Good
evening, friends and colleagues, Reverend Nutall, Rabbi Stutman, ladies
and gentlemen.
Let me begin by thanking my
good friend, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, as well as members of
the Council of the District of Columbia, the judiciary, ANC commissioners
and civic, corporate and community leaders from across our great city.
It’s a great honor to have you here this evening.
I would also like to thank
Congresswoman Corrine Brown and Congressman Trey Gowdy for being here
tonight. I appreciate working with congressman Gowdy as chair of the House
Subcommittee on the District of Columbia. I was delighted that when he
became chairman last year, he took the time to come and visit with us at
the Wilson Building to begin what has been a productive
relationship.
And, I want to thank the
good people of the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue who have provided us
this wonderful venue. As Reverend Nutall reminded us, this special
place connects our past, our present, and our future.
But most of all, I want to
thank you the citizens of the District of Columbia for being here tonight
and for being so committed to the civic life of this great city.
As we gather here this
evening, we are all well aware that today the District of Columbia is
blessed with tremendous progress. And because of that I am proud to
share that the state of the District is strong and getting stronger.
In so many ways we are a
city of firsts. We are the #1 retail market in the country,
the #1 place for young professionals to move, #1 in foreign real-estate
investment, #1 for the number of fast-growing private companies, #1 in
metro household income, and #1 for quality of living in the Mid-Atlantic
region. And one day, once again, we will be #1 in the National
Football League.
Our economy is growing and
indeed is one of the strongest of any city in the country.
The financial health of our
city continues to improve, and just recently we announced that we ended
2011 with one of the largest budget surpluses in our history — $240
million. The fact is, we have made great strides over the last year
engineering a major financial turnaround and stabilizing our fiscal house.
For the first time in years, the District is not spending from our
critical reserve fund, which had been depleted by 700 million dollars over
the prior four years. Indeed, we are replenishing that fund –
often called our “rainy-day” fund – which now stands at $1.1
billion.
The District has also seen a
turnaround on jobs. In the last year we added 9,500 jobs. And
looking off into the future, we project that by 2015 we will add another
45,000 new jobs to our local economy.
But the problem is that
while all of this economic growth is good for the city, some of our fellow
Washingtonians have not yet benefited from the economic turnaround.
They still struggle to find a job, put food on the table, and pay the
rent.
While economic growth is a
priority, we must remain committed to getting our unemployed citizens back
to work. To address this urgent need, last fall I launched the One City
● One Hire program, which provides pre-screening and job training,
wage subsidies and tax incentives tailored to meet each employer’s
individual needs and asks them to hire at least one D.C. unemployed
worker. The results have been very impressive. More than 440
employers have signed up to be a part of the program – and, most
importantly, they’ve hired more than 2,000 previously unemployed D.C.
residents. And today – although it remains too high – our
unemployment rate in the District is falling, from 11.2% to 10.4% in just
two months.
The population of our great
city is growing for the first time in decades, as more and more people are
attracted to the advantages of living in the District. Between 2000
and 2010 we added 30,000 people – but, in the last 16 months alone, we
became the fastest-growing state in the country, adding another 17,000
residents. We are now more than 618,000 people strong – the
first time the city has been home to this many people in over 25 years.
And this growth shows no
signs of slowing. Indeed, by 2025 it is projected that the District
will be just shy of 700,000 people.
And the District is not just
attractive to people looking to move here. It is attractive to
investors as well. Long-stalled development projects in all parts of
our city are now under construction – adding jobs and retail choices,
even in parts of the city where development hasn’t been seen in decades.
Look across the city and you will see more than 30 cranes dotting our
skyline.
Through our
capital-improvement plan, we are making strategic investments in public
infrastructure that are leveraging more than $2.1 billion dollars in
private sector investment, funding 14 major development projects under
construction today – projects such as CityCenter on the site of the old
convention center, CityMarket at O Street in Shaw, and the Shops at Dakota
Crossing in Ward 5. And, yes, at last, significant development is
emerging east of the Anacostia River – Wal-Mart is building two stores
in Ward 7, one on East Capitol Street and another in the long-awaited
Skyland shopping center. And we have worked with the residents and
leadership of Ward 8 to establish an economic development plan for that
important – but too-long and too-often neglected – area of our
city.
All told, projects currently
underway have created 3,000 construction jobs – and, when they are
complete, will create 6,000 permanent jobs.
Moreover, another $9 billion
worth of privately funded projects are in the pipeline that will add
offices, housing, retail and other amenities – but, most of all, jobs.
These include the Southwest Waterfront, Hine School, West End development,
Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue New Communities Project, and McMillan.
The District’s housing
market also is rebounding, and homeowners are cheering the news that once
again the value of their homes is starting to rise.
And we are making progress
with education reform. According to key indicators, D.C. Public
Schools are showing success in improving educational opportunity and
achievement. The fact is, more and more parents are finding good
reason to have confidence in District schools. And for the first
time in decades, enrollment in D.C. Public Schools is stabilizing.
And we will continue to
implement our comprehensive school-modernization plan, rebuilding or
renovating our schools.
Over the last year I
personally cut ribbons to open a new H.D. Woodson High School; a renovated
Langley School; modernized and expanded facilities at Woodrow Wilson High
School, Anacostia High School and Janney Elementary; and a restored Takoma
Education Campus, where we invested $25 million unexpectedly in the
aftermath of a devastating fire in December of 2010.
We have also begun the
modernization of Cardozo High School and broken ground on a new Dunbar
High School. A new Ballou Senior High School and many others will
soon follow. Our campaign to modernize every public school not only
must continue, but we will find ways to accelerate it.
Last summer, our reformed
Summer Youth Employment Program engaged over 14,000 youth, teaching them
the culture and value of an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.
After years of dramatic runaway spending, we’re proud that last year’s
program was very successful in serving our youth and came in several
million dollars under budget.
Among the basic priorities
that all members of any community demand of their government is the
expectation that their home, their neighborhood, and the city’s streets
are safe.
In 2011, the District had
our lowest number of homicides in nearly 50 years. Although last
year’s 108 murders were still 108 too many, this was 18 percent lower
than the year before. And the Metropolitan Police Department posted
an astonishing 95 percent homicide-closure rate – compared to the
national average of just 56 percent.
My administration re-opened
our Police Academy, and the number of sworn officers in the Metropolitan
Police Department is now increasing. Our target is to hire and train
300 new officers to grow our police force this year. The Fire and
Emergency Medical Services Academy is now also up and running again to
train new recruits, all of whom are District residents. And response
time for EMS calls is improving as a part of our commitment to creating a
more customer-friendly government.
Also, I signed an executive
order mandating that District law-enforcement officials not serve as
agents for federal immigration law enforcement, thereby helping to build
trust with our immigrant community and facilitating cooperation with the
police. We must be One City – and that overarching ambition
must include Washington’s immigrant community.
And we continue to make
strides to improve the health of our residents – especially those living
with HIV/AIDS. To combat this epidemic – which continues to take a
toll on the city, especially among African Americans, Latinos and among
members of our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities – I
appointed a commission of leaders from all across the city to guide our
policies and to bring the community together in our struggle against the
virus.
The results of our work are
clear. Deaths due to HIV and AIDS continue to decline. The
city set new records this year for the number of HIV tests administered.
We also cut the time between diagnosis and treatment – with 75% of those
newly diagnosed connected to care in less than three months, another new
record. No baby in the District of Columbia has been born HIV
positive since 2009. These are real accomplishments in the fight
against this epidemic. And the District is set to host the
International Conference on AIDS this July – the first time in more than
20 years that this important gathering, 25,000 strong, will take place in
the United States.
And we have launched the
Sustainable D.C. initiative – an aggressive effort to make the District
the most livable, sustainable city in the nation. Recently, the U.S.
Green Building Council confirmed that the District leads the nation in the
most LEED-certified buildings per capita. And the District
government is 4th on the list of the nation’s leading local
governments who use green power.
And the District’s new
Green Building Act requires that all new buildings larger than 50,000
square feet must conform to green building standards. This law not
only makes good sense for the future of the city, but also drives demand
for construction workers in the building trades and workers in
environmental remediation.
Access to public
transportation also is key in measuring a city’s commitment to
sustainability. As we work with the region’s leaders to ensure
Metro is an efficient and reliable means of transportation for millions,
we are also committed to bringing streetcars back to D.C. We have
proposed a 37-mile citywide streetcar system that is expected to attract
up to 7,700 jobs, raise property values by $7 billion and generate as much
as $8 billion in new development over the next decade. We will
open the first line along H Street and Benning Road NE Next year.
The Sustainable D.C.
initiative is just one more example of the District’s forward-thinking
approach to the challenges facing us in the years ahead.
That is why I am committed
to a government that is results-oriented – responsible, accountable and
responsive to its citizens. And that is why in my administration,
customer service will continue to be a top priority.
We were pleased to see an
independent researcher at Georgetown University conclude that the delivery
of basic services in the city continues to improve. According to the
analysis, on average it takes city workers five or fewer days to respond
to basic problems. This is due to a better-managed workforce and an
embrace of technology. But more importantly we are witnessing a growing
culture among District government workers that residents are our customers
and we are here, first and foremost, to serve them.
As we celebrate the progress
in our city, we also must recognize that our city is clearly changing
dramatically. Our population, our economy, our jobs, our schools and
our neighborhoods are all in the midst of an extraordinary transformation.
Perhaps most notably, the
demographics of our city are changing. The people the District is
attracting are younger and more diverse. Moreover, the District is
no longer a majority African-American city. And although I can
understand that all this change at once is difficult for some who have
lived here for many years, we must find a way to embrace the new while at
the same time preserving what we love about the District that makes it so
special.
We must welcome new arrivals
to our city just as we ask them to be good neighbors, respectful that they
are making a home in a city rich in history and tradition.
Increasingly, we are a people of every hue, ethnicity, age, culture and
religion.
My friends, after so much
change behind us and so much change yet to come, the District finds itself
at a crossroads.
The question is: Will we
sit, satisfied with the progress we have made over the past decade,
content to let the next chapter in the District’s history simply write
itself?
Ot,
will we seize this moment; seize the chance to grab hold of our shared
destiny – to chart the course to the new future that we want for the
District.
And so, the fundamental
question we face as a city at this moment is whether we will seize our
future!
Will we settle for a city
where some are increasingly well-off while a large number live nearby in
enduring poverty and without opportunity?
Or will we forge our future
together to develop a diverse economy accessible to all, where we grow the
pie for everyone, where everyone does their fair share, and where everyone
has a chance to succeed. Will we embrace the ambition that we are
all better off together?
And that, my friends, is
where the vision of One City is absolutely critical.
As many of you are well
aware, I have for some time spoken of “One City.”
Now there are those who
suggest “One City” is just a slogan – or an idyllic view of the
District that doesn’t exist.
Well, I am here to say I
harbor no illusions of where we are right now. But I am also not
afraid to dream of where we can and should be.
“One City” does not mean
we are all the same; far from it. Some of us do not share the same
equality of opportunity that this country has espoused for generation
after generation, while others bear a great share of the cost of a social
safety net that, despite the best of intentions, too often traps people in
a state of dependency and denies them the dignity of work.
Admittedly, “One City”
is an aspiration … a dream of what we can be. But it can also be a
practical guide for how we share and shape our future together – a
future where more and more of our people see and believe in rich vistas of
opportunity; an environment where the American Dream is embraced as the
District Dream.
“One City” means that by
choosing to live in this great city, we share the same civic destiny.
We share a yearning to live in a progressive, prosperous, inclusive city.
We choose to live here because we value diversity, because we know that
living in a vibrant, multicultural city makes us better as a city and
better as a people.
And so tonight, I am
presenting my ideas on how to seize the future, a call to arms to build
the “One City” of our dreams – a city where every resident:
-
Participates
in a diverse, thriving economy; -
Lives
in a safe neighborhood, free from crime; -
Is
able to send his or her children to a quality traditional public
school or public charter school; -
Has a
good quality of life that allows them to prosper as individuals and
families; -
Gets a
solid return on their investment in their government and high-quality
customer service from public servants; -
And
where every resident lives in the most environmentally sound,
sustainable city in the world.
My plan
for building “One City” focuses on three priorities: 1. creating a new
economy for the District that is growing and diversified; 2.
ensuring that District residents are prepared for the jobs of the new
economy; and 3. improving the quality of life for all.
The new
economy for the District of Columbia must be far less reliant on the
federal government and less dependent on real-estate development that too
often in the past was ad hoc and reactive.
Instead,
our comprehensive plan for creating a new economy must result in a
diversified, more resilient, and more balanced approach to economic
growth. And we cannot go it alone. We must engage important
partners like our universities, non-profits, organized labor and the
business community in order to more strategically reinforce our efforts.
Our plan
must first double down on growing existing industries that are already
sources of economic strength – like health care and hospitality. But we
must also invest in growing the jobs and industries of the future,
especially in the tech sector.
In fact,
we want to be the tech destination city on the East Coast, a rival to
Silicon Valley for talent and fast-growing businesses. We plan to
attract to the District a strong presence of mature, well-established tech
companies that can bring new energy. With the Congress Heights Metro
station and a new Coast Guard headquarters across MLK Avenue, the east
side of the old Saint Elizabeths campus is the perfect location for a new
tech campus.
But we
also want to incubate, nurture, grow and retain a new generation of our
very own tech start-ups. More and more, entrepreneurs are noticing
our vibrant city. And even better, we are offering “D.C. Tech
Incentives,” a series of tax breaks and tax credits that make clear to
emerging companies that we want you here in the District of Columbia.
We are
already well on our way toward this goal, with companies like Living
Social, Fortify.vc, HelloWallet, and newBrandAnalytics being launched and
now thriving in the District.
And in
addition to tax benefits, thanks to the ingenuity of a small
entrepreneurial team in the D.C. government, the District is now
America’s first and only 100-gigabit city – meaning we have faster and
greater broadband capacity than any other city in the nation. We
believe this high-tech ring, soon to fully encircle the District;
increasingly will be an incredible asset to help drive our high-tech
aspirations.
We must
also look beyond our own borders for new untapped markets. The District
cannot survive as an economic island. We know that 95% of the world’s
customers and 74% of the world’s purchasing power reside outside the
United States.
To better
access international markets – and thanks to grants from the Small
Business Administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce – my
administration has launched Export D.C., the District’s first major
small business export development program. Initially focusing on
South Africa, Brazil, and Asian markets, the District of Columbia will
export our world-class human capital to spur economic development and
create good, high-paying jobs here in the District.
For
example, in the next 10 years China is expected to build 30 billion square
meters of construction that must be in compliance with new, more rigorous
environmental laws. D.C.-based engineers, architects, and
consultants – who already know how to do this because of the
District’s forward-thinking work on sustainability – can take
advantage of these market opportunities and meet the emerging demand. We
have the talent right here in the District. Let’s show the world what
D.C. residents can do!
And to
promote our exports and to promote D.C. as an emerging tech capital, later
this year I plan to travel to China and make our case.
Now, to
build a new economy, we also must promote a culture of entrepreneurship,
innovation, and creativity. This is one of the main reasons people
are moving to the District. And, working with our schools and
universities, we must lead that effort – not follow it.
In
addition, we have not one but two once-in-a-generation development
opportunities with the campuses of Walter Reed and Saint Elizabeths.
It’s critical that we get both of them right, not only in terms of
capital and business assets for our city, but also in terms of job
creation and growth. An integral part of the strategy for Walter
Reed and Saint Elizabeths is that we are bringing more than 250 acres onto
the city’s tax rolls, to say nothing about the value of those sites once
they are developed. I will soon propose investing $50 million
from our capital budget to build the necessary infrastructure to support
the development of the Saint Elizabeths tech campus.
Another
key requirement for creating a new economy in the District is that we must
make it easier for businesses to do business here. Over the last
decade, we have made good progress in reforming the city bureaucracy and
reducing red tape. But everywhere I go, I still hear complaints
about how hard it is to run a business in the District of Columbia.
If we are ever going to be “one city,” that must change.
That’s
why I will soon appoint a business-regulatory-reform task force made up of
diverse representatives of the District’s business community to review
the city’s rules, regulations, fees and tax structure, and to make
recommendations to me about how we can make it easier for companies to
start up, grow and thrive in our city.
If we plan
and successfully execute the multi-pronged strategy I have just described,
we will have launched a new economy. And the result – more
opportunity for everyone – will help us take a huge step towards the
widespread prosperity “One City” requires.
The second
component of my “One City” plan is to ensure that District residents
are prepared for the jobs of the new economy. As our economy grows
and changes, we must work continually to close the skills gap, helping
residents get up to speed with learning and training that makes them
job-ready for the opportunities of the future.
That is
why our “Cradle-to-Career” initiative is so important, focusing on
preparing our young people for the global marketplace of tomorrow.
Investing in our own human capital will pay huge dividends down the road.
As we build a new economy, we must ensure that our homegrown talent is
ready to compete and ready to take advantage of it.
Key
elements of the Cradle-to-Career initiative are early childhood
development, education reform and job training.
We are the
first city in America to offer universal pre-K, and we are now ranked #1
in the nation in pre-kindergarten enrollment. But if we are ever
going to truly ensure that all our children are school – and eventually
job – ready, we need to expand access to universal, high-quality infant
and toddler care.
Research
shows that some of the most critical brain development occurs between
birth and 3 years of age, and that investments in early childhood
development pay huge dividends in closing and even preventing achievement
gaps caused by environmental factors. That is why we are focusing
significant resources on my “Early Success” initiative.
An
exciting new resource in our Early Success plan is the $12 million,
state-of-the-art early childhood Educare Center in the Kenilworth-Parkside
Promise neighborhood, which will provide services to 171 children and
their families. Support for this center is provided by such
blue-chip organizations as the Buffett Early Childhood Fund and the
Kellogg Foundation. We broke ground last year, and it will be completed in
less than 30 days.
At the
center we will test, learn and teach important best practices about early
childhood development that we then will roll out more broadly in a
coordinated, citywide strategy.
Another
critical component of the Cradle-to-Career plan is elementary and
secondary education. Much good work has been done to reform our schools.
But when it comes to education reform, we need to think even bigger.
We need to set our sights on becoming the best urban education system in
the nation. To do this, we must be a model of how the best
public schools can operate in a healthy, virtuous competition with the
best public charter schools to spur creativity, learning and achievement
that prepares young people to compete in the new economy.
And let me
be clear: Though from time to time we may disagree about some of the
details; I am a huge supporter of public charter schools.
At DCPS,
we are continuing to build a strong workforce made up of effective
teachers and principals. We have dramatically expanded the quality of
special education programming, enabling us to serve students closer to
home and reduce the number of students attending non-public schools by 20%
in just the past 11 months. We have seen gains in student performance as
measured both by our DC-CAS test and by the National Assessment of
Educational Progress. These gains have been especially notable in math
scores for secondary students.
However,
as we all know, much work remains to be done. I have asked Chancellor
Henderson to build on our successes, to redouble our efforts, and take
whatever steps are necessary to accelerate improvement, raise graduation
rates and help more students move beyond mere proficiency to advanced
levels of achievement.
And
finally, my Cradle-to-Career initiative must include an overhaul of our
job-training infrastructure. Job training of the past, however
well-meaning, too often prepared people for low-skill, low-growth
industries – and then we acted surprised when the jobs weren’t there.
We must
fundamentally redesign how we approach job training adapted to the needs
of the 21st century. It must be data-driven and must
equip people with the hard and soft skills necessary to compete for the
jobs of tomorrow.
And
finally, the third component of my “One City” plan – improving the
quality of life for all – begins with an emphasis on safer communities.
The District took a huge step forward this year when we finished the year
with fewer homicides than we had since the early 1960s. That
achievement, combined with a reduction in all violent crime, translates
into a far safer city for everyone.
But even
with this impressive accomplishment, much work remains. In the first few
weeks of 2012, thefts were up over the same period last year – and in a
few neighborhoods robberies were also up. In response to this uptick,
MPD is using tools to disrupt both the offenders and the fencing
operations that make this crime profitable. And since much of the
crime has been driven by the theft of smart phones, MPD is working with
the cellular phone carriers and the Federal Communications Commission to
render stolen devices useless.
Every
crime is treated as a serious crime, and we will not rest until every
neighborhood is safe. No resident, regardless of ward or neighborhood,
should live in fear. Crime, whether it’s petty theft or armed robbery,
will not be tolerated in our city, period – no excuses.
Sustainability
has to play a key role in the quality of life in our city. My goal
is to make the District the most sustainable and livable city in the
world. Already we are ranked among the top-10 greenest cities in
North America – but we want to be #1.
We are
piloting a shift to L.E.D. lights in the city’s alleys, which has
already produced significant energy savings. And we are starting to
test L.E.D. lights for roadway lighting. My plan is to replace all
30,000 roadway lights over the next five years, using the energy savings
to pay for it.
Just last
week I convened representatives of more than 40 embassies, who signed a
pledge to adopt environmentally friendly practices and help support our
campaign to be the greenest city in America. And in a few weeks, I
will gather the District’s university presidents to sign a similar
pledge.
While we
continue our investments in transit through expansion of the Capital
Bikeshare program and the launching of a streetcar system, we also are
exploring opportunities in renewable energy, especially solar energy.
You can be
sure that we are going to pursue every opportunity we can to make this the
most sustainable city in the United States of America.
A city can
only be as good as its government. To ensure our residents have a high
quality of life, we must provide them with the best return on their
investment. Every tax dollar should be spent wisely on a government
that works, and every public servant must remember who they are working
for. While the independent study I spoke of earlier gave us high
marks for customer service, we can and must do more; we must step up our
game.
That’s
why we are creating Grade.DC.gov, powered by DC’s own newBrandAnalytics.
It will allow residents to instantaneously provide feedback on city
services using their smart phone. We will launch a pilot of this
first-in-the-nation system in the coming months. When it is fully
operational, we will have a transparent, real-time grade for every
District agency.
Now, there
isn’t a mayor or governor in the country who wouldn’t trade their
financial picture for ours in a heartbeat. But we are not there yet.
Despite the fact that we ended 2011 with a significant surplus, we must
not give in to the temptation to relax, let down our guard or abandon our
commitment to fiscal responsibility. Now is not the time to stray from
that discipline.
Given an
uncertain economy and the prospect of dramatically reduced federal
spending that would cause shockwaves throughout our local economy, we must
stay the course on fiscal responsibility. If things improve, let us
all be pleasantly surprised. But I won’t let us go back to the
dark days of spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year from our
rainy-day fund because we didn’t or wouldn’t make responsible fiscal
choices.
We also
must step up our campaign to press the national agenda to resolve our
issue of self-determination. For without a voting voice in Congress,
no citizen has a voice in the national government. You can be
assured that I will continue to do everything in my power to press for
full rights for residents of what should be the 51st state.
And, yes we should become a state before the moon does.
But if we
are to be successful, everyone must join the fight. As a down
payment on what is owed to us, I call on the Congress to enact a clean
budget-autonomy bill, free of any riders that would override the will of
our people. Grant us the power to spend our own local money without
congressional interference.
Now, all
of our elected leaders – myself included, of course – need to exercise
excellent judgment and be ever-vigilant in how we discharge our
responsibilities.
When I ran
for this office, I promised to restore people’s faith in District
government. And while we have taken positive steps towards this goal
– like getting the District’s fiscal house in order – we fell short
through a series of missteps early in my administration.
I
understand why people were disappointed, and I take full responsibility
for those mistakes. In response, we brought in new leadership and
instituted strict new hiring policies to ensure we bring into my
administration only the most qualified appointees focused on moving the
District forward. This is a start at earning back people’s trust
– and I will work every day to continue to achieve that.
We took
another important step to restore people’s faith in government when we
mandated transparency in our operations – and I have put in place tough
policies that will ensure that our conduct in service to the people of the
District of Columbia is always consistent with the highest ethical and
legal standards.
We have
developed a comprehensive ethics manual and training program that is now
being rolled out across the D.C. government.
A few
months ago, I instituted an ethics pledge for me and the members of my
Cabinet. The pledge affirms that government employees are public
servants and guardians of the public trust. In the months to come,
every District government employees will be required to sign this pledge.
And, as I have demonstrated as recently as yesterday, we have no tolerance
for fraud or malfeasance in our government.
At the end
of 2011, the Council passed a meaningful ethics-reform law. And I want to
congratulate and thank the Council for taking action on this important
issue – and I look forward to working with it to implement this
legislation.
In an
effort to continue the conversation about working to be One City that we
started this evening, this Saturday, the people of the District will have
the opportunity to attend the One City Summit at the Convention Center.
I hope all of you will join me in an important statement about the value
of participatory democracy.
As we
contemplate the future of the District of Columbia, we have before us a
chance to remake and reinvent our city for the next generation – by
creating a new economy, preparing our residents for the jobs of tomorrow,
and improving our quality of life.
My
friends, let’s take advantage of this moment in our city’s history to
seize our future, harness change for the better, and build the elusive One
City that we all dream of.
Let’s
get to work, ladies and gentlemen!
Thank you,
and good night.