Good afternoon

First, let me thank the City Club for hosting this State of the City address. Let me also pay tribute to each of you here or watching or listening at home who care deeply enough about the future of our city to participate. I am grateful.

Cleveland’s citizens are informed—ready to contribute time and talent to this city and its people. Partnership between city government and its citizens is democracy at its best—your presence today tells me that partnership is already underway…..

Now, close your eyes and envision Cleveland in the year 2010, the turn of the first decade in the 21st century.

My daughters, Jessie and Katie, will be 23 and 21, respectively. I imagine a Cleveland ready to take their energy, a Cleveland pulsing with a diverse population of more than 500,000 citizens from all around the world….

Our vision is energizing, however, only if it is shared and only if there is a clear plan to make that vision a reality. Allow me to refer to the handout at each of your tables or on the screen for our television viewers. For those of you listening in on the radio, you may find this chart on our Web site located at www.city.cleveland.oh.us

Mark this day.
   
Today we declare that the decline of Cleveland’s population is over
   
If someone were to look at the 2000 Census, he’d see the number 485,000. So one might think it would be fairly simple to add 15,000 people and reach 500,000+. But when you consider that Cleveland lost close to 30 percent of its population in the 1970s, another 13 percent in the 80s, and five percent in the 90s, growing by a little more than three percent requires curbing urban sprawl from our core city.

By all measures, this three percent swing would merit celebrating.

People create vitality. People create jobs. People buy homes. People help one another.

How did we get to this number and its corresponding plan? Countless meetings, strategic planning sessions, and long debates among my leadership produced the framework for our 2010 plan. To be sure, the late Richard Shatten introduced many of us to the “staffed public-private partnership” theory, which certainly influenced our plan.

Our action teams include leaders and core staff resources from public entities, colleges and universities, development and neighborhood groups, small companies and non-profits, faith communities, and even retirees.

We are creating partnerships to move forward on new strategic initiatives. Note to everyone listening: this is more than a host of ceremonial committees. We will harness the energy and civic pride that has been asleep at the wheel or that hasn’t even been invited to the table.

I’m calling this the “Cleveland 500,000+ Committee,” which is charged with coordinating the entire effort. This visionary group will meet monthly to set direction and monitor progress…

We are welcoming internationalism and racial/cultural diversity.

Our wonderfully diverse city is home to people from 116 countries. Some see this as a challenge to make sure this melting pot doesn’t become a pressure cooker.

But, I see this as perhaps one of our best opportunities.

Great cities in this country including Cleveland have been built by foreign born immigrants.

Consider that only New York City and Chicago welcomed more immigrants than Cleveland at the turn of the century. A strategic attraction of immigrants will again be Cleveland’s priority.

I’ve asked organizations such as the World Trade Center, BioEnterprise, and others to create a plan for attracting both companies and individuals to Cleveland. Already the Ohio-Israeli Chamber of Commerce succeeded in bringing in business. Leaders such as Monte Ahuja, Anthony Yen, and Albert Ratner are working on ways to enhance the energy and entrepreneurial spirit that people from around the globe can bring to a community.

After all, today we have only four percent foreign-born Clevelanders. At the height of our growth, the number neared 40 percent, which is the number in Toronto today.

We must honor the struggles of those who originally immigrated—not by choice, but in chains—our African-Americans.
Our diversity and inclusion efforts will continue to expand diversity in hiring, to ensure that every one of our contracts possible includes minority and female participation, that our supplier networks look like Cleveland, and that we mount a real effort to break down racial segregation in housing and stereotyping of any kind—especially that which leads to hate crimes.

We need to act not only to strengthen our openness to immigration, but also to guarantee real opportunity for all Clevelanders…