Poll: Political Hot Buttons

Each year, the Menino Survey has sought to gauge mayoral opinions on a number of highly salient issues. This final module provides insight into mayoral perspectives on a number of timely concerns, including some that have appeared on state and local ballot initiatives and others that are the focus of heated local and national debates. They are grouped here because they are perhaps best understood in contrast to, rather than in isolation of, one another.

Mayors are divided on a number of salient contemporary issues and trade-offs. One area where most mayors agree is the extent of racial problems in America and the breadth of systematic racial challenges. Roughly 90 percent of mayors disagreed with the statement that “racial problems are rare, isolated, situations” meaning that they believe racial concerns are widespread. Something of a consensus also exists on the potentially contentious issue of undocumented immigrants’ access to local services (though see Figure 35 on party gap). Two-thirds of mayors agreed that immigrants should receive services irrespective of legal status while 20 percent disagreed.

Mayors’ views on housing policy trade-offs suggest ambivalence — at least among some mayors — about pursuing the most aggressive policy solutions to their community’s affordability challenges. Approximately 55 percent of mayors agree that cities should encourage “increasing housing density in popular established neighborhoods.” Twenty-five percent disagreed. Perhaps the most direct trade-off concerning housing affordability is whether it “would be better if housing prices declined.” Only 20 percent of mayors agreed that it would be better if prices declined; 60 percent disagreed.

A bare majority support greater regulation of emerging industries, specifically sharing economy services and cannabis sales. While mayors are enthusiastic about the economic benefits of the sharing economy, a sizable number believe it needs to be more tightly regulated. Based on the responses to other questions about the sharing economy, it is likely that the number of mayors that support additional regulations would be higher if the question was limited to home sharing, and potentially lower if restricted to ride-sharing. A similar number of mayors support the legalization of marijuana in their cities. This question was notably polarizing, with 35 percent of mayors disagreeing. Many mayors suggested that their views on marijuana were less about philosophy or values and more about practical challenges related to policy implementation.

Figure 30: Mayors Views on Select Policy Issues

Many, but not all, of these local policy dilemmas divided mayors along partisan lines. Democrats were much more likely to: support making local services available to immigrants in contrast to Republicans (86 percent vs. 29 percent, respectively), to increase regulations for the sharing economy (67 vs. 18 percent), and to legalize marijuana (62 vs. 25 percent). Democrats were also much more likely to support increasing housing density in established neighborhoods compared to Republicans (68 vs. 32 percent). On the other hand, roughly equal numbers of mayors across party lines disagreed that it would “be better if housing prices declined” and that racial problems “are rare and isolated.”

Figure 31: The city should encourage increasing housing density in popular, established neighborhoods.

Figure 32: It would be better if housing prices in my city declined.

Figure 33: Racial problems in the U.S. are rare, isolated situations.

Figure 34: Immigrants should receive local government services, regardless of legal status.

Figure 35: Sharing-economy services like Uber and Airbnb need greater regulation.

Figure 36: Marijuana should be legalized, regulated, and legally sold in your city.