It's my pleasure to be here today to talk with you about the successes we've had in creating record private sector jobs, moving hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers off the welfare rolls and toward lives of self sufficiency, and the plan ahead to maintain these gains and build upon them. City government believes in the Forum Club's basic philosophy - that the business community has a stake in the future of the City. We've believed in this philosophy since I came into office in 1994. But New York City wasn't always this way.
Businesses invest in communities.
They build structures that anchor neighborhoods. They serve as ambassadors of our City to other cites around the country and other nations around the world. Without businesses, New York City would not be the Capital of the World - a place that is always moving forward and leading the way for the rest of the world. Because of the way they make the most of this resource, businesses are the backbone of the City's economy. But as the work of the Forum Club and others constantly reminds us, businesses are not only at the economic core of our society - they're at the social core.