The Future of Smart Cities Special: Spotlight on Infrastructure

That is Megan Barry. She's here for a smart Cities event that our Bloomberg Government office is great to have you. Thank you with us. I'm a moderated panel with six mayors, so it's much to talk to you one. We'll see how that goes. Good luck. Help us with a definition for first of all, we talk about smart cities, what are we talking about, Well, you're talking about lots of different things. I mean, for us, it's about transit and how you build in that smart technology and all the

transit that you have going on. So we're really becus right now on just the basic things like getting our signals timed. I mean, that makes the city smart. But it's the more comprehensive visionary stuff like a v uh you know, automated vehicles and and those. How we're all going to get around cities in the future. How much of that is elective? In other words, is there a need for Nashville to move in this direction or is it something you would like to see? No, we need

to move. I mean we are so far behind in transit. I mean you walk around in New York and d C. And you see these incredible transit infrastructures. We don't have any of that. So we're we're really at the very beginning of building that infrastructure out. We've got bus systems, but we need light rail, we need uh passenger rail, we need a whole bunch of much more comprehensive infrastructure.

How do you assess the appetite for that. You've got citizens who may want this, They're gonna have to pay for at least some of it, right, How do you know what's a good investment from Chapel Hill. And He's gonna talk for a long time about building light rail between Chapel Hill, Gerham and Raleigh. It's something that people maybe have their eye on, but then when they see the cost of it, they they blanched a little bit.

How do you pick the projects that are worthwhile for for the citizens in natural So what we look at is where our act of riderships and where can we actually put trains it down on the line. And I will tell you right now, with the growth of Nashville, eighty one people a day are moving to Nashville. So you feel that crunch are our roads just can't take the capacity anymore. So we've got to be more creative

and that's what being smart's all about. You're here in Washington, d C. Yes, we're gonna we're gonna do a panel. You're also going to be on Capitol Hill. What role do you see the federal government playing? We heard the President in the speech to a joint session of Congress saying he wants a trillion dollars in infrastructure spending, public private partnerships and the like. What role should the federal government playing and doing that? Well, I hope that that's

the case. I'd love to see that trillion dollars make its way to Nashville. We'll take just a piece of it. Not you don't even need just a little to little piece. Um. I think the federal government has to be a critical partner. But I think that local municipalities can't wait anymore. Um. I think that there used to be a time when the Feds would say, hey, here's our here's a pot of money. I think now locals have to come and say, we've we've got this, We've got some money to put

in ourselves. Let's find a way to make this all happen together. How much of a challenge is getting private sector investment into infrastructure? Church? Is that something that you're looking at, Is it's something that what's the case that you make to investors to to put money towards Nashville.

So as we begin those conversations about how we're going to fund our six billion dollar transit plan, P three's are critical, and and I think that we are seeing other places where you've got private investment that wants to flow in. We are. Actually, my my vernacular is a little different. We call them private public. Yes, there's going to probably be a lot more private money in this in public still still three ps, yes, three ps. But the order matters. The dialogue here is between you and

other mayors from around the country. How much of what you're doing is pulling stuff that's tried and true in other places, bring it to naturally, how much are you looking for things that are replicatable. We're looking for anything. We don't think that we have to have pride of ownership. We're all about trying to find something that's already worked and and taking it. And the good thing about local municipalities and mayors in particular as we want to share.

So I was recently in Denver with the mayor of Mayor Hancock looking at their transit system and learning from what they've done. And the thing is those that have come before you can also learn from their mistakes. So we really want to share with each other. And I think that's really really create. You know, critical you mentioned the degree to which Nashville is growing. What's your vision for what that city looks like in ten twenty years time.

It's going to be bigger, It's going to be bigger, it's going to be different just in terms of getting around or what's going to be there. Well, I mean, I think when you think about Nashville, one of our

best pieces is that we are attracting incredible talent. We are attracting a diverse talent pool, and we want to be able to make sure that they want to stay and be able to get around really easily and not having that that that traffic that you know every day, and it's going to make a huge difference to their quality of life. I just ask you about legacy. I was talking with tom My co host a little while back,

the mayor and Bedford's gonna be here. You think you Bedford, you think of fishing, I think of Nashurally, you think of music. As you look at the future of the city, how do you deal with that legacy being associated with something but wanting the city to stand for something more, have other industry come in for example, Well, you know music is a huge part of what Naville. You know, yeah, our our economy, but we're also a huge healthcare capital.

I mean, we have a lot of One of the things that made us actually very strong through the recession was that we have a very diverse economic engine. So we you know, continuing to grow that, making sure we're not putting all of our eggs in one basket. But at the same time, music is what makes us special and you sure you never want to lose that. We have to get lastly here, we've got about thirty seconds left.

How you assess what works? So you invest in something you try something different, how much time do you give that, how much do you how do you look at the data and see what's working what's not. Well, first of all, you actually said the key word, which is data. I mean, I think in the past we've just thrown things down

and said let's just cross our fingers. Now we actually have taken a long time to study and find out where the ridership is, especially for these mass transit projects, and we've got the data so it we're at least starting a little bit ahead now. The success will be if people write it. Maim Berry, thank you very much for joining us here at the bloom Reosmart Cities event that get started just a little way a little while here.

How the mayor of Nashville joining me, David Garry here in Washington, as you said, with the Congressman Elizabeth st she's a Congressman from the fifth District in Connecticut. We're just talking with the Mayor of Nashville about her ambitions from making Nashville a smart city, and she talked a little bit about the degree to which she's relying on the federal government to help her in those efforts. You're on Capitol Hill. Uh, where there has been talk of

infrastructure spending, a new infrastructure package. Where do things stand? Just give us the state of play at this point. Ifice to say it's a busy agenda on Capitol Hill. At this point, it's a busy agenda. And uh, you know, this is an area where there's enormous interest in bipartisan support. There isn't a district congressional district in America. There isn't a state that isn't in need of infrastructure, whether it's

new infrastructure for growing cities. You take some I know you'd be talking to the mayor Charlotte soon or the industrial Northeast where where I live where I represent Waterbury, Connecticut and areas like that, or the industrial Midwest. We all need infrastructure and so that should to provide the pressure. The challenge that we're facing is how do we finance it? And that's really what we're looking at right now. Lots of different proposals. The presidents put a trillion dollar price

tag of as truck schumer Um in the House. We've got i would say, more actionable plans that we put forward, and we're going to now try to move them forward. You know, we talked about tax reform, and the blueprint from which we're working is this, is this Ryan Brady blueprint? Is there something similar for infrastructure spending at this point? In other ways you have people making proposals, but is there a piece of legislation, no matter how in co

it from which lawmakers are working at this point. Are we not there yet? We're not really there yet, although there are a couple of different proposals. Most folks think we're likely to see some form of repatriation of overseas profits, of which we're looking at trillions of dollars, which could provide the corpus from which we could then uh, you know, do a major infrastructure bank for example. Um, that needs to be part of the deal. But as you can imagine,

other people have designs on that money too. Um. And so I don't think Chairman Brady is uh, nor Speaker Ryan my workout by Speaker Ryan are quite yet ready to agree to that. So so that's basically what we've got. The order we have we have first coming healthcare to free up money for tax reform, and only then are we going to get to infrastructure. So that's really the hang up right now is is that ordering is making it hard for us to come to an agreed upon deal.

Here with Congressman st at the Bloomberg Smart Cities event and uh, it's a casual, freewheeling space. The Mayor of Columbus has just shown up and again choices here on Blomberg surveillance talking about the role that the federal government might play. Your city was a bona fide smart city, granted a lot of money by the federal government as part of a competition. How has that money helped you move your city forward? What? What what word work did that competition do to get you to where you want

to be? Well, we're working on it there. Yeah, just awarded a year ago and very pleased with the way the community has responded. We started with a forty million dollar award from d O T ten million from Vulcan. At the time we were awarded, we had about ninety million dollars of local match public private entities locally that

we're matched up into this acceleration fund. And now we're at three d and sixty seven million total and we've just said a goal of a billion dollars by So what you're really starting to see is some of the pilots that we had in place for our proposal really hitting the ground in neighborhoods like Lyndon, one of our

neighborhoods with highest levels of incarceration, infant mortality, unemployment, and poverty. UH, to really start to open up more modes of safe, reliable transportation to jobs, affordable, high quality childcare, job training, workforce development. That's what this is all about. I really believe that mobility is the great equalizer of the twenty first century, and that's why it's so important. So to

have allies with vision like Congressman here and and others. UH. We're spending some time here in Washington talking about what we're doing with Smart Columbus and asked for continued commitment and investment UH into intelligent transportation for the future. Of course, messy. How much of a dialogue is there between the federal government and the local government. How could you do more

to understand what's working and what's not here in Washington. Well, I do a great deal with my own districts and and UH Neil O'Leary, who's mayor of Waterbury, is very involved in the Smart Cities. They've applied for a smart Cities Grant and I couldn't agree more with the mayor here about we really do need to have mobility. And sometimes this gets hung up about is a job's shovel ready, jobs right now, but it's jobs into the future. It's

jobs right now and into the future. So I look at challenges we have, for example with access to community colleges, well, that is dependent on having a bus service. The folks who use community college need night buses and we've had struggles over that, and that's why I'm so enthusiastic about things like the Smart Cities projects. Sit these are places and having represented a local community, the rubber hits the road, you've got to fix the pothole. You have to deliver services.

You can't be an idea logue. Nobody cares what letters after your name. If you're a mayor, are you getting the job done? And I know that for my time doing that. That's why I want to see these laboratories not just to the States, but the laboratories of the cities, which where more people are living more and more in our cities. Let them use these projects, show what works, and then we do more of what works, unless of what doesn't coach, I see, thank you very much. Thanks

to you American there as well. I'm gonna be on stage just a little while. Let you guys get breakfast first before I tackles some panels on stage. I'm here at the Bloomberg Government Smart Cities event in Washington, a DC too short of visit with with these two, I just want to get the statehood question out of the way, and Charlie, being from New York, had no idea, So

I'm going to let you explain that. Sure. So we have been on a quest to make d C equal to every other state in America, and actually Washingtonians, who are taxpayers, equal to every other American. And that's what we've been focused on in the district. We are a city, county, and state all at once. EXCEP. We have no vote in the Congress of the United States, the only capital in the world where it's citizens UH don't have representatives in UH in the Congress. UH. So we have presented

a bill to the Congress to change that. Last year, over eight percent of Washingtonians voted to become the fifty first state UH. And the Congress can make this change by a simple vote. A large percentage of DC residents also voted for Hillary Clinton to be president and Donald Trump is our president. Historically, d C does not fare as well for local control under Republican administration. So given this is DC statehood right now with pipe dream, Well,

actually that's not the case. UH. In the district, our congresswoman and leaders of the District of Columbia have worked with Republicans and Democrats alike UH to advanced issues that help Washingtonians. We have had Republicans, including the Vice President of the United States, UM, Mike pens vote U to have Washingtonians to have a vote in the Congress, to have a delegate have a vote. UM. So for us,

this has not a Republican or Democratic issue. UH is an issue of that's very central to our American democracy. If you pay taxes, UH, you get a vote in representation in the in the Congress. Now, you were here because of smart cities and to talk about infrastructure. UM. I wanted to get an idea about that, particularly when you think about Metro and all of the problems that it's have had of late. What are some of the best practices that you're able to take away from this

and to present to this conference. Um, well, it's I always like to be with other mayors to see, um, what what they're working on. We had a great conversation about how U as d O T can be involved. There's a discussion about on the need for the reauthorization of a federal Transportation Act, which we're very focused on

as well. Uh in the district, of course, we function as city, county, and state, so we have all of those roles, and we worked with the region with Maryland and Virginia because we're Metro funders, so we like to see a big move. The President promised for a big infrastructure bill and hopefully the money to go with it to make the necessary investments because we have them too. We have them been transit, we have them the roads,

and we have them in bridges. You and Amy both make the point that this is a cross state issue in terms of being a smart city. As d C, what are the some of the challenges and working with your neighbors to make sure that you're all pursuing these goals mutually. Well, I think that the biggest issue that we have is is Metro because it is by a compact operated by Maryland d C and Virginia at SET

when it was created more than forty years ago. Now, there was not a regional funding mechanism put in place, and there's no other transit system like ours in the United States UM that doesn't all of those systems have a dedicated funding source, and that's what we're We're very focused on. Other parts of infrastructure, could include anything from cyber to UH handling UH the homeless. What are some

of the big initiatives that's facing DC right now? Well, housing, We include housing certainly in UH all of our infrastructure ask UM. The federal government has a role. They have some public housing in Washington, UM, but we are also making a hundred million dollar investment in our Housing Production Trust Fund each and every year UH, and that puts US in tops across the country. In the amount that

we're investing in affordable housing. We are particularly concerned about some housing to have affordability covenants now UM that will expire over the next several years, So part of our efforts are around preservation of those eight thousand units. One of the issues that a lot of mayors are struggling with where you have had medical or recreational marijuana initiatives is federal state city jurisdiction. How is DC's marijuana recreational

marijuana use allowance faring under the Jeff Sessions Justice Department. Well, we uh, per se don't have a legalization of recreational marajuana. Um and it's just confusing, So let me explain. Uh. First of all, we do have a medical marijuana regime that's been in place for a number of years, which I understand people are also questioning the use of medical marijuana.

A couple of years ago, our voters approved a measure to allow for the use of marijuana by adults UM in the possession of marijuana in their private homes for recreational use for non medical use. Part of your function is different, though, and the reason why I point this out is in Stay, it's where marijuana is legalized. Uh, they have a regime that allows for the growing and procurement and sell of marijuana. That's not the case in it. So how does that How does that mesh with the

federal government's position illegal? According to it is part of the m forget the word that they use, but the medical use of marijuana is not approved on the federal schedule. So any uh, any marijuana regime where whether it's medical or recreational, if there's a change in federal policy to enforce those crimes, that will have an effect on any

state that has a medical or recreational program. As we are talking about the smart cities and the infrastructure, how fast is DC growing and where do you see the district in the next ten to twenty years. Well, we grow about a nine hundred people per month. Um. We've been on that pace for I think the last five years. Sustainable. Uh, yes, it is, um, but we have to make a lot of investments in transportation and housing. UM. Where the biggest

pinch that we have is on housing. Uh. And we're starting to see it in other and other things that people need associated with housing, like childcare. And who are those people. How are the demograt effects of the city changing? Um, well they've changed. I think that the part ofly the biggest changes that they're very young. Uh. You heard one of the mayors say a little bit earlier than her city is half of the people that her city UM

grows by our millennials. I will say it's much significantly higher for for d C. That most of the people moving here are under the age of thirty five. UM. We are also see people who are downsizing that are moving from the suburbs to the district. Mayor. I know that your time is short. I know we have to let you go. UM. I just want to talk to you about priorities. How do you prioritize and how do you figure out how to pay for it as you

get into the infrastructure of the nation's capital. Well, we've actually I'm just gonna talk to you about one new effort we have and that around uh. Of course, we're making the necessary investments in metro, and we're seeking to get a dedicated funding source, and we're encouraging our neighbors in Maryland and Virginia to join us. UM. But we're also doing some back to the basics things in our city.

When it comes to infrastructure, I am. I have a state of good repair plan in my current budget for all residential streets in d C. We do pretty well on our main arterials, only seven percent of them are in poor condition, but that number goes up to thirty where you're talking about residential streets. So I have a five year plan to get rid of poorly rated roads UH in in the district and and that's very important.

We're also very focused on UH as you've heard on making our city more resilient when it comes to to flooding in the likes, I would say transportation and housing are a top two infrastructure issues. So Mayor Roberts were at this Smart Cities meeting. UM, you hear about smartness and smart that all the time. How do you use data and transparency, which are themes of this conference to create a smart city. Well, you can have data usage in many different areas of what cities worry about and

what they focus on every day. UM, what we've really looked at in Charlotte is how do we use data to make sure that we're serving everyone, that we're being equitable in our infrastructure, and that we're connecting people UM two jobs, to healthcare, to even healthy food as part

of UM the inequalities we see in our communities. And so when you have data where you know where people are working, UM, where they're living, which bus routes connect them to, those bus routes work, those transit connections work,

how do the roadways work. When you have that accurate data, you can make sure that not just is the government operating efficiently, but also individual folks who are just living their lives in your community are operating efficiently as well, and that helps with the quality of life and also helps UM to eliminate some of the disparities in income and access other challenges that rapidly growing cities face all across America. And when you're talking about transit infrastructure in particular,

I know you were specifically speaking about bus routes. UM. Are there other issues transit infrastructure issues or possibilities that Charlotte's looking toward, And what are your priorities and how will you pay for them? That's all packed in one package right there, and I only get three minutes tonto that as long as you want. Well, UM, the funding is a challenge, and I think what we we look at.

We have a very successful light rail UM that we're extending to our university, which is great because it will connect to UNC Charlotte to our downtown. UM. We have that's gonna be ten miles added to the ten miles already there. And we have a streetcar system and we have three more lines that are under study that we

know where those quarters are going to be. But that additional total is going to be about six billion dollars and right now we don't have funding and place we're waiting to hear from the federal government to whether they're going to continue the Tiger program and other things that we have used successfully UH to start that that light rail system that we have going. And what we find

is it's not just about transportation. It's also about land use, and it's about how you grow your city and how you plan your city so that when you can put density along those quarters, you're much more efficient getting people to work, getting people to the doctor, etcetera. And also leaving room for some open space for those big parks and those green ways and things that you need to help that balance in that quality of life and to help your environment. And so so funding is a key

part of that. But we're also looking at the range of options because we know that half the folks moving to Charlotte every day or under age thirty five. We know they don't like cars. So I've heard them many forums and many community meetings. They want to bike, they want to go transit, they want to uber. So we want to make sure that we're expanding our bike pass. We want to make sure that we're doing mixed mixed use development so they can actually walk a lot of places.

We see a lot of folks walking to breweries we have. That's another, you know, big booming industry in Charlotte. The micro breweries really absolutely we have like twenty one of them within a mile of uptown. It's incredible, and people want to walk to those. They don't They don't want to have to worry about driving after that, so they also want to have the social life that goes with that,

and um, people being out. We had this whole group of cyclists who meet on every Tuesday night, like a hundred of them, and they just take the streets over and they have these routes that are neighborhoods and they have their lights on and they have a great, big social thing out of it. And so it's about looking at a full range of cycling, walking safely, um, making sure that traffic is rounded the right way, to make

safe crossings, etcetera. And having a bus and transit system that overlays that that helps connect people and again reduces those transportation costs as well as helping the environment. One issue involving your city that of course just had a lot of national attention is HB two, which is known as the bathroom Bill in shorthand. UM, you're in a tough re election fight right now, and that's become part

of the campaign. UM, there is a constituency in Charlotte, in North Carolina that had concerns about what the Human Rights Commission had recommended originally for your policy. Is there a way that that your original provision, which the Bathroom Bill was meant to combat, could have been rolled out to get greater broader support and not prompted the state legislature to intervene. First of all, I have to correct anyone who calls it what you just called it. It

was a bill about discrimination or non discrimination. It is what it is commonly known as exactly. But what it was but the challenges that people really think that was all it was about. And what it was about was Charlotte standing up to say we don't believe discrimination against the LGBT community is right, and that we believe in public accommodations you should have some ability to take a

complaint to a local committee if you finally discriminated against. UM, we wanted our restaurants, our hotels, in our taxis to be inclusive and by and large they are, but there are still isolated incidents of discrimination. So it was really all about non discrimination for the LGBT community community. UM, the word bathroom was never in our original ordinance. It was in HB two, So I always want to correct

folks on that. Uh. And in terms of could we work better with the state, UM, we had a whole year of campaigns based around because this is a vote that happened three times in the city of Charlotte, so it was our two votes a year before I got elected mayor. And again open public legislature knew about it. We had a whole year of campaigning. Legislature knew about it,

and we did not hear anything. And looking at the two hundred other cities across America that had noniscrimination ordinances, including Columbia, South Carolina are neighbor to the south, um merle Beach, Atlanta, et cetera, many cities we compete with. We didn't hear anything from legislation during that whole year about any retribution, any backlash that would happen, and so it was unexpected and I think, UM, we did what we could in terms of projecting what we were gonna do,

talking about being equal, you know, inclusive city. We will continue to um express those values in Charlotte. We were very successful and still getting UM conventions and businesses, etcetera coming to Charlotte because they knew that Charlotte was a city that stood up UH and said we do not believe in discrimination. And so we had over eleven thousand new jobs created in Charlotte, over a thousand companies expanded or came to Charlotte in in spite of what the

state did. And so we continue to express those values. We continue to talk about all the great things Charlotte has and all the ways that we do include and welcome folks. UM. We are incredibly diverse city and we will continue to um be that. We're working very closely with the pride IT sector to do what we can within the constraints of what our state legislation has UM prohibited us from doing, but they did not UM monitor the private sector in that so we are working very

closely with them. We've always been a collaborative city and we're going to continue to thrive and prosper based on being equal, inclusive, fostering innovation, celebrating creativity. Let's take that a step further and expanded out to Capitol Hill into the federal government in the relationship between the municipalities, Charlotte specifically, and the federal government. UM, that's why you're here, You're in the Capitol c You're in the nation's capital. You're

gonna be on Capitol Hill soon. What is that relationship like and what role can the federal government play when it comes to Charlotte being a smart city, improving infrastructure and some of the other is shooes that you've brought up. We actually have worked pretty well with our congressional delegation around a number of things. And one of the things that we're trying to get as a Doppler weather radar, which we don't have in Charlotte. UM. I think we're

the largest. I know, we're the largest municipality doesn't have one that we we used South Carolina. UH and Robert Pittinger, who's a Republican congressman UM from our area, has helped to champion that. So UM we look at energy infrastructure and the things we've done UM around alternative energy, around um UH energy conservation, etcetera. We've worked close to a Senator bor on that. UH. There are many things that UM,

we have actually had success with our federal government. What we're interested in physically around infrastructure is to continue some of the programs that have been so successful, like the Tiger grants UM so much that has supported transportation infrastructure. You know, we are a sort of non traditional transit city, UM. You know, unlike the older cities that have had transit

for years. Charlotte was one of the first ones that wasn't a coastal city and wasn't one of the you know, top ten that had a very successful light round developed development and that was really based on the portion of the federal government was was able to fund UH and that has spurred incredible private sexual development has really been UM the leverage that we've used to get that collaboration to really grow our city in a smart way, in

a way that's more effective and efficient and provides opportunity to more people. And so that's really where we're looking to the federal government is to continue some of those successful programs that we have proven our successful that we can point to the dollars that we saved and the

dollars we've generated based on that investment. I wanted to ask a little bit about, Um, what reaction you would have to the Supreme Court's decision not to listen to the appeal to the lower court Voter I D ruling. Last of all, that the plan that had been approved was called by the lower court and almost surgical precision attempt to disenfranchise African American voters. Looks like, Um, that law is not going to come back for the time being.

How is that affecting voters in Charlotte. That has a tremendous impact. And I have to say I was glad to see the Supreme Court's decision. And I actually looked very closely at that Voter I D built when it was first passed at our state, and I looked at, um where they made it harder for African Americans to vote, and where there were districts that were packed. And that also, UM, we're you know, our districts are unconstitutional, and so they

are required to redraw our state legislative districts. UM before next year's elections. They had to redraw the congressional districts

as well. But if you look at the forms of I D and they they found the conversation that went on, Uh, they targeted forms of id that African Americans don't have in the same proportions as UM white folks have, and that UM is distressing to people who want to have a voice in their government and who have also unfortunately seen decades of discrimination and earlier attempts to disenfranchise whole

segments of our population. We are all about making sure everyone in Charlotte has a voice, that everyone feels empowered. We welcome citizen input all the time. We have a budgeting process where we put our budget online. We asked citizens to go in and show us what you would add us subtract you know, how do you think it's impact your neighborhood. Tell us what you feel. We have town hall meetings all over our city with all of our eleven um THIS representatives on the city Council and

and I'm going to have one in June. We want people to feel like they're part of their future. And when we have a bill that is disenfranchising the whole segments, that is not helpful. So UM we're glad to see the Supreme Court cares about that aspect of democracy. Wanted to ask also about UM housing part of the infrastructure issue. We talked a little bit with DC Mayor Muriel Bowser about the issue of homelessness in the city and she

says that's a big part of her infrastructure plan. Is that a problem in Charlotte And does that dovetail at all with the concept of a sanctuary city. I'm not sure if Charlotte is a sanctuary city at all. Okay, to separate issue, So how can cheeze those apart completely? Very good? So, housing and affordable housing is a huge challenge because our rents are rising faster than wages. As our city grows, obviously property that's close in it has

a lower lesser commute becomes much more valuable. And so what we are struggling with is about thirty four thousand units that we are short of affordable housing. And this is for hourly workers, It's for our hotel workers, for our teachers, for our police officers. Uh, folks who are you know, middle class but um but in the lower level of that that income bracket and really trying to find a place that they can afford to live that's

not thirty miles outside of the city. And so we are working very hard to increase the amount of money that we put into subsidized housing. UM. Actually, we advocated to keep the Community Development Block grants that are federal grants that we've used for housing projects, and so whether it is new housing, whether it's renovating existing home so seniors can stay in their homes and not get gentrified out of their neighborhood US, they can do those essential repairs, etcetera.

We advocate to keep those and they're in the current budget. We hope they're in uh physically or eighteen as well. UM. So that's something where the federal government has been been very helpful in our housing situation. One of the challenges we have is that we are not allowed to require a new construction a certain percentage to be affordable. So even though we're doing more mixed income housing, it's voluntary. We encourage it, we try to work with developers to

do it. UM. We try to UM show how it benefits everyone. But again we have to help subsidize with public money to really get to happen the speed that we need. So that's a challenge. Housing continues to be a challenge, but we've we've got some great projects underway on the sanctuary city issue that is an immigration issue, and that is really UM cities that are trying to um not defy federal law, but to limit uh federal reach in terms of their communities in deportations. We are

not a sanctuary city. We are a welcoming city. We have many immigrants. But we also have a TUITI, V and G program, which is a federal program that allows local sharff's deputies to actually UM start deportation proceedings for folks. Now, they only encounter that program if they are arrested for some kind of offense, and so it is really targeting violent criminals. Sometimes we're concerned that it's not necessarily targeting violent criminals. UM. We don't want to use for traffic

incidents that sort of thing. UM, but we do want to be a city that supports immigrants. We have an Immigrant Integration Task Force. It's looking at how do we support immigrants, small business, how do we help more legal residents become citizens UH. That's something that we're actively working with some nonprofits to to encourage because then you have

the full rights and privilege of the citizenship. UH. And sometimes the housing and the immigrant issue do overlap when immigrants are part of that UM that lower income Ralley workforce that has a hard time finding housing. But they're really two separate issues. My final question, and for you, Mayor Roberts, deals with some of the divisions that we see in politics today. If you are looking at North Carolina from a national stage, you see cities like Charlotte

that are heavily democratic college towns. Of course you're Raley Durham's,

those tend to be blue. And then there's the seas of deep red all over the state now in North Carolina that combines to make the whole thing pretty purple, pretty competitive, and I'm sure you'll have no shortage of presidential attention in But in the meantime, as the mayor of a major city, is there's something you can do um within your own state, your own region to sort of bridge some of these political divides that we see between demographic groups, urban rural, the divisions we see in

politics today. Well, the first thing to remember is that, um, we have gerrymandering that again has been declared unconstitutional in our state. And so the first thing I'm doing is advocating very strongly for an independent rediscertain Commission. And they're actually bills in the House and Senate that would support that, but they haven't gotten out of committee. UM. We're hoping that that is going to change before the next census.

But that is a challenge because what we find is that even though a very purple um, the state as a whole is about in terms of registrations, we have ten Republican and three Democratic congressional representatives, so and that is also married in our state House and Senate. It's a veto proof majority. So what we find is that redistriarching with the Independent Commission would help restore balance. So that's one of the first things I'm doing. But the second thing I want to do is help bridge the

rural urban divide. And what we find is a lot of legislatures now and conservative areas are from rural districts. We want them to prosper to we want to make sure that our cities connecting to those rural areas around us, and we have a whole farm to fork movements so that we have fancy restaurants in Charlotte that that pick local farms and highlight them and talk about them on their menu and really help them survive and help them be UM publicized. As part of supporting that rural area

that is just outside our borders. We have UM farmers markets that do the same thing. We have UM some tourist attractions in surrounding areas that are in rural areas where a lot of people from Charlotte go and spend money and spend time. We want to continue to build and looking at ourselves as a region and look at economic development as a region. And so even if there's a large company that wants to create a new factory or a new manufacturing facility, we want them to look regionally.

And there's a whole regional partnership that markets us that way because some as they don't fit in a very densely developed Charlotte, but they might fit across the border. And we know, again they're gonna live, they're gonna shop, they're gonna entertain in Charlotte. Everybody's gonna benefit. So we want to continue to do that. One thing I did recently is we have a regional coalition of mayors um some very small towns along with Charlotte and some bigger towns.

I gave them all a tour of our airport. It's a regional facility. They got the behind the scenes tour of all the construction and the growth that we have in our airport, and they saw how things worked and that helped them feel this is part of their growth. It's an asset they use all the time. We want

them to feel included. We are at the Bloomberg Smart Cities meeting with many mayors, including Mayor John Mitchell of New Bedford, Massachusetts, the state's sixth largest city, part of the Providence Metropolitan Statistical Area, but definitely a place with its own spirit and soul. You come from a long time fishing family. I do. I do as a matter

of fact. Yes, my parents were public school teachers, but my family, especially on my father's side, was in the commercial fishing industry, which is a big thing in New Bedford, where the largest commercial fishing port in America and uh In are growing in terms of market share. Most of a lot of the fishing industry on the East Coast is actually gravitating toward New Bedford, UM and so it's a big, big part of not only are regional economy,

but also a big part of our culture. You also have a large manufacturing presence, and you're here learning about smart cities and infrastructure issues as you are trying to harness big data and information toward improving your city. How does that interface with some of the workforce challenges you

have in an inevitably transitioning economy. Yeah, so things are complex right now, and and you know, we're in a sort of a unique situation, at least for us, in the sense that um our unemployment rate has dropped precipitously, labor participation has gone up, but we still have sort of a pesky cohort of folks who are remain outside

the labor market. And the lament of most employers these days is I've you know, I am hiring up, I've got help wanted science, which is a rare sight in New Bedford historically, but I can't find the people who have the basic basic math and English skills and more importantly soft skills to do the jobs. So so you know, what we're trying to do is, uh, to to deal with that is, among other things, to enhance our transportation infrastructure.

We want we we believe that are like as other mayors do that Uh that uh facilitating the ability of people to go from home to their place of employment. Uh, it makes us more competitive and sort of the state

the obvious. But you know, what we've tried to do is to integrate smart cities, technology sensors and other data gathering measures into our transportation system to allow us to figure out where people are living where uh, you know, where migration patterns are are heading and and we're in the employment growth is so that we can adjust on the fly. Data with context is knowledge. When you are able to apply that knowledge, then you can move on to the next step. What would the next step be?

And does the federal government or maybe the private sector have a role in that. Well, the private sector, I think does have a role in helping identify their needs and and uh and so I think these days just given um, the the back of apparent backing off of the federal government from uh from the life of the cities in this country at least, that's I think what

we should assume until until it's proven otherwise. And the continuing resource constraints at the local level, you know, more has to be expected of the private sector, so not only in the way of identifying needs, but also pooning up funding to to to actually activate projects that might be in the public good, whether they are in our case port facilities or whether they are um surface transportation projects,

whatever it is. But you know what we try to do is work in and glove with business so that you know, we have a sense of where their needs are heart not just presently but a year from now, five years from now, and so forth. Your city has the highest bond rating ever in its history, which is saying something when it starts in the seventeenth century, How does smart city innovation play into that? Yeah, I don't think. Uh, I don't think S and P was around back then,

so it might not be a valid marker. But but in any event, uh, you know what we we are, even though we're two thousand seventeen and not two thousand and eight anymore. We still manage the city government with a u a an air of austerity as though it were two thousand and in the sense that we're not parsimonious about every last penny we do. We do look for opportunities to invest, but we've got to get more efficient all the time because we still our resource constraint um.

So we we've we have championed a number of efficiency initiatives that have freed up capital public capital to invest in critical infrastructure whether it's broadband, whether it's port facilities and so forth. And we do that by, um, you know, by by being more data driven. When I got into office, UH, there was nothing in the way of a performance management

mechanism and city government. We we have one. Now. We measured all the things that I think, at least for now, that are relevant to our continuing to deliver important services but also to save taxpayer dollars. UH. And we've also seized opportunities for UH in certain discrete areas. Energy is a good example where we've been very aggressive in building out our solar capacity. According to the Wall Street Journal, we have uh more installed municipal solar capacity than any

any city in the United States. Actually in the continental United States. Honolulu has we're told more installed a capacity per capita. But obviously honolul has a slight advantage when it comes to sun so so. But but anyway, it's just one example of the kinds of the kinds of energy, the kinds of initiatives that we were we've been aggressively pursuing because you know, when you step back and think about our position, your befords a city of a hundred thousand,

it's an older industrial city. And even though we've we've seen a lot of growth of late, we're one of these places that historically has lag behind the business cycle, right where one of the we're usually late to emerge from a recession and quick to go back into the next one. And what I'm trying to do is to make the right kinds of adjustments along the way and right kinds of investments that allow us to flatten that out and remain on a on a steadier growth trajectory.

Being in an event like this one with the Smart Cities event and the other mayors in the nation's capital and the other things that you guys are gonna be doing today, do you find that you are providing some best practices to other mayors or you're able to take away best practices from them? And I asked that because everybody else has been talking about housing and infrastructure, as far as transportation, You're the first one I've talked to

is talked about solar energy and renewable energy. Yeah. So we so we try to um through organizations like he as Conference of Mayors and others try to share idea and I think there is you know, there's this, there's this mindset that I think has taken hold among the nation's mayors that is all about self sufficiency and not you know, waiting for the federal government to initiate something new, whether it's an investment, whether it's new social programs, because

I think there is it's some among most mayors, some level of skepticism that the federal government is actually going to deliver. And I think that skepticism is probably pretty well founded. Um. And and so what we've done, and certainly I do this in my city is try to preach uh an ethic of self sufficiency. We're going to

determine our own fate. And yeah, we might need to have a good partnership with the state and federal government, but but at the end of the day, Uh, it's a it's a partnership, but we're driving the action you were talking about. Two thousand and eight. Would like to take a moment to talk about two thousand seven March was the tenure anniversary of the immigration raid that netted three sixty one textile workers and the people who hired them. Um, how did that change the city and what did it

learned from the experience. Yeah, so that was the so called Michael Bianco Raid, which Michael Bianco was a factory in the south end of our city that made um rut sacks for for the Department of Defense and it employed a large number of undocumented workers. The ICE went in and as part in connection with a criminal investigation of the employers of the of the bosses as it were, um UH rounded up a very large number of of

the workers who didn't have immigration status. And it was it was a shock, I think, not only to the city, um for I think obvious reasons and sort of the disruption and focuses the lives not only the workers but their families, including the school children, was was something that people don't forget. But I think it also at least through the end of the Bush administration and the Obama administration changed the way that inmigration UM law is enforced

in this country. Um that was perhaps the last of the large immigration raids in the country until whatever happens next now and I think so we we do continue to have a large undocumented worker population, especially in our fish houses, not only where they are were the largest commercial fishing port where also the large we also have the largest fish processing base in the country and in our fish processors UM do employ a number of undocumented workers.

So there are a lot of folks who are on on edge about what might happen next, Will there be a return to Michael Bianco style enforcement, and so you know what we've tried to do. UM. You know, we are not a sanctuary city because I think we've taken I've taken the position that because that term is undefined in federal law, because there's no sort of settled definition that by by taking a hard position, we're only in flame aiming the division UH that we're seeing in lots

of cities around the country. And you know, Frankly, as a as a leader of my city, I don't want that to be a distraction to all the hard work we're doing. All that said, we we take pains to help folks in our community know what their legal rights are. We take pains to remind folks or what a welcoming city New Bedford is. And we're a place that has been traditionally hospitable to UH to new immigrants wherever they're from, and we'll that will continue to approach it that way.

Then we've looked at twenty o eight, We've looked at seven, let's look at what's your city going to look like in the next ten years. Yeah, great question. So what I hope from my city is that, you know, we continue to cement our status as the UH not only the center of the southern part of Massachusetts, but one of the leading cities in the Northeast that has a more diversified economy, that is a place that people are moving into because the school system is has has gotten

a lot better in doing right by by children. And as a place that is competitive and continues to be competitive in maritime industries because that's our bread and butter with it's our port. Is the reason why New Bedford exists and why it will continue to exist in the years ahead. That will be a leader not only fishing, but an offshore wind which is the next big industry for us. It's all coming to the United States and

the years ahead. UH. And that we have a more knowledge based economy that you know, we're one of these places in the Northeast that doesn't have much of a tech sector, but we're starting to develop the seeds of one now. And where we hope is that, UM, we we're banking on the idea that technology companies can can

take root anywhere. It doesn't have to be in East Cambridge or in Palalto, and can be in places like New Bedford that that offer that are a place where ideas can be freely exchanged and where people can have a high quality of life and and grow their business. So that's that's the idea for us. UM and UM, I think we're making progress in that direction. And because we don't know how this is all going to be edited, I will ask and about UM. You are a Democratic

mayor of a working class city. You have a Harvard degree, but you worked your way through school and the factories in the warehouses. How does a Democrat connect with working class voters. It's a big question being asked in Washington

these days. Yeah, I think we So, I think mayor's Democratic mayors have a pretty good handle on that because uh, and I include myself in this mix, because you know, we don't have the luxury of being ideological, um, at least overtly ideological, and we don't have the the luxury

of being partisan. We have to get stuff done. And so the way I look at it is if people want the same things regardless of their political stripe, they they really, as mundane as it might sound, they want their streets plow, they want they they want their kids to go to a good school. They want their blocked to be safe and Democrat or Republican. If you're delivering on that, people will you will gain the respect and the good will of of of folks. Um That's the

way I approach it, which is decidedly nonpartisan. It's more executive, and I think that's what's attractive to me about about my job, and I suspect it's true of a lot of other mayors around the country. People are demanding results, and as mayor, you're you're in a position to do that. If that's if that's truly your focus. All right, John Mitchell, A Mare of New Bedford, Massachusetts, thank you so much for joining us, Thanks for having me, Thank you, Thanks

for listening to the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast. Subscribe and listen to interviews on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, or whichever podcast platform you prefer. I'm on Twitter at Tom Keene, David Gura is at David Gura. Before the podcast, you could always catch us worldwide. I'm Bloomberg Radio