Being a mayor means being a manager, a problem-solver, a coach, an inspirational speaker, a people person and a punching bag. Anything and everything going on in town can wind up on your desk. And while you may have allies on your city council or in your state legislature, a mayor is the one most accountable to everyday people when something goes awry.

The 50 mayors we will survey throughout 2023 represent big cities and small towns, but many face the same challenges: recovering from Covid-era business shutdowns and remote schooling, stubborn spikes in crime, growing homelessness and a mounting affordability crisis. These mayors will bring us in on what they’ve learned on the job and what still vexes them. We will hear from this inaugural class of the Mayors Club through both surveys and interviews.

Here, you can learn about who they are in their own words — edited for length and clarity — and see their responses to our very first question: What keeps you up at night? The answers ranged from gun violence to homelessness to drugs.

This is what they had to say: