Welcoming the World to Dallas
By Mike Rawlings, Mayor of Dallas, and Bill Mills, CEO for North America, Citi June 21, 2014 08:48 AM
On Friday, the City of Dallas welcomed the U.S. Conference of Mayors' 82nd annual meeting. America's ninth-largest city and an integral part of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area, Dallas today is a better place to live, work, invest in, and visit than just a few short years ago. The city's extraordinary revival makes Dallas the perfect location for more than 200 mayors across the country and leaders from the private and non-profit sectors to come together to find ways to better serve their citizens and communities.
Today, 50 percent of the world's population lives in cities. By 2050, that number is expected to rise to 70 percent, or nearly seven billion people. Urbanization - one of the three defining trends of our time - is being driven and shaped by the other two, globalization and digitization. In the years ahead, the most successful cities will be those that embrace and adapt to these trends.
The good news is that many cities have become laboratories of innovation, and increasingly what happens in one city can be replicated around the globe. Although cities each have their own unique DNA, they also share similar goals - from upgrading infrastructure, to providing our children with the highest quality education, to ensuring opportunities for all residents to build assets.
Forging the right public-private partnerships is critical to the continued growth of cities and success of their people. The role of commercial institutions is not just good for our economy and for business. It also makes a difference on the everyday lives of the people of Dallas. In fact, given tighter budgets and the need to do more with less, the private sector can play a role in helping cities innovate and finance urban problem-solving.
Take the example of tourism. Cities around the United States and the world are competing to attract visitors from all walks of life, and having a robust aviation sector and investing in improvements to our airports are crucial to tourism's growth. Working with Citi, the cities of Dallas and Forth Worth financed enhancements to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and also made the establishment of the Omni Dallas Hotel possible.
Whether it's here in Dallas, or in cities across the nation, joining with leaders in government, private companies, non-profit organizations and more, we can help enable progress for people in urban communities - embracing opportunity, but also addressing complex challenges. For instance, earlier this year, the Mayor's Task Force on Poverty was established to address growing economic vulnerability in Dallas.
A 2012 report by the Corporation for Enterprise Development and commissioned by the Communities Foundation of Texas with leadership from Citi Community Development found that four in ten residents have so few assets that they would fall below the poverty line in three months without income from work. Citi is one of a number of public, private and non-profit members of the taskforce that will combine its resources, expertise and networks to address growing poverty in Dallas.
Since many urban areas face similar challenges, it only makes sense that we come together to talk about them and share best practices about how to address them. With the U.S. Conference of Mayors upon us, there is no better time for cities to come together to learn from each other and drive innovation in communities across the world.