MANAGEMENT UPDATE.

NLC 2025 THE STATE OF THE CITIES

The National League of Cities’ State of the Cities report, which came out on July 17, provides fascinating insights into the challenges and opportunities facing US cities, towns and villages.

Themes in the report emerged from a review of mayoral addresses and a survey of mayors.

Here are some of the most important findings:

Economic Development: According to NLC this has been the top priority among mayors in 2025.

62 percent of mayors list “attracting businesses as a top economic challenge”. That’s double the 33 percent response in the 2024 report.

56 percent of respondents are specifically focusing “on downtown revitalization to spur economic development.”

Infrastructure – Local leaders are “investing in new and necessary infrastructure projects, yet many report serious concerns around aging infrastructure systems and vulnerability to the effects of natural disasters and extreme weather events.”

Only one out of four city leaders said they were “very prepared for natural disasters or emergencies that may damage local infrastructure this year”.

Common fiscal infrastructure challenges stem from rising project material and labor costs and “insufficient capital budgets.”

Budget & Management – This area only took up eight percent of mayoral speech time but was identified as the second highest priority in survey responses.

“69 percent of mayors responding to NLC’s survey indicate the end of ARPA in 2026 is likely to negatively impact both their budget and their city management.”

The most common way to deal with uncertain budget issues was the maintenance of contingency funds.

Housing – This issue is described as “multifaceted, requiring creative, collaborative solutions that may financially strain communities.”

“57 percent of survey respondents (rated) the availability of housing in their community as Poor or Very Poor.

High housing costs were identified by 72 percent of mayors as the primary challenge. Affordability concerns were focused on limited available supply and the escalating effect on prices.

Public Health and Safety – “At the end of 2024, many cities demonstrated lower crime incidents than the year prior, with violent crime rates even dropping to pre-pandemic levels.” But there are serious problems that are still keeping mayors up at night.