Municipal Governance Quotes

Otherwise, I think the building can be bigger, larger, and the city can be much more crazy. The problem is the government structure is so deadly stupid, not really solving problems but creating a lot of problems itself every day.

Obviously as a mayor, I'm in competition with my neighboring cities as well as cities around the country.

Local government is a gamble that can have disastrous consequences when it fails.

The more destruction there is everywhere, the more it shows the activity of town authorities.

A majority in all parties do, I think, want to see local government recover its old vigour and independence.

Before I became prime minister, as mayor of Jerusalem, I became world-renowned because of my fight for the unity of Jerusalem.

I know people don't like America very much, but the one thing it's very good on is local government.

Lisa Nandy is absolutely right that we need to devolve economic power away from Westminster and learn from what Labour councils around the country are doing.

Quite as serious an error [of the French] is the failure to provide for local self-government. As this lies at the bottom of republican institutions, and should be, moreover, the first concern of democracy

The Mayor, Aldermen and Councilors of the City of Nauvoo, IL, before entering upon the duties of their office, shall take and subscribe an oath or affirmation that they will support the Constitution of the United States, and of this State and that they will well and truly perform the duties of their offices to the best of their skill and abilities.

I can be the mayor; I can do it right now. I can go in there right now and put things together. I was truly anointed for that position and I wasn't mature enough in my spirit, in my manhood to handle that responsibility at the time it was given to me.

I recommend to you the subdivision of our territorial area into counties, suited to the wants and convenience of the people, with provision for the more minute subdivisions of townships, districts and precincts for municipal government and police. These subdivisions ought to be as small as the density of population may render possible. It is in these complete little republics where the sovereign power of the people is always in exercise, where self government has perpetual vitality and independent freedom is practiced and enjoyed.

Toronto deserves Rob Ford; they put him in office. Toronto deserves everything it gets.

If you want to govern the nation, you should first be able to govern San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.

Citties are taken by the eares.

Congressmember Weiner has shown just a pattern of reckless behavior, an inability to tell the truth, and what New Yorkers deserve is a mayor with a record of delivering for them, of vision, and a level of maturity and responsibility.

I want to become Kiev's mayor because I love my city very much and want to improve life in it.

Mayors are accountable. Local governments are accountable.

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

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

It is hereby earnestly proposed that the USA would be much better off if that big, sprawling, incoherent, shapeless, slobbering civic idiot in the family of American communities, the City of Los Angeles, could be declared incompetent and placed in charge of a guardian like any individual mental defective.

I write about how in Midland, the mayor instituted water conservation measures like restrictions on car washing. He made a point though that they were only "suggestions" and not government telling people what to do. But then his constituents got very ticked off at the sight of their neighbors breaking the rules and demanded that they be made into actual laws with penalties.

Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.

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

I probably saved more black lives as mayor of New York City than any mayor in the history of this city. And I did it by having to use police officers in black areas where there was an astounding amount of crime. If that crime was in white areas, police officers would be in white areas.