Hot air on global warming

Mayors from across the country will be in Trenton Friday to address the problem that's most imminently facing our inner-cities.
What's that, you say ... gang violence, drugs, poverty, homelessness, urban decay?
Wrong.
Come on, get with the program.
The biggest concern of the nation's mayors, led by Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer these days, is ... global warming.
That's right. Global warming.
Hey, while Rome is burning, maybe it's good to stop and think about how those flames are affecting incremental temperature change over the next 1,500 years.

The country's mayors arrive in Trenton

Thursday's Trentonian will include an editorial on the arrival of 38 mayors from across the country for a two-day meeting in Trenton of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, led by Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer.

It’s tempting to join Palmer’s critics at this high-profile time and say, how can the mayor of a city with so many problems, and so little going for it after more than a decade of his leadership, be held up as a leader among city leaders from across the country?
The instinct of Palmer, his staff and his supporters, on the other hand, is to put some lipstick on this pig and try to highlight our small city’s good parts before we shuttle these bigwigs back out of town on Friday. Take them to a Trenton Thunder game, show off a nice restaurant or two, talk about the Broad Street Bank building, maybe. (OK, we’re grasping here.)
Oh, and enact some swift, meaningful changes to make Trenton look better, like requiring taxi drivers to wear collar shirts and maybe some deodorant ... at least for a few days.

The editorial goes on to suggest that instead of pretending Trenton is something that it's not, or blasting Palmer again, we should urge the mayor to put his colleagues from across the country on a bus, take them around our city, and ask THEM for advice on how they would tackle our problems and opportunities.

Doug Palmer, TV star

Agree or disagree with Doug Palmer's record as Trenton mayor or his political agenda, Trentonians couldn't help but be proud earlier this week as he ... and our city ... basked in the national spotlight that comes with being elected president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Palmer's week in Los Angeles included two major national television appearances, and it was an interesting example of the difference in substance between public television and your typical late-night network fare.

On the Tavis Smiley show Monday night, Palmer appeared with Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and discussed Palmer's 10-point agenda as the new president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. They talked about race, poverty, the environment, the 2008 presidential election and the relationship between the federal government and America's cities.

Tuesday night's appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (you know, the guy with the Scottish accent who comes on after Dave Letterman) couldn't have been more different. The president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors is an atypical guest for this kind of show, which usually focuses on celebrity and pop culture. Palmer's brief appearance consisted of him talking in the most general terms about Trenton (remember, we were key to beating the British in the Revolutionary War, and remember, "Trenton Makes, the World Takes") and the mandatory jokes about New Jersey when Palmer mentioned that "the enviornment" was one of his priorities.

Overall, it was the first of hopefully many opportunities during Palmer's tenure over the next year in which the city of Trenton was portrayed in a positive light in the national media.

Satisfied or not with his job as mayor, it's not some fluke that he rose to the position he found himself in this past week.

Doug Palmer is handling the national spotlight very well, and it's going to do wonders for Trenton's image.

Doug Palmer on national TV Monday night

This just in ...
Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer wil appear Monday night on the Tavis Smiley Show, which airs on PBS. It airs at 11:30 p.m. on WHYY Channel 12 in the Trenton area.
Palmer is in Los Angeles, where he is being sworn in as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
It will be extremly interesting to see how he uses this national platform to help Trenton

Palmer in national spotlight as violence makes news again in Trenton

It was supposed to be Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer's weekend to shine.

But while he was basking in the limelight of being sworn in as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and rubbing shoulders in Los Angeles with the likes of presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson, back home some all-too-typical problems were plaguing his city.

Palmer's coronation as a spokesman for the nation's cities would have made front page news in The Trentonian today, but instead the city was hit with its 14th murder. Another possibly gang-related death. This time, in broad daylight.

And more troubling to some, violence was even hitting a Trenton neighborhood that typically is an oasis from the rest of the city's problems. A shooting in the Mill Hill section of the city has merchants on edge.

As he rubs shoulders with some of the most powerful politicians in the country, what does Palmer have to say about the problems back home?

And perhaps more importantly, what can Palmer's newly important status do to help him fix some of those problems?

When's the last time you heard Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson or even Jon Corzine make news calling attention to the plight of small, troubled urban cities such as Trenton or Camden? Or offering some real solutions.

They're in a position to bring the resources of the state and federal governments to Trenton to help.

Maybe Palmer's rise to prominence and all that out-of-town hobnobbing with the rich and powerful can be used to get some help for the city.

Hot air on global warming

Mayors from across the country will be in Trenton Friday to address the problem that's most imminently facing our inner-cities.
What's that, you say ... gang violence, drugs, poverty, homelessness, urban decay?
Wrong.
Come on, get with the program.
The biggest concern of the nation's mayors, led by Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer these days, is ... global warming.
That's right. Global warming.
Hey, while Rome is burning, maybe it's good to stop and think about how those flames are affecting incremental temperature change over the next 1,500 years.

The country's mayors arrive in Trenton

Thursday's Trentonian will include an editorial on the arrival of 38 mayors from across the country for a two-day meeting in Trenton of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, led by Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer.

It’s tempting to join Palmer’s critics at this high-profile time and say, how can the mayor of a city with so many problems, and so little going for it after more than a decade of his leadership, be held up as a leader among city leaders from across the country?
The instinct of Palmer, his staff and his supporters, on the other hand, is to put some lipstick on this pig and try to highlight our small city’s good parts before we shuttle these bigwigs back out of town on Friday. Take them to a Trenton Thunder game, show off a nice restaurant or two, talk about the Broad Street Bank building, maybe. (OK, we’re grasping here.)
Oh, and enact some swift, meaningful changes to make Trenton look better, like requiring taxi drivers to wear collar shirts and maybe some deodorant ... at least for a few days.

The editorial goes on to suggest that instead of pretending Trenton is something that it's not, or blasting Palmer again, we should urge the mayor to put his colleagues from across the country on a bus, take them around our city, and ask THEM for advice on how they would tackle our problems and opportunities.

Doug Palmer, TV star

Agree or disagree with Doug Palmer's record as Trenton mayor or his political agenda, Trentonians couldn't help but be proud earlier this week as he ... and our city ... basked in the national spotlight that comes with being elected president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Palmer's week in Los Angeles included two major national television appearances, and it was an interesting example of the difference in substance between public television and your typical late-night network fare.

On the Tavis Smiley show Monday night, Palmer appeared with Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and discussed Palmer's 10-point agenda as the new president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. They talked about race, poverty, the environment, the 2008 presidential election and the relationship between the federal government and America's cities.

Tuesday night's appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (you know, the guy with the Scottish accent who comes on after Dave Letterman) couldn't have been more different. The president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors is an atypical guest for this kind of show, which usually focuses on celebrity and pop culture. Palmer's brief appearance consisted of him talking in the most general terms about Trenton (remember, we were key to beating the British in the Revolutionary War, and remember, "Trenton Makes, the World Takes") and the mandatory jokes about New Jersey when Palmer mentioned that "the enviornment" was one of his priorities.

Overall, it was the first of hopefully many opportunities during Palmer's tenure over the next year in which the city of Trenton was portrayed in a positive light in the national media.

Satisfied or not with his job as mayor, it's not some fluke that he rose to the position he found himself in this past week.

Doug Palmer is handling the national spotlight very well, and it's going to do wonders for Trenton's image.

Doug Palmer on national TV Monday night

This just in ...
Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer wil appear Monday night on the Tavis Smiley Show, which airs on PBS. It airs at 11:30 p.m. on WHYY Channel 12 in the Trenton area.
Palmer is in Los Angeles, where he is being sworn in as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
It will be extremly interesting to see how he uses this national platform to help Trenton

Palmer in national spotlight as violence makes news again in Trenton

It was supposed to be Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer's weekend to shine.

But while he was basking in the limelight of being sworn in as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and rubbing shoulders in Los Angeles with the likes of presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson, back home some all-too-typical problems were plaguing his city.

Palmer's coronation as a spokesman for the nation's cities would have made front page news in The Trentonian today, but instead the city was hit with its 14th murder. Another possibly gang-related death. This time, in broad daylight.

And more troubling to some, violence was even hitting a Trenton neighborhood that typically is an oasis from the rest of the city's problems. A shooting in the Mill Hill section of the city has merchants on edge.

As he rubs shoulders with some of the most powerful politicians in the country, what does Palmer have to say about the problems back home?

And perhaps more importantly, what can Palmer's newly important status do to help him fix some of those problems?

When's the last time you heard Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson or even Jon Corzine make news calling attention to the plight of small, troubled urban cities such as Trenton or Camden? Or offering some real solutions.

They're in a position to bring the resources of the state and federal governments to Trenton to help.

Maybe Palmer's rise to prominence and all that out-of-town hobnobbing with the rich and powerful can be used to get some help for the city.