Venture for America operates in communities that could generally use more innovation: Detroit, New Orleans, Baltimore, and other U.S. cities. So I'm obviously a big believer in innovation and progress as key drivers of economic growth and prosperity.
In 2011, I started a nonprofit organization, Venture for America, to help bring talented young entrepreneurs to create thousands of jobs in Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Birmingham, Baltimore and other cities around the country.
I think Detroit shows that we've come to the end of the industrial epoch and have to find a new mode of production.
The arts can play a vital role in revitalizing neighborhoods, using and improving vacant space, bringing new jobs and new sense of opportunity, and improving public safety by generating more foot traffic and more eyes on the street.
We want the city back on its feet. We want to have jobs for the city.
Coming to Buffalo three years, two and a half years ago, whatever it's been a lot of people said, 'Why are you going there? You're not going to be able to get it turned around.' But we got it turned around, with a lot of work yet to do.
Like all things, cities must change - even a city as enamoured of the past and memory as D.C.
New ideas often need old buildings.
I'd probably put myself in the top 1% in knowledge of blight in the city of Detroit.
My legacy as governor was UConn and the cities. This is my passion. When I was governor, I would call Waterbury the center of the universe.
We must not only protect the country side and save it from destruction, we must restore what has been destroyed and salvage the beauty and charm of our cities ... Once our natural splendor is destroyed, it can never be recaptured. And once man can no longer walk with beauty or wonder at nature, his spirit will wither and his sustenance be wasted.
But I am committed to keeping this city a strong and viable center for commerce and industry, for continuing to make it a place of opportunity for its citizens.
We must kill the street. We shall truly enter into modern town planning only after we have accepted this preliminary determination.
Oddly enough, government policy helped get the fast food outlets into the city. Very well-intentioned small business administration loans to encourage minority business ownership. The easiest business to get into is opening a fast-food franchise in the inner city.
It's interesting: the letters I get from mayors that want Wal-Mart to look and invest in their community.
I want to become Kiev's mayor because I love my city very much and want to improve life in it.
Inspire other communities and cities to reinvent themselves.
San Francisco can no longer afford to be a city divided between downtown and neighborhoods, with a downtown that becomes a ghost town when workers go home for the evening.
I love going to the river not only to enjoy nature, but to think about the Los Angeles River's place in our city's history and to envision its great place in our future.
Hollywood - an emotional Detroit.
I think Detroit would do real well if we started repopulating it with young, aspirational people.
We have to acknowledge that we can't look to manufacturing or natural resources to drive growth like we have in the past. Human capital, talent, and knowledge are our most important resources now. Every city has hidden seeds of opportunity waiting to be nurtured. Places like Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh are among my favorite cities. They have great universities, clusters of innovation across a range of industries, and pools of innovative and creative talent to build on.
Many, many large cities have old, crumbling infrastructure that have got to be dealt with in the nearest future, or they're going to be in serious trouble. They'll be unlivable if they don't do something.
I'd like to see Apple and Dell factories be brought to the inner cities; in every project in America, there's some factory there, and it's abandoned, and I'd like to see those factories open and bring jobs to America.
I think we were instrumental in saving downtown Seattle. To me, that's the biggest thing we did.
