Cities Lead the Way
Dear Mayors, Leaders, and Guests,
As we prepare to come together this weekend for the US Conference of Mayors 86th Annual Meeting, I would like to extend to you another warm welcome to Boston. It is my honor and privilege to host all of you in this great city.
Boston is a city with a history of leading America into the future. We’re an old city with a new way of doing things.
Our first immigrants arrived in 1630, we started a Revolution in 1776, and today, our high tech and life science revolutions are changing the world. We built America’s first public schools, public parks, public libraries, and subways. We won the first World Series and ran the first modern marathon. We’re the city where Benjamin Franklin went to high school; Helen Magill became the first woman in America to earn a PhD; Martin Luther King Jr. got his doctorate, and many of you went to college or grad school as well.
To people all around the world today, Boston means learning and discovery, it means healing and teaching, it means equality and justice.
And to me, Boston is America. My mother and father came to this city as immigrants. They didn’t bring much with them, but they found opportunity. I was born and raised here in Dorchester. I got a second chance at recovery and my dream came true: to serve the city I love as its 54th Mayor.
My life is a story of this city. But the truth is: it’s the story of cities across America. Cities are the gateways for the immigrant, they are the rallying grounds of change, and they are the engines of opportunity that drive America forward. America needs its cities now, more than ever.
Our nation faces make-or-break challenges. An opioid crisis that’s devastating families from coast to coast; gun violence that’s traumatizing young people in city and suburb alike; climate change that’s putting entire communities at risk; and a feeling, among the hardest-working people in the world, that financial security is a privilege for the lucky few.
We have solutions ready to roll. But the national conversation isn’t working, and the American people are beginning to wonder if it ever will. But cities are different.
Mayors are with the people we serve every single day. We see and hear exactly how these issues impact their lives. America’s problems are not political abstractions to us; they are a to-do list. That’s why cities are moving forward; mayors get the job done. And when we get together — When we share ideas, And we join our voices for change? We take it to another level. We forge a new national conversation, the kind Americans deserve, free of grandstanding or partisan games.
From small cities to big cities; across red states, blue states, and purple states; in all our different accents, mayors are talking to each other and working together. That’s what our job comes down to. That’s why we work together, at this Conference and beyond it.
That’s why the U.S. Conference of Mayors is so important right now, at this moment in America’s history. And that’s why I’m so proud to host this conversation, right here in Boston, a city of firsts that’s always thinking about what’s next.
While you are here, I hope you will soak in Boston’s culture of revolutionary innovation. You’ll find it wherever you go. From the Freedom Trail, where we pioneered free speech, to the Black Heritage Trail, where we paved the way for freedom and equality. At the Boston Public Library, where we are digitizing freedom of knowledge, and the “Boston innovates!” Open House, where we are reinventing city services. You’ll find it at the Pride Parade and Bunker Hill Day parade this weekend.
It’s the spirit of Boston and it’s the spirit of America. I thank you for bringing your spirit to the city I love, for your contributions to our work, and for helping to move America forward.
I welcome you once more to Boston, for the 86th meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors.
See you soon,
Martin J. Walsh,
Mayor of Boston
