Feb. 3, 2017: President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with business leaders in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. (AP)
President Trump’s vow to rebuild America’s inner cities is sparking utopian wish lists and dreams of rivers of federal cash. But before he opens the floodgates, the president ought to use the modern history of his hometown as a blueprint for how to save a city.
Or, more accurately, how a city can save itself.
Three times in the last 40 years, New York was down and nearly out. And three times it got back up, mostly by pulling on its own bootstraps.
Washington and Albany helped, but city leaders, both public and private, did the heavy lifting. Without their enormous efforts and talent, New York would be like Detroit, Baltimore or Chicago.
Instead, it is the safest big city in America and an international mecca for tourists and investors. New York today, despite its problems, is the closest thing America has ever had to that shining city on the hill.
To continue reading Michael Goodwin's column in the New York Post, click here.
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