Mike Bloomberg Announces $200 Million American Cities Initiative at the U.S. Conference of Mayors
Bloomberg Released:
The following is the text of Mike Bloomberg’s speech as prepared on Monday June 26th, 2017.
“Thank you Manny, and good afternoon, everyone! We’re lucky to have Manny as a Board Member at Bloomberg Philanthropies, and I want to thank him and Miami Beach Mayor Phil Levine for welcoming us here.
“When I was first elected, I remember people telling me, ‘You shouldn’t address problems that are politically controversial, because it will only hurt your popularity.’ I found the reverse to be true. The more we took on those kinds of issues, the more voters respected and supported us, even if they didn’t agree with us. That’s how a non-Democrat could win three successive elections in a city that’s 5-to-1 Democratic.
“As we all know, being a mayor is the toughest job in politics. Like all executive offices, it’s a management job, not a policy job. But unlike being a governor or even president, people hold you accountable for what happens in their communities.
“Let’s start with a basic fact. We are in the middle of a political era defined by partisan paralysis, and nowhere is it worse than in Washington. Compared to any other era in modern American politics, our nation’s capital has been unable to address the great challenges we face.
“The causes are many: gridlock, extremism, partisan media, fear of special interest groups. But the result is same: On nearly all the big issues, Washington has been AWOL, and as further budget cuts loom, the situation is going from bad to worse.
“But here’s the good news: As Washington has grown more dysfunctional, cities have grown more dynamic, and mayors have grown more powerful and important. Pick an issue, any issue, and mayors in both parties are leading where Washington won’t. And mayors are working across the aisle in ways that Washington wouldn’t dare.
“The result is that, to the extent we are making any progress as a nation, cities are driving it – from taking on education reform and public health crises to spurring economic development and job growth to battling crime and climate change. That work has helped revive cities and made them a magnet for many of the most talented and hardest-working Americans.
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