For All Our Cities: Reasons to be Hopeful

The role of leadership in a city is always important – but even more so during the difficult times.

John Gardner in his book “On Leadership” wrote, “The first and last task of a leader is to keep hope alive.”

So what is a leader’s message during a serious economic downturn?

The mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, provided a message of hope that contains elements that are applicable for cities of any size:

1. The value of ideas – “. . . as factories have moved overseas . . . a crucial sector of the industry – design – has remained. It’s the sector that relies on ideas. And to paraphrase Harvard University economist Edward Glaeser, the demand for ideas isn’t going away.”

2. The value of the entrepreneur – “. . . half of today’s Fortune 500 companies were founded during a recession or a bear market . . . In New York City, we’re expecting a big payoff from what we’re doing: opening business incubators, building boot camps for entrepreneurs, organizing business-plan competitions, expanding the amount of early-stage seed capital for startups, and cutting taxes for the smallest small businesses.”

3. The value of universities – “. . . our open society and world-class universities will remain a magnet for the world’s best and brightest . . . Economists have estimated that every person arriving on an H1-B visa creates jobs for five native-born Americans.”

4. The value of optimism – “For optimists, there are always opportunities . . . human achievement is built on the optimistic notion that what is not possible today can be possible tomorrow . . . .”

“America has never had a short supply of optimists, which may be the best of all reasons to be hopeful.”

Click to read Mayor Bloomberg’s entire article: Business Week, August 24 & 31, 2009, page 53.