National League of Cities Held In New Orleans

The National League of Cities' conference began yesterday, in the City of New Orleans. President Bart Peterson, the mayor of Indianapolis, opened the conference by "saying local governments emerged as the nation's pre-eminent policy incubators starting in the 1990s: the era when a standoff between President Clinton and a Republican Congress resulted in a government shutdown."

More than 3,500 mayors, city managers and council members from around the country arrived in New Orleans this week to swap ideas about common interests, from highway congestion to aging public infrastructure to the recent slump in the housing market.

Through a series of neighborhood workshops and bus tours, they also tried to soak up lessons from New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and other city leaders on how to plan for and recover from disasters.

Visiting leaders were attuned to the disasters that can erupt when government fails to maintain its infrastructure: not only roads and highways but also the levees that failed in New Orleans and the interstate highway bridge that collapsed this past summer in Minnesota.

The conference continues today with appearances from high-profile speakers such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former chairmen of the Republican and Democratic national committees. Donald Powell, the president's Gulf Coast recovery czar, will speak Saturday.