Thank you for your support and for being here with me today. I am proud to stand before you as an official candidate for mayor of Charlotte, my hometown and the greatest city in America.  

In the face of tremendous challenges, I remain optimistic about out future. Even so, co-workers and friends are losing jobs, families are losing homes, and some businesses are struggling to stay afloat. Today, our homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces are gripped with anxiety and fear. Through almost three decades of prosperity and growth, many - including some city leaders - forgot that our success has always been the product of relentless hard work, innovation and collaboration. 

No more. The era of complacency is over.  

In these times, leaders and citizens alike must do the hard work needed to make Charlotte a better place to live. The public sector must step up. We can no longer afford complacent leadership. We need a leader with vision who will roll up his sleeves and get to work moving Charlotte forward. I have a proven record of doing just that. 

In 2005, I came to Charlotte City Council and found politicians who bragged about not increasing taxes. What those same leaders failed to tell you was that our police force was understaffed, our neighborhoods were falling apart, and our road problems were getting worse, even amid rapid population growth. I had the vision to make our neighborhoods safer and get the city building roads again. Together with many of the city council members here today we hired all 70 requested officers and put more than $300 million into road improvements. We have also expanded after-school and youth employment programs. Charlotte is a safer and better city because of it. We've made progress, but we have farther to go. 

I also found that our city leaders had no real strategy for helping neighborhoods shut out of Charlotte's prosperity. Places, like where I grew up, suffered from lack of nearby jobs and quality goods and services. I have worked to reverse these conditions. As a result, in March 2007, I led the adoption of the Business Corridor Revitalization program to help revive neglected parts of our city. This policy, and the work associated with it, will grow jobs, build community assets, expand our tax base and improve quality of life. We've made progress, but we have farther to go. 

For too long, we have had leadership stuck in ineffective silos. Recently, in the face of teacher layoffs, I worked to end a deadlock between our Charlotte City Council and Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools over the SafeLight program funds. The result: the city council, county commission, and school board worked together to re-direct nearly $5 million in city funds to the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System to keep effective educators working. As mayor, I will continue to build more effective regional, state, and federal partnerships that benefit our businesses, our children and our transportation systems.  

At every turn, I have rolled up my sleeves, pushed ideas into action, voted my conscience and put the people of Charlotte first. That's why I ran for city council at-large, that's what I have been doing on the city council and that's what I will do as mayor.

Our campaign is not just about bringing Charlotte's economy back. I want more than that. I want Charlotte to be a better place than it has ever been. Charlotte needs a mayor who brings personal humility with great ambitions for our community, a mayor who sees that an even better city is possible. A better city for the parent who works all day across town and relies on public transportation so cannot make a PTA meeting; a better city for the family that has lived in a declining neighborhood for 20 years, seeing property values sink and foreclosures rise; a better city for the many citizens who have shared their stories about feeling violated by break-ins when their families are sleeping; a better city for the small business owner and all those who work; a better city for the child who looks out of her window and sees missing bricks, broken windows and the shattered dreams of so many people. 

Let's be clear: ending this period of complacency will not be easy. I am running against almost 20 years of leadership that has ridden the wave while leaving us with a backlog of challenges that threaten our future. I never have, nor will I ever, gloss over our challenges; I will tackle them with the "can do" attitude that has always carried Charlotte through. 

Together, we will strengthen and diversify our economy and put Charlotte back to work. Together, we will create jobs through traditional and non-traditional means, including recruiting diverse companies, supporting small businesses, and growing demand for emerging sectors by changing city procurement practices. Together, we will make Charlotte even safer by keeping up our police force, closing the revolving door and lifting the ambitions of our young people to eliminate gangs. Together, we will make Charlotte neighborhoods stronger by improving their infrastructure, lowering crime and growing jobs. Together, we will make government work efficiently and effectively to create opportunity for every citizen. My vision for Charlotte has not been manufactured for this campaign; I have been working for this vision throughout my time on city council. 

Some will say that the stakes are too high to break with past leadership. I say the stakes are too high not to. Now is not the time for business or government as usual. Charlotte will emerge a better city by choosing unity over division, hard work over empty promises, the many over the few, and a record of solving problems over a record of sweeping them under the rug. That's been my experience. That's been my leadership. That's been my record of service.  

So I ask you to join me. Join this campaign. Join our work to renew the can-do civic spirit that will move us forward. Together, we can create jobs, improve neighborhoods, increase public safety and move Charlotte forward into a brighter future. Together, we can build a better city for our children, for all of Charlotte's children. We can roll up our sleeves and get to work driven by the recognition that all of us have a vested interest in the well being of the entire city. This is One Charlotte and we have One Future. 

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