Wayne Messam Quotes

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

New Yorkers have real issues, and they deserve to have a mayor that is prepared to work with them to solve the challenges they have, reduce the problems that they have, and they deserve to have a mayor's race that is focused on them.

Mayors are known to be problem-solvers.

Yes, Portland is governable. Yes, it's challenging.

I believe my role as mayor is to be out in the community and as much as possible, I want my team out in the community.

As a rule, our largest cities are the worst governed.

You have the biggest impact on controlling, on affecting local lives as mayor. It's so much more important than being a state legislator.

I didn't run for mayor because everything was going great in Baltimore in 1999.

When I grew up, and I think about City Council, I look at the men and women then - these were people who just wanted to be a part of the community and give something back. They weren't necessarily trying to use it as a steppingstone to something else. I looked up to those people.

I’m the first to say that I’ve no idea what I’m doing. There is no manual here for how to be mayor.

I talk about jobs. I talk about education. I talk about making government work for people. That's really the dinner-table issues that I hear from Michiganders in every part of our state.

I didn't want to be president; I didn't want to be governor; I didn't want to be a congress person. I just wanted to be mayor of the city of Detroit. I lived there my entire life.

A city is in many respects a great business corporation, but in other respects it is enlarged housekeeping. ... may we not say that city housekeeping has failed partly because women, the traditional housekeepers, have not been consulted as to its multiform activities?

As Mayor, I have a responsibility to ensure city government is making life better for all Angelenos, especially those whose past hard work laid the foundation for the city we enjoy today. Whether someone is born here, or comes here for college, career, or retirement, I want L.A. to be a place that welcomes all generations.

Washington is busy with nothing that absorbs the minds and occupies the energies of the typical American city.

A mayor is a political leader for a city. He doesn't know anything necessarily about city administration, and furthermore he shouldn't have to.

As go our cities so goes our country.

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

We have ... to convince the people of America's cities that government is on their side.

You can't run a city by people who do not live there.

When the mayor's concerned about something, eveybody's concerned about it.

People do not dislike their local government, but they do think it could do better.

I ran for Congress in 1992, but I lost the election, and I really dropped the idea of ever serving in Congress. Eventually, I went home and became the mayor of my city, West Palm Beach. I was mayor for eight years.

Once you've been a mayor, you look to try to get things done.

Some city-council people are really awesome, but most are uninspired.