[What follows is the text of my opening statement last week before a briefing session of the Dallas City Council and Mayor Mike Rawlings. During the almost 3-hour conversation, we presented the initial findings of the Mayor's Task Force on Poverty. It feels like we are making progress.]
`About
six months ago, Mayor Rawlings invited me to chair a task force on poverty for
Dallas. The objective was to identify
5-6 steps that could be taken quickly to create catalytic impact relative to
the problem of poverty in Dallas.
The
mayor reminded us all that the short-term future of Dallas was bright for the
next 5 years or so. Beyond that line of
sight, things didn’t look so certain; in fact, the outlook for the longer term
appeared troubling. The mayor understood
that the surprising growth of poverty in Dallas posed a very real threat to our
entire community, and that we had to find ways to pull together as one for the
sake of all.
Poverty affects and
magnifies every other challenge we face as a city. Public education, higher education, community
health/wellness, employment skills matching available jobs, public safety, transportation,
quality of life issues in neighborhoods, food deserts—you name the challenge,
poverty intensifies the surrounding problems.
What
you are about to hear is the product of the task force’s hard work. Much of what you will hear should be
unsettling to you. It is to us. In my view, Dallas is not only the “tale of
two cities,” it is also the untold tale of one city—a city within a city
defined by poverty, limited opportunity and an uncertain future; a city well
acquainted with unrelenting “toxic stress.”
It is not acceptable for a city as full of wealth and opportunity as
Dallas to be ranked as the 4th poorest urban center in the United
States just behind Detroit, Memphis and Philadelphia.
Clearly
the time has come to go to work with new vigor.
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