In New York City, a real world city, poulation 8.3 million, mayors and councillors are selected after a gruelling 1 year long primary process. The current mayor, Bill de Blasio, who was selected among a slate of equally experienced candidates and comes from a background as NYC's former, elected ombudsman, has made the following items part of his agenda: dealing with income inequality and housing affordability, improving transit service, and improving city-wide education programs from Kindergarten through postsecondary institutions, including rolling out apprenticeship programs to help pair local entrepreneurs with students.
In Toronto, which fancies itself a world city, population 2.6 million, all you have to do to run for election as mayor or councillor is register. The current mayor, Rob Ford, was elected among a slate of candidates who were not as flawed, but all flawed in serious ways. Apart from nepotism guaranteeing him a job at his father's label business, he has no prior professional experience, and chooses to spend his days cavorting with known criminals and abusing illegal narcotic substances. He has no agenda other than to spout platitudes to get himself reelected. City council has made the following items part of the agenda: banning shark fin soup; mulling the idea of renaming Union station after the first prime minister, whose name already graces many public buildings, landmarks and geographical features across Canada.
It should be noted that, like NYC, Toronto also has issues with income inequality, transit accessibility, housing affordability and education. None of these situations are as dire as in NY (except transit, which is more urgently needed here), but they are real problems and may be getting worse.