James Tobin Quotes

what I love about city government is that the citizens can create whatever kind of city they're willing to build.

Being mayor is about offering a vision for the city, putting the right people in the right place, and executing that vision.

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.

As Mayor, I will lead city government, businesses, and community groups to support innovative projects that will make San Francisco streets and public places vibrant and healthy.

I was elected to carry forward my overall vision for the city.

The mayoral mentality is incredibly valuable. I don't want to lose that.

San Francisco is a City for everyone and our government needs to work for all of our residents.

Part of me would love to be mayor for the simple reason that I love my city.

As mayor, I'm charged with a big-picture agenda.

I get up in the morning and by the time I've gone to bed there's three or four or five new crises that weren't there when I started the day. That's what being mayor of Portland is about.

I started my career as an urban planner, working for the city, doing what I would call 'do-gooder' things, particularly for low-income neighborhoods.

I know what it takes to move cities forward. It's not about rhetoric and great speaking, but it takes relationships.

After working in cities for nearly 40 years, I am telling you that every city can improve its quality of life in less than three years, no matter the scale or the financial conditions.

The true privilege of being Mayor is that I have the opportunity to be everyone's neighbor.

Preparing our city to achieve its destiny will require strong leadership.

Everybody would love to be mayor of Chicago. If you look at what we have done over many, many years and where we are today and the commitment by the business community, the commitment by the not-for-profit community - all this coming together - this is a wonderful city.

I don't think Michael Bloomberg would say that his greatest skill is delivering the speech. He would say he's more of a nuts-and-bolts mayor-picking up the trash, dealing with the school system.

What kind of town do we want in the future, and how are we going to plan on that?

My brother is the former mayor of Baltimore.

I have 15 years of executive experience as a big-city mayor and as a governor.

Every city is either vibrant these days or is working on a plan to attain vibrancy soon. The reason is simple: a city isn't successful - isn't even a city, really - unless it can lay claim to being 'vibrant.'

The most important thing a mayor does is hire talented people to run the city.

I'm not interested in being Don Quixote. I'm interested in running the City of New York.

I really do believe that mayors have the political position to really change people's lives.

As mayor of San Francisco, I will provide the vision and work hard to make San Francisco a beautiful, well-planned city with excellent housing and transportation options.