22 June 2008

A Metropolitan Strategy for America’s Future

... we need to promote strong cities as the backbone of regional growth. And yet, Washington remains trapped in an earlier era, wedded to an outdated “urban” agenda that focuses exclusively on the problems in our cities, and ignores our growing metro areas; an agenda that confuses anti-poverty policy with a metropolitan strategy, and ends up hurting both.

...we also need to stop seeing our cities as the problem and start seeing them as the solution. Because strong cities are the building blocks of strong regions, and strong regions are essential for a strong America. ....I’ll appoint the first White House Director of Urban Policy to help make it a reality.

...Let’s re-commit federal dollars to strengthen mass transit and reform our tax code to give folks a reason to take the bus instead of driving to work – because investing in mass transit helps make metro areas more livable and can help our regional economies grow. And while we’re at it, we’ll partner with our mayors to invest in green energy technology and ensure that your buses and buildings are energy efficient. And we’ll also invest in our ports, roads, and high-speed rails – because I don’t want to see the fastest train in the world built halfway around the world in Shanghai, I want to see it built right here in the United States of America.

....Now is not the time for small plans. Now is the time for bold action to rebuild and renew America. We’ve done this before. Two hundred years ago, in 1808, Thomas Jefferson oversaw an infrastructure plan that envisioned the Homestead Act, the transcontinental railroads, and the Erie Canal. One hundred years later, in 1908, Teddy Roosevelt called together leaders from business and government to develop a plan for a 20th century infrastructure. Today, in 2008, it falls on us to take up this call again – to re-imagine America’s landscape and remake America’s future. That is the cause of this campaign, and that will be the cause of my presidency.

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
U.S. Conference of Mayors, Saturday, June 21, 2008, Miami, Florida

4 comments:

Jason said...

Thanks for posting these quotes. Its wonderful to see the potential the future holds if we are so fortunate to see a man like Obama elected to the White House.

WestEnder said...

I like the part about the high speed trains. I've been saying that since college. I get funny looks and he gets an ovation. What's up with that?

CityKin said...

^... times have changed. Maybe if you said that today, instead of last year, you would get a better response.

Jimmy_James said...

Now if he can just speak like that ALL the time instead of falling back on hammering George W Bush (who isn't running for office), he might just get my vote. Why is it that I only see great quotes like this on a blog and not in the newspapers or on TV?