Acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank Remarks at "Strong Cities, Strong Communities" event, Greensboro, North Carolina Thank you. It’s great to be here in Greensboro with Mayor Robbie Perkins and City Manger Denise Turner Roth.
As we all know, America’s cities are powerful engines that help drive our economic recovery. A study this year showed that U.S. cities with more than 150,000 people—places like Greensboro—generate about 85 percent of America’s GDP.
So, I’m pleased to be here to make an announcement from the president’s Strong Cities, Strong Communities initiative—otherwise known as “SC Two.” SC Two was launched last summer to build stronger, more effective partnerships between federal and local governments.
The goal of SC Two is to spark economic development in communities that have faced tough challenges over the course of the last decade.But first, let’s look back for a moment, because we’ve already come a long way over the past few years.
Nobody thinks our economy is back where it should be. Growth has been steady, but slow. Unemployment has dropped but it is still too high.
We still have more work to do; but our economy has grown and it will continue to grow.
Our challenge is to make sure that cities like Greensboro lead that growth, create more good jobs, and strengthen economic security for the middle class.
That’s what today’s announcement is all about.
Over the past few years, we’ve been listening to ideas from local officials. We asked them how we could best help cities that were hit hard in the recession and in the years leading up to it.
Here’s what we came up with: I’m pleased to announce that Greensboro is one of the winners—with an award for $1 million from the Economic Development Administration at the Commerce Department. Hartford, Connecticut, and Las Vegas, Nevada, are the other two winners.
Why Greensboro? We all know that Greensboro had been losing jobs since 2000. But local officials have come to believe that Greensboro—in particular the downtown University District—is ripe for economic development.
So, with $1 million from the Commerce Department along with funds from the City of Greensboro, we’re going to have a good old-fashioned competition to make it happen.
And now, the city is going to put out its own challenge. They’re going to ask teams of experts to look at Greensboro’s future and ask some tough questions: This is a good start, but the SC Two Challenge is just one of many investments that we need to make right now.
President Obama is calling on Congress to make several other critical investments that will help people in America’s cities. I’ll mention three: So let’s lay the foundation for stable, long-term growth that will benefit families and businesses in Greensboro, throughout the state of North Carolina, and across our great nation.
Today’s grant is one piece of that foundation. Thank you and congratulations again to the City of Greensboro.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
