also universal health care. kurt, affordable housing here in boston is the issue. we can't afford anything under 300 $50,000. it's expensive for everyone which keeps the prices high.

jacqueline in the newark area saying affordable housing and rising commercial rent improving public transit and accessibility to a decent public education and one more saying i'm in detroit so rent is manageable though rising very quickly. evidently public transportation and walk ability are the issues that people would focus on. we want to hear from you. phone lines for city residents only. we have heard from several folks in baltimore. we will continue with harold. go ahead. caller: hello. good morning. the worst problem that i see as a person who lives in a city is the problem of the mentally ill. and if you remember back to how this all got started with reagan dumping and millions of millions of mentally ill people onto the streets of america and then they all went to the major cities, that has been the major problem and when you look at the crime that is committed and

particularly the bizarre heinous crimes, you are looking at crimes being committed by the mentally ill. then these people go into the prisons where they served their time and they come right back out onto the streets of our cities and continue to create crimes. republicans take some responsibility. the president is the president of all of us so he has a responsibility. as well as everybody else. the other issue was the issue of trash in the cities. when we talk about trash sometimes we forget that trash is a worldwide problem. this is a problem that is happening everywhere and if you look at our oceans which are being choked because of the dumping of trash in the pacific, the atlantic and everywhere. you can't blame inner-city residents for the trash that you becauseheir communities folk and power have just not figured out a way of dealing with trash. host: this is al in baltimore.

caller: i originally grew up in pittsburgh. a gentleman earlier was saying how pittsburgh is such a great city. i went to school in pittsburgh. went to college right outside of it. when i came back there were no jobs for minorities. the majority of individuals i do you school with -- see, virginia and d.c. area. a say that pittsburgh is such livable city et cetera i think is a farce. pittsburgh,i see in not enough minority hiring, development, the blight on the city. every time i come home to my parents i am so thankful that i'm no longer in that city. a lot of people need to know a lot of these cities aren't thriving especially under democratic rule because they will not be inclusive to certain minorities. that's the only comment i had to say.

host: what your thoughts on baltimore? caller: baltimore has its problems but baltimore receives a lot more bad press than it does good. there are several portions of baltimore city that are thriving but you never hear about that. you only hear about the murder and crime rate. as far as the area surrounding, it's probably one of the richest areas in the country. median household income of $82,000 or more. media missed reports baltimore but it has its problems just like a lot of other places. host: thanks for the call from baltimore this morning. we are going to head out to the west coast this morning. sam is in san pedro, california. good morning. caller: good morning p host: with the top issue in san pedro and los angeles? caller: pretty much in los angeles county is we've had rent control for years and years and

anywhere where you have rent control you have a reduction in housing and a reduction in building. that is not good. i happen to be a landlord. you are aike if landlord you have crosshairs right across your forehead. we are not bad people. we invest a lot of money in housing. we invest a lot of money in improvement. and we provide housing for people. we are told by the city you will at 2% to rent increase 4% per year if you are lucky. you have every agency down your throat. health department, building and safety, imposing all of their wishes and all of their wills. unfortunately if you get a bad tenant in los angeles county, what will happen is they have all the rights at their

fingertips. all the agencies. you could go online and there a ift of things that tell you you are being harassed by your landlord, if you are not being treated fairly. is that it'sns almost impossible to get someone that is a bad tenant out of units. host: how many units do you own? unit is six and another one is four. tenant cost us upwards to $15,000. we had a recent court ruling and still it's going to go on. host: are your units in downtown l.a.? myorcode downtown l.a. and point to you -- caller: downtown l.a. and my point to you is this.

i was thinking about expanding. i will not do it in rent control at all. everybody that i talk to that's an investor is saying you've got to be out of your mind to invest half a million to a million dollars and then be under the rule of rent control and be placed in the situation where if you do get a bad tenant -- there are bad tenants. tenants that don't pay their bills. ruin yourat apartments. tenants that put the other tenants in harm's way by hoarding and not doing things properly. it is literally impossible to move these people out. so i wish there was a situation where landlords had some sort of rights where if they did have a situation like that there would be a government agency that would help you. host: that's sam in san pedro, california. the issue of affordable housing has come up several times today.

it also came up at the iowa state fair soapbox. one of the candidates who brought up the issue was fully on castro -- julian castro. seen the rents go up tremendously over the last several years. that means we need to do things like invest in housing that is affordable to the middle class, the working poor and the poor. i have a housing plan that would create more affordable housing in small towns and big cities so we can do just that and people can have a safe decent affordable place to live because i will tell you, i see housing as a human right. i don't believe that anybody should sleep on the street. especially our veterans because too many veterans make up the homeless in this country. and i know that we can do it because in the obama administration i along with many others worked hard and we reduced veteran homelessness

between 2010 and 2016 by 47%. that.e washington worked the way that it should and we can do that again. host: julian castro, former secretary of housing and urban development in the obama administration. if you want to see his speech or any of the speeches we have shown you this morning, go to c-span.org and type in the name of the candidate that you want to hear from. phone lines continue to be open as we talk to city residents open -- only. we want to hear about the top issues in your city. (202) 748-8000 eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 mountain and pacific time zones. jared in brooklyn. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a few important issues. i will go over two of them. one of them is new york city has horrible gun laws and the problem is these politicians don't know a thing about guns.

another thing about the affordable housing. the gentleman before. i work for somebody who has affordable housing units and i think that new york city is even worse than san francisco. they only allow owners to put in up to $15,000 and charge tenants about $80 a month for 20 years to get rid of their new things. the way to fix affordable housing is very simple. you cut regulations and allow people to build housing faster and in many more places. supply and demand. simple economics. if you build more housing, the prices will go down. what on the guns issue, don't city leaders in new york understand about guns? caller: they don't understand how guns work. and ar-15 does not mean assault rifle. it stands for the company that makes it. ban are justt to cosmetic features. a collapsible stock, a pistol

grip. those do not change how a weapon works. host: what about high-capacity magazines? is that something you would be ok having a ban on those? caller: that is something to be considered. the problem is what do we decide is a high-capacity magazine? -- rounds is what new york city has and that's way too little. 20 rounds, that sounds fine. but that's not going to happen on its own. if they are willing to do something like allowing 20 round while keepingines other things, i would consider it. host: why is five to little and 20 sound ok in your mind? caller: ok. five, somebody is coming into my house. police take a few minutes to arrive. everyone knows that. i shoot a few times and i have to reload the by that time i'm dead. for theway too little amount of time.

it takes time to reload. host: that's jared in brooklyn, new york. this is raymond in aurora, colorado. caller: good morning. just wanted to chime in with all the people calling in. mainly democrats about how the rents and housing is astronomical in the cities and i'm just sitting back enjoying this thoroughly. knowing that their policies that they voted for has caused a lot in housingtage prices to skyrocket. just said,st guy supply and demand. maybe if we hadn't had 30 million people move into this country in the last decade housing wouldn't be so much. are you concerned about illegal immigration, legal immigration, both?

caller: well, both. it definitely needs to be monitored. they just can't be open-ended. everything is supply and demand. schools, strain on hospitals, strain on roads, strain of course on housing. host: some have called for shutting down not only legal -- illegal immigration but legal immigration. having a moratorium on legal immigration for some period of time. would you go that far? caller: i don't think i heard anything about a moratorium. definitely what they want to do is they want to be a little bit picky.guess maybe like how a lot of countries around the world do.

most countries around the world. if you have a skill they need, you can be fast tracked as a citizen or as an immigrant to that country. we have a lot of jobs. even though the unemployment numbers are low, there are a lot of people who are still out of work and a lot of people who are on disability that shouldn't be on disability that could be doing a lot of thesei think we f that first, before we just have an open border welfare state. host: c-span viewers this week will have heard about the rule changed by the trumpet administration, the effort to discourage immigrants from using social services. this is the story in the washington times today on that topic and looking at the cities and counties that are filing lawsuits over that new rule. the california counties of san francisco and santa clara said

that their own social safety net systems will be affected which gives them standing to sue the trumpet administration. the county has asked a federal judge to step in and halt that policy. we will be talking more about that policy tomorrow on the washington journal but this morning we continue our discussion about cities in the united states and one of the topics that has come up is the trumpet administration's efforts to implement -- trump administration's efforts to implement opportunity zones. we are joined by morgan simon, a contributor with forbes magazine. could you first explain what they are and how they work? guest: thank you for having me. arertunity zones essentially an incentive to bring capital into low income communities. opportunity is an interesting word. it is an opportunity for two communities, investors who can receive significant tax benefits

and ideally for the low income community, that would be the recipient of the capital. making sure that both sides benefit is something that is critical to this equation that will need to be sorted out over the next couple of years. specifics of how this works, governors are given the opportunity to designate up to 25% of low income census tracts to become opportunity zones. been designate so far and over 10% of americans live in opportunity zones. -- 8700 have been designated so far and over 10% of americans live in opportunity zones. there are two benefits you can take advantage of. by investing in an opportunity zone, you can defer and diminished the amount of capital gains owed and if you keep that money in the opportunity zone for over 10 years, then you apsu

capitallly have the gains go to zero. it is a huge tax incentive to invest in these communities. there were not specific standards on what that capital does for those communities. how do we make sure it is really reaching local business, that it is creating quality jobs, ensuring affordability and accessibility of housing. these are some of the pieces that we as investors and immunity members need to be vigilant about so that opportunity zones can maximize their potential. host: morgan simon joining us from san francisco as we talk about opportunity zones. if you have questions about opportunity zones or if you live in one of them or you have them in your city, you can call in and ask your questions in this segment. phone lines are the same, if you are in the eastern or central time zones, (202)-748-8000 is that number. (202)-748-8001 for those who

live in the mountain or pacific time zones. morgan simon, can you explain when the opportunity zones started and why the trump administration believes this is a key way of helping cities in this country? guest: it is important to note that opportunity zones from the beginning have been a bipartisan effort. they happened to be implement during this administration but the original white paper 2015 by the idea was in an aide to president obama at the time. it has been taken up as a bipartisan initiative and ultimately made it into the tax cut and jobs bill of 2016 because of republican scott from south carolina. embraced by sony different parties at looking at ways to getting capital into low income communities. it is not the same as making sure the people are benefiting from it.

on extremes you have projects like the ritz-carlton in portland putting up 140 luxury condos and that gets considered to be an opportunity zone investment because of the zip code. you have other actors like blueprint local working in places like baltimore that are making sure to work neighborhood by neighborhood to ensure community benefit is deep and broad. other actors like the kingdom fund advising on somebody different opportunities to get engaged and make sure that impact is real for communities. host: explain what the term impact washing is. guest: people may be familiar with impact investing, the idea that you can make money and social change at the same time. my firm is an impact investing group. we support families, foundations, cultural influences -- influencers who want their money working for justice. we are conscious of ensuring that every investment has true

impact in what we do. impact watching comes from the idea of -- impact washing comes from the something -- comes from the idea of greenwashing where you make something look environmentally friendly when it really isn't. -- it really depends what that impact is. are you actually empowering low income communities to be part of the process of determining what is helpful for them or are you just coming in and saying what the world will look like? impact washing is what we have to look out for in the context of opportunity zones and the opportunity zone framework was put together as a collaboration between the federal -- the u.s. social enterprise, the impact investment allowance -- investment alliance make sure there would be a way for investors to look at what are the true impacts and how do i make sure i do not participate in impact washing? people have the opportunity to

make sure their investments support their legacy, the way they want to be seen in the community. host: do we have an updated to determine whether the opportunity zones that the trump administration is helping to push are having an impact in those committees? guest: we don't and that is a challenge. is $1.6e -- there billion of potential tax breaks that how do we make sure that is not just tax breaks for billionaires as some of these projects we have seen, and make sure the benefit is staying within communities? there is conversation of the need for real standards, that it is not enough to just say i invested in real estate or business that happened to fall within a particular census tract, but how do i make sure it is serving the community? host: i will let you chat with a few viewers. dorothy is in baltimore, maryland as we talk about opportunity zones. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. caller: where do i start?

first of all, i have lived in baltimore all of my life and i have seen -- i have not seen opportunity zones but i have seen when we had a bunch of other government funding programs such as the enterprise zone were all these grants were given to people or companies and they came in but it did not benefit the community at all. i am hearing about the opportunity zones but my biggest that it ish that is for the investing class, and you do have people who want to be entrepreneurs and would like to make a difference in the community, but anything that is involved in doing this would make it almost impossible for an average person living in baltimore to become a part of it

and to benefit from it. i have so much to talk about today. i enjoy your show. i want to piggyback real quick on the caller who talked about the greenery. i have lived in baltimore my entire life and i remember when the city used to give out seeds and dirt and encouraged everyone in the community to have a clean neighborhood and flowers and everything else. host: when did baltimore stop doing that? caller: they stopped doing it, i would say because i am 62 years old, i would say they stopped doing it in the 80's. host: thanks for the call from baltimore. can you address what an enterprise zone is? dorothy expressed some very valid concerns. first is when we think about who even has access to the tax

benefits. you have to have capital gains tax liability to even participate in that means you have to be in the upper actual on -- up or echelon of them -- upper echelon of americans. in baltimore, you had the project being promoted by under armour which happens to a mapping error to fall into an opportunity zone, an area that is relatively higher income, only 4% african-american and there were other parts of baltimore that applied to become opportunity zones that had 60% african-american populations, four times the poverty rate that were not accepted and you wonder in that scenario where you will have significant develop and, who is going to benefit? what is the accountability in that process? this is where it is important that citizens like dorothy are tuned in and holding these local

governments and national governments accountable and how this program is implanted. in terms of the enterprise zones, empowerment zones, these are policies of the past that were much more limited from a economic development perspective. there were only 30 enterprise zones created as opposed to the over 8000 opportunity zones. they generally's -- generally incentivized more local investors to get engaged and that meant people had to be part of the local community and paying more attention to what was going on. community block program had government mandated mechanisms for community engagement. you had to have community meetings in low income communities. you had to provide translators to make sure everyone could participate. those mechanisms do not exist for opportunity zones. it is a prerogative for us as investors and as a community-based organization to make sure to fill in those gaps and ensure that everyone gets the opportunity to participate

and benefit. host: along with her investing work, morgan cymer -- morgan simon is a contributor for forbes magazine and she also wrote a book, the real economics of social change. we are talking about opportunity zones and taking your questions this morning. michael in tennessee is next. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: doing well. caller: i wanted to tell you that trump is on the right track and that the people in bristol -- not that many people are homeless in bristol. i see the homeless walking around the streets but i don't really see the homeless in the places that you normally see them. i know at the end of the day, the homeless go to the salvation army and they go to the haven of

rest for our military members that wouldoblems necessitate them going to the haven of rest. i don't see the problem right now but i do see the problem out that the people out there are not paying their electric bills and having the electric cut off. host: thanks for bringing up the issues on the homelessness issue. morgan simon, how do opportunity zones address homelessness? guest: as michael points out, americans are struggling in many ways in low income communities and the majority of areas designated as opportunity zones are not the hot real estate markets or places that have suffered from disinvestment. that is where the importance of making sure that real estate projects are across all income

spectrums that prioritize affordable housing and make it that people have somewhere to go and with a minimum wage could have a living wage in this country. for instance, nfl veteran derek morgan is the founder of kingdom and is working in nashville, tennessee and also in atlanta and texas to find ways to integrate affordable housing, commerce, support local entrepreneurs and to really shift the landscape of what is happening for some of these local economies that have been left behind. host: jason is next out of santa cruz, california. good morning. caller: how are you doing? these opportunity zones sound like a good thing but everything good has a good sound to it but it never turns out that way. involved,u get a bank if the government is involved, you know what happens.

you call it a lose lose. take up thatsimon, issue of waste, fraud and abuse. guest: skepticism of any policy is important because the devil is in the details in terms of how this is going to be and limited and that is why there has been such a call to ensure that there are real standards around the social return on investment. that if we are going to provide $1.6 billion in tax breaks, how do we make sure we are getting the societal return we need in terms of affordable housing development, real asset can variation -- real asset creation. we talk about the importance of non-extractive finance. as an investor i want to contribute more than i am taking out. that is the standard we hope opportunity zone investors would be following. that is part of why it is so critical we continue to track this story. i contribute to forbes online. i will continue to cover it there.

this is something that will need real vigilance over the next six years. forbes atcolumns for forbes.com. tom is in flanders, new jersey. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for accepting my call. i think opportunity zones are a great thing. what stops somebody from setting up a high tax item business like a car agency and selling cars toough that opportunity zone collect on the tax benefits? guest: let's talk about new jersey. it is interesting that one of the examples that has come up in terms of are we really going to get the community benefit we need through opportunity zones is that former governor christie has been developing 800 self storage units which is not exactly a high job creator or

the type of community institution you would be excited to walk by on a sunday. that goes back to it can be any type of business. there were finally some guidelines released in april in terms of what investments and businesses could be. the flipside of that going back to the opportunity here is that we could be funding more local entrepreneurs. more women, more people of color, more people out of these low income communities similar to what dorothy said prior that want to be entrepreneurs but don't always have the opportunity. that is why it is so important to support local centers that are providing that entrepreneurial on-ramp to make sure that this is accessible and we get the types of businesses that are going to serve communities. host: those new guidelines released when it comes to opportunity zones in april, what did they require? guest: they essentially look at what percentage of local hiring, what percentage of property has to be within or part of the

business activity has to be within that opportunity zone but what was important was that they did not really touch on that social return on investment, what were the assets created and left in that community that are attributed to low income americans and not just millionaires who can collect tax breaks. that is how we make sure we get that balance and where we need more guidance or support, or direct relationships between investors and communities that can ensure accountability and positive outcomes. host: affordable housing is an issue that several of our callers have brought up as we talk about issues facing cities across the country. when it comes to opportunity zones, if somebody investing one of these areas and builds high-end condos, is there any guidelines as to what they can charge for those condos? guest: there is not and that is part of the challenge. it is hard to imagine when the ritz-carlton went up in portland that those could possibly have an accessible price point.

there are concerns that opportunity zones could exacerbate challenges we are already having with gentrification. what is exciting here, you think about the potential tax gains people can receive and the ability to really enhance the rates of returns on these investments, affordable housing becomes more affordable to build. that is where we can take the opportunity as investors to say i want to be a pillar of my community. i want to make sure i make money for myself and my family but i also want to make sure i am contributing as a positive citizen. let me found the -- find the opportunity zone funding. host: opportunity zones is our topic for the next 10 minutes. morgan simon joining us from san francisco this morning. kathleen is in chestnut hill, massachusetts. go ahead ma'am. caller: hello? host: you are on the air. caller: i think it would help your audience if you mention the

community block grants. money comes into the federal government, it trickles down to each state and then it trickles down to the cities. i live in a village but i pay my taxes to newton. what they do is they take part of that money and they try to make affordable housing. it is very political. it goes by zip code. mayor, ite a liberal because tryingp to live in this area is difficult. we have a lot of college students going to boston college , met students. -- med students. i am not sure if the mandate comes from the fed or the state but they do try to have a percentage, when they elect these -- erect these new

structures to have a certain percentage of affordable housing. the other quick statement, i think you said you worked for forbes magazine? guest: i am a contributor. years ago steve forbes was on and he kind of irked me because i called in and i think he floated into talking about housing and one problem about people thatyou want are moderate income or low income to have all the opportunities you are talking about, they've got to migrate into an area where there are opportunities like the city i live in. when i called in to steve thats, he kind of hinted the whole thing is restricted. that there are certain people in the community that don't want

low income people in their community, even in super little communities. host: a lot of points you have raised. we will let morgan simon take them up. guest: i cannot speak for forbes but i do think it is important to note we live in a society where entrepreneurship is a birthright for some and a struggle for others. that is where the opportunity to get capital into low income communities and ensure that local people get to take advantage of it is such a massive opportunity for us in the present moment. on the question of affordability, really, government nationally sets the stage and whether that play is going to have a happy or sad ending is about local communities taking action, figuring out the guidelines that are appropriate for their circumstances and making sure we are all engaged in the different ways we can. whether it is we are investors and are able to place capital strategically, whether we are

aspiring entrepreneurs or developers who can make community serving projects, there are some in different spaces people can get involved. it is on us locally to figure out what is opera -- what is appropriate for our particular community. host: if you want to hear that caller's interaction with steve forbes, it was likely august 1 2015, the last time he was on this program. easy enough to find that on our website. just type in steve forbes in the search bar at the top of the page. 2015 was the most recent time. justin is next in fort lauderdale, florida. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. you are on with morgan simon. caller: i am calling pertaining to the wages and income housing. think about someone working for $12 per hour and then they have to pay $1200 for a one bedroom apartment.

also daycare is $150 per week. why are we letting the federal government subsidize it because somebody is working for $10 per hour or maybe eight dollars per hour. they cannot live off of that so they have to turn to the federal government for daycare, food stamps. host: we will take up that topic. morgan simon, a couple issues there. guest: it is really important to be aware of how difficult it is to live on the minimum wage in this country. we have the opportunity locally in through these projects to mandate living wages and create opportunities for people to not just live and work day today but truly thrive. that should be our mandate as investors and community members who want to take care of each other.

the other piece that is critical is acknowledging what a massive asset divide we have in america in terms of the typical household assets not just the income and that is where opportunity zones also pose a tremendous opportunity. if we are able to get more local business ownership, it is a concept called self gentrification, the idea that we could actually ensure that low income communities get to thrive and have more income and opportunity and take advantage of more resources and businesses. host: about five minutes left if you want to talk about opportunity zones. if you have questions about that effort by the trump administration, morgan simon is with us to take your questions and calls. jonathan is in berkeley, massachusetts. caller: good morning, how are you doing? host: doing well, go ahead. caller: my question is concerning the approval for opportunity zones. it has to bethat

approved on the state level and then on the federal level by the secretary of treasury. i am concerned where -- what would happen if conflicts between what is owned is designated as a opportunity zone arises. guest: at this point i think the zones have been well-established and then opportunity zone funds, about 134 that have been found so far, about $29 billion in potential investment, those funds have to be at least 90% allocated into opportunity zones. the deeper questions had been around what type of businesses were going to qualify, what sorts of investments were going to make sense. a lot of people were scrambling to figure out how this was going how to makeented, sure they would be able to follow those regulations, and that meant you have larger institutions where it is easier for them to have the capacity to engage and smaller investors

that struggle to figure out the right ways to get in. now that that landscape has been set, it is leaving that to the professionals of knowing that they are assessing the projectity of each and coming in and hoping to reap those tax benefits. host: we read that there are more than 8000 opportunity zones across all 50 states. they are designated opportunity zones, that does not necessarily mean that there are more than 8000 projects taking place, making use of these tax breaks. guest: that's correct. 8762 low income census tracts and that is the playground you have to be able to invest. that includes puerto rico and native american communities. host: our next caller, good morning. are you with us? you have to stick by your phone. anne-marie in pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning.

i truthfully am not thrilled with these zones. we have many in our area, on the main street in town, they really have not helped the area. did make a community college out of one but the money went to the people who had money to begin with. it is very sad. the school districts do not make out well because they bring in a lot of employees. we do have amazon and american eagle. the way they treat their employees is difficult and they made money on the backs of all the coal miners here. guest: that is the opportunity for citizens to engage and demand that accountability of what is the social return on investment. an amount of opportunity needs to be created for low income communities can measure into what the wealthy took out in tax breaks? i think that is where things like the opportunity zone

framework provides that guidance but until there are greater standards from the federal government, it means it is upon us as local citizens to make sure we are demanding that accountability and leveraging the real opportunity that is here. host: morgan simon in our last minute with you, wendy you think we will know if opportunity zones work? are we talking years or decades? guest: i think you will see the impact pretty immediately. that is part of why it is important to implement standards now. we are going to know quickly how much of that money actually went to women, people of color, low income communities or how much of it was financing developers that were outside of the communities that were supposed to benefit. you will see the impact of the short-term capital flows and then it will really be -- could be 2036 before we have a full sense of how the landscape has shifted in america. if we don't put the right seeds out there to ensure that low

income communities don't just get capital around them but actual access to capital, that is going to be a critical element of making sure that we take advantage of opportunity zones. host: morgan simon joining us from san francisco this morning. you can see her work as a contributor with forbes magazine on their website. guest: thank you very much. host: we will stay in san francisco for a few minutes as we turn to john, editorial reporter for the san francisco chronicle as we continue to talk columnistseditorial about specific cities and issues facing those cities. good morning to you. guest: good morning, how are you? host: i am doing well. i want to start with a survey you wrote about earlier this year from the chamber of commerce in san francisco. you wrote about a poll that was released in one word that kept coming up in that poll about san

francisco and the state of affairs, frustration was the word that most respondents used. why frustration? guest: there are a number of reasons. people in san francisco are frustrated. we talk about opportunity zones. san francisco is a hyper opportunity zone right now with the business climate going wild and as a result there is a lot of strain on lower-class people who are struggling to live in san francisco. the median rent is somewhere around $3700 per month for a one bedroom apartment. it has also had a huge effect on homelessness which is the number one issue in almost any poll you look at. has ahough san francisco lot of problems a lot of cities would love to have in terms of the economy, there are a lot of side effects.

host: you talk about problems that cities would like to have. the median household income in san francisco is around $96,300. can you talk about that and the homelessness problem and how that exists side-by-side? guest: the number one issue in san francisco, i have worked for close to 30 years. hasas been an issue that tried solutions in good and bad economic cycles but has certainly had it gone worse in the last couple of years. 9700 people living without homes in san francisco. that is up 30% since 2017. you have a lot of people being priced out or being challenged and there was a lot of resentment between people who have been in san francisco a long time and newcomers.

,t is a challenge for the city a challenge both the business community and the political establishment is well aware of and is trying to solve. for theeen a huge issue san francisco chronicle to focus on but at the same time, solutions are not easy. host: in that same piece about the frustration that was found in that survey from the chamber of commerce, you wrote about the solutions that the city is trying. homelessness,to it is solutions that don't match the scope of the problem. what is the city trying to do and why is it not matching up? guest: certainly the scope is expanding considerably. last year, san francisco voters passed a measure that would raise business taxes about $300 billion a year on the largest companies in san francisco. that is almost double what is being spent now. that is being challenged in

court so that money is not available yet. there is also a recognition in the business community that we have not seen a commitment to do something about the problem. coalitionrecently a of businesses and nonprofits that got together with a plan to permanentcompel housing throughout the city. even though san francisco is certainly a compassionate city, it is also a city that is very resistant to change. some have said the people of san francisco want the city to be exactly like it was the day that they arrived. they don't want to put something new in a neighborhood. housing supply is not meeting demand. host: what is the city doing

about that supply problem when it comes to housing? efforts and is there are -- there are efforts and there is resistance. a bill in sacramento would basically make it much easier to develop housing around mass transit because right now there are so many zoning and procedural things that get in the way. it could streamline a lot of that. it is getting a lot of resistance because if you look at a map of san francisco, a great part of the city is really transit rich but at the same time, these are neighborhoods in many cases that don't want to change. housing is going up in san francisco. it is just not fast enough to keep pace. host: what is the city doing about the transit and congestion problems? guest: that is not only overwhelming for the city but it is a huge challenge for the region.

i can tell you somebody who grew up in the bay area and came back here 30 years ago, i have seen traffic at times in places you could not imagine. a gridlock most of the time in downtown san francisco. it talk about things like congestion pricing where you would have to pay to go into some of the city centers. there is a lot of resistance to that. it is one of those things where resources are being applied but they just can't keep up with the growth we are seeing and the prosperity we are seeing in the bay area. , theret of the matter is is a big disconnect between where the jobs are and where the housing is and that contributes to the traffic problems we have. host: in our last minute or two, the reason why we are doing this entire three hours devoted to cities is following in the wake

of the president's comments about baltimore and other cities around america. his concerns about the conditions in those cities even before the president made those comments about baltimore, he was on fox news last month and he brought up the city of san francisco, saying it was the liberal establishment in san francisco and new york and l.a. that is at fault for terrible conditions in those cities. what was the reaction in san francisco to the president's comments? guest: there is a lot of eye rolling. theyn go back to 1984 when have the democratic convention in san francisco and san francisco democrats became the majority. certainly there are a lot of urban ills in san francisco. it is not unusual to see needles on the street, people injecting, and whether you can blame -- if you blame the democratic

establishment, liberal establishment in san francisco for that, you would have to ask, what is it about san francisco's that created this phenomenal prosperity? .t has not trickled down aree are a few cities that taxed as heavily as san francisco and yet we have this phenomenal economic growth, particularly in silicon valley. the big reason for that is that san francisco has a climate that attracts young people who are so talented and that companies want to hire. host: if you want to see the work of the editorial staff at the san francisco chronicle, it is sfchronicle.com. we appreciate your time this morning. guest: thank you for having me. host: about 20 minutes left in today's program. andant to take your calls

hear from the viewers in american cities about the top issues in your cities. (202)-748-8000 if you are a city resident in the eastern or central time zone. (202)-748-8001 if you are a city resident in the mountain or pacific time zones. we will keep looking for your comments on facebook and twitter as well. devon writing in that the unit states epidemic of homelessness which does not affect anyone city but every city is the top issue. the usa needs to address this problem. erica saying i hate being in a small city in new hampshire. too many people on top of each other. peter saying in montreal that it is the orange cones the city is constantly under construction. from d.c., my main priority is getting the rats out of the white house and perpetually concerned that we have more people than wyoming and vermont but we are not a state. taxation without representation.

d.c., saying it is rent control, better opportunities for small business, rent is so high that they only last two years maximum. sal is calling in from queens, new york. theer: the problem is liberals are not following the laws correctly and they are depreciating the value. example, two-bedrooms is $2115 in new york. constantly going on to fix something in the house and losing property value or money by telling the tenant they have to leave, not giving them a month. in the meantime to fix a bathroom. these are the things that are the visual cycles that liberals

go on committing, creating slums so it depreciates the value of their profits. host: how long have you lived in the city? caller: all my life. host: have you ever thought about leaving? caller: no. these are the vicious cycles of segregating, the migration issue, before trump got into office, he noticed the state of arizona evicted 60% of -- state was on welfare across the state had a lack of jobs and employment and so forth. they gave them no right to even their citizenship from the state. host: this is bryce out of boston, good morning. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. i wanted to talk about the boston transit system. that is the biggest problem in boston in addition to the rent control.

they only expand the t and we only see the wealthy areas. the current areas that are not wealthy in boston, roxbury comes to mind, don't really have a great service. people are talking about inequality in boston and also the rent and how it is ridiculously high and a housing crisis essentially. it is difficult to deal with when you have a t that is unreliable. host: what part of boston do you live in? austin most of the year. that is kind of in the west, serviced by the greenline. the greenline is especially egregious. it is an extremely old system. it is outside half the time and i think in the past five years we have had so many derailments it has become a joke. you don't know if you are even going to get to your destination on time because sometimes they run express and cut out half the

stops. it is ludicrous. host: what does it cost you to ride the t? is $2.40ight now it but they actually just increased it. it used to be $2.25. they would have increased the bus fare but there was so much public backlash that they didn't. the bus is $1.70. host: would you be willing to pay further increases? caller: i don't know. they keep saying that these increased funds are going to go toward fixing the t and expanding it but people in boston have heard that before and they keep increasing it but they have no more service, it is just ridiculous. the people of boston are tired of the administration. host: thanks for the call. (202)-748-8000 if you're in a city in the eastern or central time zones. (202)-748-8001 if you are in a

city in the mountain or pacific time zones. paul in seattle, good morning. caller: how are you doing? host: i am doing well. caller: my issue is sanitation. there are so many homeless people in seattle, i invite you to come and i will give you a tour. shitting ong and the street right in front of you. if there are 2000 people, and i know there is more than that, homeless in seattle, and they are going to the bathroom two times a day, that's 4000 whatever just laying around somewhere. there is no place for people to go to the bathroom. host: what is the city doing about the homelessness problem in seattle?

the numbers at the beginning of 2018 from the housing and urban development numbers, 12,000 homeless in seattle in king county in washington. caller: you guys can do the numbers. if you go to the bathroom -- i go to the bathroom at least twice a day. where are they going? potty's or porta whatever around the city. they just go behind a bush or whatever. host: do you feel like the city is addressing that problem? caller: no. council, they are a bunch of democrats. the dead be counting vote because we can't get them out of here. i don't know if it is the city council. i am just saying, i have lived in seattle my whole life and this is the start of the plague. host: that is paul in seattle

talking about the political makeup of those who run the city in seattle, this is from city looking-- citylab.com at vote shares in large metro areas and who they went for in the 2016 presidential election. these were the largest metro areas in the country that had the biggest vote shares for hillary clinton back in 2016. san francisco tops that list with clinton winning 76% of the vote share. los angeles, chicago, miami, boston. seattle comes in with seats at 62%. with the other side of that, these are the metro areas with the largest vote shares for donald trump. the birmingham, hoover alabama -- hoover, alabama area.

city,ed by oklahoma jacksonville, florida, cincinnati, nashville, grand rapids, indianapolis, the theas-fort worth area and charlotte area in north and south carolina. taking your phone calls. david in detroit, michigan. good morning. caller: good morning john and i enjoy you as a moderator. i like greta and i think you guys do an incredible job. -- there areomment a number of things i wanted to comment on but i will stay focused. i want to narrow and real quick -- -- narrow in real quick. on a numberformed of things on detroit news.

her,e to agree with detroit urban community has protracted unemployment, poverty and education is a quagmire in this area as well as other urban communities. when you look at the urban communities and you sort of pinpoint, is it because of the democrats that are the elected officials? let's take a look at detroit. hadoit is a city that has democratic representation for decades but at the same time, the state legislators are basically republican and they represent a whole different view. --roit is also surrounded by let's take that out of the quick -- take that out of the equation. they are surrounded by different communities that may or may not

let's just say, gentle towards people in detroit. the one thing i did want to say is that when you talk about the mayor, what the mayor is doing is creating a crisis because some of that money was to save people's homes. what the mayor has decided to do -- those homes. he is creating a housing crisis because he is going to thin out the supply of homes. host: what part of the troy do you live in? -- of detroit do you live in? caller: i am in the northwest. the university of detroit which i am a graduate of. host: how long have you been there? motownre you know

and the temptations. theought the home of one of members 20 years ago. host: what do you do out there? caller: i am a college professor. i teach at one of the local universities. host: would you ever think about leaving detroit? caller: i have. service,ay in the served four years in the navy and i went and lived 16 years in chicago. i lived in the northern community in old town and i got an mba. host: and you have thought about leaving detroit? cityhe concerns about the something that would drive you to teach somewhere else?

caller: that is always a possibility. you are always looking to upgrade and better yourself as opportunities present themselves. what i would saywhat i would sas some very interesting aspects to it. one of the things i want to mention, one of the things that plagues detroit is we have one tothe highest auto insurance be found in the united states. that is crippling and i think that is what she meant. host: what do you pay a -- every six months or so? caller: we have three automobiles. lexis, a 2006 like us -- and acura and we are paying close to $6,000 a year. host: that is david in detroit, michigan. our next caller is out of north

carolina. what is your top issue? caller: i am sorry to say but it is our democratic leaders. i am a lifelong resident. if you are familiar with it, the city has seen huge growth in the last 20 years. it has been growing strong the guess itr so, and i has been about 40 years ago, they crossed two major interstate highways right here. interstate 40 and 26. great,s fine, that was it made it easy to get here -- to get from here to anywhere else. as the traffic sorted to andease, our city council -- 30 years ago, the city council was democrats and the county was pretty much republican but then about 20

,ears ago, it all went democrat the state department of transportation cap saying we need to put more lanes of andway through asheville the democrats kept buying and the democrats kept buying it saying it will be urban blight -- fighting it, saying it will be urban blight. one of our commissioners is saying now if we had more traffic on the highway, we will have more air pollution. better gasget mileage and create less air pollution at 60 miles per hour than it does at six miles per hour? every day here, there is a traffic jam from basically 4:00 until 7:00. it is bumper-to-bumper, stop and go. you are averaging five miles per hour on the interstates through asheville which anyone who drive through here will tell you. especially on friday afternoons with more and more tourists coming to town. our city council has built miles

and miles of bike trails and hiking trails and that is wonderful, that they have protested and resisted adding on to our interstates and other highways in and around town. it is crazy what has happened. they finally now have gone we have a traffic problem and they are going to widen 26 for about 20 miles to the south of town but they still haven't come up with a plan to get it through town. it is going to be a mess. it will be another 20 years before things get straightened down because these people have thinkingthe change, they were going to improve the environment and at the same time all they have done is make it worse. host: do many people use those biking and walking trails? caller: i use them, a lot of people use them. it is find that they built those but at the same time, why wouldn't they build highways?

many of the people who have been calling in, talking about the high price of housing. the same thing is going on here. town becauseout of the downtown area where you have a limited amount of real estate, that got built and the more the people wanted to build in that area, the prices went higher and higher but it is a big county and a lot of people moved out of town 20 years ago, because they did not like what was going on in the urban area and they could buy the same amount of square footage for half the amount of money but now they have to commute back into town for the job. it was obvious. that is what burns me up about this. it was so obvious this was happening and yet they -- the bigst thing is, we have a

river for asheville and you have to have an interstate quality bridge over that river. five or six years ago, d.o.t. came up and said here is how we are going to do that and the city said we need a signature first -- signature bridge, we need a really pretty bridge, like the one over the river in charleston, a suspension bridge. folks, we need a bridge. host: thanks for the call from asheville, north carolina. a few more minutes and we want to get a couple more calls in. atlanta, georgia, thanks for waiting. caller: hello? host: go ahead. what is the issue in atlanta, georgia. caller: i live in the atlanta metro area. we all have the same problems out here in powder springs. , i thinkst problem probably for problems that are all related to population

,roblems, jobless people affordable housing is a big problem. another problem is public transportation. i know they talk a lot about traffic and a lot of these situations. atlanta has very poor public transportation coming from the and that cobb county is a big problem as well. tohave made some efforts help with affordable housing. we have affordable housing in cobb county which is true of the entire metro area. that is trying to be addressed, a lot of people are trying to address the problem but it is very difficult. we have several homeless shelters in cobb county that deal with the problem to some extent what it is very limited. is the traffic out there coming in from powder springs to downtown atlanta?

we are showing viewers on the map, powder springs on the northwest side of atlanta. caller: the traffic is horrible during work times. it is really backed up during the daytime but if we had better transportation, we have an express bus that runs from powder springs into atlanta but it only runs twice a day, in the morning and the evening. host: thanks for telling us about it. barbara is next out of panama city beach out of florida. caller: good morning, thanks for having me. i'm glad you are on the air to let the people speak. i want to speak about when hurricane michael was here last year. it demolished half the city. i want to say this is a republican state and what we are missing here, the investors are saying they will not rebuild these properties because we have no sewers, the streets are bad, and there are two issues i want

to speak to about infrastructure and one other thing, migration. what we are not speaking about is the russians that are here migrating here. they are 800,000 russians here. i worked in a public aid building and they said they were giving $300 per person to stay that were inments chicago, illinois where i was previously living. this migration is not only about the mexicans but the russians. thenas letting them in and there were four russian ambassadors here in this country. host: that is barbara and panama city beach, florida. we will be talking more about the immigration issue in tomorrow's washington journal, and we will focus on moral issues after spending the past three hours focusing on city issues in this country. we hope you will join us tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern,

4:00 a.m. pacific. in the meantime, have a our available on c-span's new online store. c-spanstore.org. see all of the c-span products. >> here is a look at our coverage thursday. on c-span at 12:30 p.m. eastern, state election officials and representatives talk about election security and vote on system -- voting system security. ater, president trump holds rally in manchester, new hampshire, part of his reelection campaign. that gets underway 7:00 p.m. eastern. on c-span2, more campaign 2020 coverage with beddoe o'rourke giving a speech from his home

town el paso, texas at 9:15 p.m. eastern. next a discussion on u.s. foreign aid and global head of thewith the millennium challenge corporation as an independent government agency to combat local poverty and provide -- this is an hour. >> ok. hello, everybody. i hold the chair here at csis. i am happy to have sean cairncross, who is the ceo and president of the millennium challenge corporation.