Rick Scott Quotes

Urbanization has relied on land conversion and land financing, which is causing urban sprawl and, on occasion, ghost towns and waste.

Many of them are doing it because they are concerned about smart growth.

It's not, 'We have a city to bid, now let's go check in with the federal government'.

As a former mayor, I know that local governments must have control over land use decisions.

If, instead of hiring half-baked revolutionary planners to fill our college undergraduates with ingenious schemes to disperse populations, split up big cities into little ones, go underground or into distant places to escape bombs and congestion, abandon large urban areas in favor of roadside villages, we were to publish reliable, simply written, common-sense information to control the building boom, what a country this would be!

I'm against government-subsidized parking and government-mandated parking.

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

Development in this county is always going to be an issue. Until development and zoning are handled on a regional basis, rather than each municipality left to its own devices, we will suffer from developers having the upper hand in suits and in front of zoning boards.

Mayors are leaders, doers. We get things done, and we are moving America's cities forward.

Cities have to realize that whatever the federal government is going to do, it's not going to be enough. And cities that proactively take control of their own quality of life initiatives are going to be the cities that ultimately attract the highly talented young people and create the jobs.

I care about making New York better.

Happiness statistics may be most valuable in smaller, local discussions. Understanding how different sorts of programs affect the well-being of citizens would be enormously helpful to a mayor choosing between building a new bridge or offering a tax cut.

Sprawl is the American ideal way to develop.

Every state has the right to take the necessary steps to maintain under public control the use, possession, disposal and reservation of land. Every state has the right to plan and regulate the use of land, which is one of its most important resources, in such a way that the growth of population centers both urban and rural are based on a comprehensive land use plan.

In today's society a zoning commissioner or a tax assessor can have far greater impact on personal liberty than a president.

The government of the cities is the one conspicuous failure of the United States.

Mayors, I think, tend to be more no-nonsense, and you look for economic opportunities for your communities.

As a former nine-year member of the Board of Supervisors and nine-year mayor, I know firsthand the merits of strong zoning laws. They protect residential areas so they can support families and be free of commercial activities that are not related to neighborhood needs.

The federal government shouldn't be drawing lines on a map in terms of what transit infrastructure are needed; we should be there to be a partner with the cities, with the provinces, that need that.

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

We need a system where some politicians - who quite rightly respond to the public mood - are prepared to stand up in favour of housebuilding, so I came up with a system that gives local people something they really want in return for building more homes. In our case in Hatfield, it's a new town centre.

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

Mayors, city council members, and legislators come and go, but neighborhoods don't go anywhere.

Cities around the United States do not have land use planning like we have in Oregon, and they are all struggling with issues like affordable housing.

We need a government policy all-out in favor of more, denser housing.