ontiers. once again another opportunity to speak to a large group another group of about 1,300 or so people from 39 or 40 countries, senior representatives from around the world. and once again, an opportunity to talk about our u.s. program. from norway we went to copenhagen. met with not only the danes but the greenlanders as well to get their perspective. went from there to finland and not only did we meet in helsinki with the full range of activities but we also traveled north to meet with the parliament to meet with one of our permanent observers in the arctic council. then most importantly we finished up that trip by going to moscow. i'll talk a little bit more about that in just a moment but very productive meeting. it was the first senior level meeting of a u.s. representative in moscow since the imposition

of the sanctions it was a cig nif event for the united states as well. i would be happy to entertain questions on that when we get into it. so, there's been an awful lot of listening that's gone on. and what i would say is it's broken down into a couple of themes. the first theme being this theme of balance finding the sweet spot. as i've said i've spoken to an awful lot of groups similar to this diverse groups, brookings tends to have a very balanced view of things more centrist so perhaps this program resonates. we've tried to make it a balanced program, to try to reflect all the needs that are going on up there. but the second comment that i get most constantly when i brief this to groups, to the press and in particular to the other seven countries is almost the immediate response is wow.

that's rather ambitious. and it is. i will lay claim to our united states program probably being the most forward leaning, most ambitious program that's ever been proposed during a chairmanship of the arctic council. and i think that's the way it should be. leadership, part of leadership is setting the bar high. setting goals and then measuring progress towards those goals and that's what we intend to do doing our chairmanship. everybody else says it's a rather ambitious program. there's one decenter. every time i brief this to secretary kerry, he says are you sure we're doing enough? can we do more? perhaps we found the sweet spot there as well. the third thing that comes up frequently, in fact, came up in the session this morning is -- why doesn't the united states support the arctic economic council? the arctic economic council or the aec as its referred to was

one of the canada's initiatives. and i think a very good initiative. the focus of the arctic council since its inception is environmental development and sustainable development. we have plenty of representation on the environmental protection side. if we want sustainable development, it seems to me we need to cut an industry. we need to let the industry know what the standards are. we need responsible, sustainable, development within the arctic. and the arctic economic council i believe, is set up to facilitate that. now, i think where the united states -- where this misperception occurs about the united states not supporting the arctic economic council is we had some disagreements on exactly how we ought to employ our participation in it. now that i've had a chance to dissect it because of all this feedback about this perception of us not supporting it i've had a chance to get into it a little bit. what i've really found is that with eight countries you've

really got eight different approaches. just like you have eight different forms of government literally as you look across it. and for our form of government in the united states, the united states government does not own industries. now, some of the industries that are represented within the aec from other countries are at least partially or wholly owned by if state. there's a state interest in having those countries in there to be able to develop things within the arctic. we took a different approach. first of all, because of our culture, once again, our government does not own industries. secondly, if we start getting too close with industry, you start running into federal advisory committee rules that have to be complied with. so our choice, whether you like it or don't like it, our choice early on was to turn this over to the chamber of commerce in alaska. and the chamber of commerce selected three alaskan companies

to be our representatives to the aec. and the aec has only just had its first meeting. so i think there are going to be some disputes on how the aec should be used. there will be questions about how we employ it. there will be questions about how much influence should it have on arctic council activities. should it have different status from our observer groups? i don't know. but what i'm saying is it's still a work in progress. the united states fully embraces it and we will continue it. we thank canada for starting it but there's more to come on that. the next thing that came upmost frequently is are we going to talk to russia? i'll just leave it at that. obvious ly obviously i was sent to moscow. we were talking to russia. country can break consensus and

then we don't take on a project. so it's very important to keep russia in the fold not just for the arctic council but for other things going on in the world. the next to the last thing that's repeated frequently is we are excited about united states leadership. and i like that. and i have found that. one of the things that's most gratifying to me as an american is when i've traveled overseas either as the common on the coast guard or in this position it's the respect that the united states gets wherever we go. it's the looking to us for leadership wherever we go. you know i can be at an event here in washington and i'm seeded all the way in the back of the room. if i go to norway or iceland, they give me a seat of honor up front and when i step up there, regardless of where we are in the program, people stop and they listen. and it's not because it's papp.

it's because it's the united states. so that's particularly gratifying. but the last item i'll bring up here is along with that being excited about united states leadership, they question our commitment. they want to know are you really committed to the arctic? and fortunately or unfortunately, what they look at is commitment of resources. one of the questions i frequently get is, you guys can't even buy an ice breaker. are you really committed to the arctic if you can't buy an ice breaker? yet the russians have more than two dozen. china is building an ice breaker. south korea is building an ice breaker. other countries are building ice breakers and i don't want to say i'm focussing just on ice breakers. there are other infrastructure needs as well, but we need to be about the business of committing some resources. i'm very hopeful that the recent executive order signed by the president, which brings all the agencies together with an arctic

executive steering committee is going to lead to setting some priorities which will hopefully lead to committing some resources as well to the needs in the arctic. and with that i think i'll finish right there because i'm really excited about getting into your questions. so thank you very much. [ applause ]. >> while you're getting mic'd up admiral, if i might just raise the first question. and i don't mean it to be controversial, but i think it's an important question. despite the grandiose plan that

you have outlined that the government has for our chairmanship of the arctic council, there are a number of what seem to be criss-crossing signals coming out of this administration particularly if you're alaskan resident. we're all concerned about the taps pipelines capacity dropping rapidly and the need to find additional oil reserves to have that vital national asset continue to operate, and yet we just recently seen the administration take large swaths of alaska out of any consideration for future oil development, at least in an war and the coastal plain. do you think that we really do have a coherence -- i'm really saying washington, not blaming the administration, but do you think we really have any coherence in the country on whether we really see alaska as a land of opportunity and abundance for the future of the nation? or the other view is maybe close it off and make it all a

national park? >> i'll admit and certainly in speaking and listening most importantly to alaskans as recently as last week senator lisa mccow ski and senator maria kant well held a hearing last week on the day that the government was shut down before the energy committee in the senate. i think senator mccow ski couldn't bare the possibility of shutting down a hearing on the arctic on a day that it was snowing in washington, d.c. so, we're getting attention to it and there were alaskans on the panel with me. they brought up those same concerns. i guess what i would say is part of our challenge is raising the visibility of the arctic. as we sit here right in this spot, we are 3,500 miles from

baro alaska, the northern most point of the united states right there in the center of the arctic. 3,500 miles and a lot of canada in between. though, there's not a connection between the american people and the arctic we only have 50,000 americans who live above the arctic circle in northern alaska. now, i think most alaskans the rest of the state also have a connection to the arctic. they understand it. but it's not a large population. and someone mentioned earlier this morning, in fact, i meant to comment on it. i think it was one of our coast guard officers that was in the earlier meeting talked about us being a meritime nation. i had a hard time trying to convince people we were an meritime nation yet we are. it's only been recently with the opening of the waters that we

developed all the centers. that's why we're so excited ant this. there's a change in climate. it's opening up waters and there are needs there. but they are new needs. they're new starts. and anything in washington that's a new start is very difficult to sell. so in terms of resourcing we all know the pressures that have been on the federal budget over the last decade or so so it's hard to get those new things in there. in terms of policy decisions, i think that part of our program is a very active and strong and robust public diplomacy effort, which we will hope will raise the awareness of the american people. there are going to be significant meet thags will be held in alaska. there will be some meetings held in washington, d.c. we hope to bring seen yore leaders from around the world including some of our own seen yore leadership from washington. some of the seal experts and

bring them to alaska and teach them about it so we can raise that awareness. then and only then will people take into consideration the full range of opinions and issues when they make policy decisions that affect the country broadly like that. >> thank you. okay. we'll go to the floor. there are some roaming mics. if you wait to get a mic. also, please identify yourself and please ask a question. we have one in the very back of the room. >> hi. my name is meredith sandler. i was the state of alaska representative within the u.s. delegation to the arctic council from 1995 to 2002 and, in fact, ramrodded the last time the u.s. had the chairmanship and did all the things that you described. my question -- for one, admiral i appreciate what you've said

very much. i'm a ten-year resident of alaska. worked for alaska governor tony knowles for seven years. and we would say to me with a little nudge to my back, if not for alaska the united states would not be in the arctic council or need an arctic policy. and clearly it's evolved and this room is incredible that so many people are here. but my question is i appreciate the listening, but where are the alaskans, the alaska governor's office in the policymaking part of this? not just to be listened to, but to be an integral, representative on going to the delegation, to the arctic council, to what you're talking about, you know, and honest to god policymaker who has an equal voice with all the -- as we would say from alaska, all the feds. thanks very much. >> well, obviously as you

referred to it as the listening and i refer to it as the listening, that's consultation in a more formal term. and we will keep that consultation going. i see the alaskan legislators here in washington on a very frequent basis. our two senators and representative young and we -- every time we get alaskans in here, they generally stop by the state department and send some time with me. i have not had a chance to get back up there to alaska but i think we can understand with all the preparations we've had going on with the arctic council which is an international body, as you know, i'm speaking for the rest of the room, don't mean to be condescending towards you, we're focussed on international issues. it's not within our portfolio to be dealing with domestic issues.

the domestic issues are the responsibility of other departments within our government and as i said, part of our program is this public diplomacy effort which in my heart, i hope will raise the awareness of the american people. we're using the arctic council chairmanship as a means to get to the goal that i've advocated for at least the last four or five years that we need to start investing in some of the infrastructure up in alaska. so the consultation will continue to go on. we have brought an alaskan native on to act as chief of staff to ambassador ballton. and carlo. just worked within the alaska arctic policy commission in developing that. she is providing great input to us. we've been a little frustrated. we've been trying to set up a

panel of experts to consult with alaskan natives. we're trying to find the right device, contract whatever that might be to make a more formal arrangement between us and doing some consulting with alaskan natives. at the end of the day, where do we put alaskans into this organization? once again it's an international thing that is a federal function. we appreciate the input. they sit in on the alaska -- or the arctic policy group and that will continue. how do we more formally involve them? i know craig fleener is coming up to theed a ministerial -- the new governor's representative for the arctic and we will continue to engage as much as we can. >> right here in the middle.

>> just two questions. first, referring to corporation with russia. could you expand something more. you said you had quite productive talks there. if you could say something more and just along this line, isn't the increased military activity, russian military activity, isn't it bothering you at all? that's the first question. and the second, if you could expand on the ice breakers polar ice breakers. what's your opinion? what development should be -- there was a news the other day about possible international corporation in u.s. having ice breaker capability. and what's -- according to you, the minimum level the u.s. should you know, have? thank you. >> great.

okay. russia. one of the things that the united states is deeply appreciative of is that the other arctic countries have stood shoulder to shoulder together in terms of their opposition to the unlawful incursions in the ukraine and russia's violation of you crane's sovereignty. they have all adopted the sanctions and have supported the sanctions and we as a country are grateful for that, but one thing that we're also in agreement on as i mentioned, is the seven other arctic countries. the united states and the other six, minus russia, all believe that we should for the good of the arctic, for the environment, and other important issues, we need to keep russia in the fold and keep communications open. we are all committed to that.

i have relaid the message that the military rhetoric the actions by the russians and ukraine are not helpful to keeping that line of communication hope, yet we remain committed to doing that. i think and i moe this is secretary carry's belief and is something i understand intuitively, no situation is made better by cutting off clothes. it's important for us to communicate not just with the arctic but to help other situations as well. so we are committed to maintaining that line of communication, at least as it stands right now. military buildup i don't know if you were touching on military buildup in the arctic. clearly there's been a lot of rhetoric there as well.

i was told by one russian when i said that that rhetoric was unhelpful they said, well military people are going to be military people. they're going to say what they're going to say. i'm trying very hard to make sure either through our intelligence programs or otherwise to find where the reality is in terms of capabilities. one person can look at what's going on in terms of what they call is a bad border. you should have search and rescue facilityiesfacilities. so, one person's search and rescue response capabilities is another person's military buildup. i saw at least a couple of news stories when i was appointed into this job that said the united states was now going --

i'm not doing a very good job. so it's hard to determine intent. intent is always sort of a gamble. what you need to look at is capabilities. what are they actually building? we're keeping an eye on that but some of it is rightful legitimate things that should be built because of the increase in marry thyme traffic. they are building inging ice breakers. last week's hearing senator kantwell asked about the various studies that are out there. there's one study that calls for three heavy u.s. ice breakers and three medium. there's another one that calmls for four and six. we get wrapped up talking about how many we should have. it would seem to me we could at least come to an agreement on

that we need at least one and we should start building it and haven't devoted the money towards building that first ice breaker yet. i would be happy to see a first ice breaker. much less all those other things. so in the absence of that, there are people coming forward. there are some commercial activities that would say we'll build you an ice breaker and lease it baaing to the government. there are other countries that might volunteer. you know part of the arctic council, what we might work at and as we work our way forward, search and res coupe vince. we want to exercise that now. so let's inventory what we have and see how we might work together better to be able to share responsibilities and share responses. maybe all those ice breakers are out there. maybe there's a way for us to cooperate between the countries.

i hate to go down this line of logic, but i watch fantasy, the star trek movies and you see on the bridge of the enterprise you see a russian, an asian, an african-american whatever it might be. countries came together pooled their resources and worked together. wouldn't it be beautiful that we could pool resources and work together cooperatively? i think that's a worthy goal. but the united states at the end of the day has to do its part as well and start investing in some resources there. i'm hopeful that the president's new executive order that delineates the responsibility of the steering committee will start setting those priorities and pushing resource proposals. >> i think we had a gentlemen -- did you have a question? lady on the middle. >> hello.

my name is linda and i'm a partner doing ethics and compliance at a law firm here in d.c. i'm also the secretary of the norwegian chamber of commerce and i was ethics official at the white house office of drug policy. i was very interested in your comment about the federal advisory commission act which is known as the federal version of the government in the sunshine act. i presume that your comment expressed a concern correct me if i'm wrong, act the u.s. participation in the arctic economic council potentially converting that to a u.s. federal advisory commission. is that the concern that you were raising? >> that would be the concern. i'm not an expert on the laws, but it has been expressed as one of those concerns as we talk to people within the state department. >> that's right. i did a lot of law so that is correct. that is a legitimate concern but i note with the president's new executive order on interagency coordination that

there's no position or representation there for non-federal interests. i understand that as well as far as the interagency, although i do have an idea about a way to address that. regardless, my question to you is clearly in light of the very first question that was asked to you, there is a desire for people to have input to the federal policymaking process who are not already in the loop, the insiders whether that includes alaska or other areas as well and do you foresee the creation of an actual federal advisory commission for u.s. arctic policy being created to address that need? >> i have to admit i have not considered it or thought about it. i'm not going to use it as an excuse. i think i've been in the job seven months now and there's -- while i had a very narrow and parochial interest i had to broaden that out into the international portion of this.

and that has consumed an awful lot of what limited brain space i have. so getting into some of those other finer details, how we refine this as we go forward, i think that's a worthy suggestion for consideration. we'll make a note of that. i could see it as a possibility but i just don't know. >> on the side there. >> eli with "science magazine." admiral, the arctic is one of the most important places in the world in terms of climate change. one of the most volatile regions, you mentioned this, and yet it's very poorly instrumented for climate. i note in your remarks you didn't mention this issue. how important is it that the nations of the world improve monitoring in the arctic and what do you think the arctic council should do about that? >> it is in fact a part of our

u.s. program. we're looking at various mapping systems, censers. we're looking at inventorying what other countries are doing and bringing them together so that we can have better observation. there is -- it's not only just that. there's a great need for increased satellite coverage whether it's communications observation, navigation most of what we've put up over the decades is optimized for the middle latitudes, not optimized for the higher latitudes. so that's another thing that clearly the united states can't take on all by itself. but there's benefit to all the countries that will be operating in the arctic. that's another area that we're hopeful we can bring people together and start investing in. you are right. we need better coordination of

whatcepsers are up there and we'll attempt to identify those that are needed and start moving towards getting them resourced. >> back lady. >> thanks so much for holding this event. my name is claire. i'm with "national journal." so you talked a little bit about the need to kind of raise public awareness. it seems like one of the big challenges with the arctic is getting adequate funding and reare sources and convincing congress but also convincing the american public which might lead to more attention in congress. can you talk a little bit more about how you can get the public to pay attention and then i also wanted to ask if you heard anything back from disney about your offer to them to perhaps use the frozen characters as a way to educate the public. >> i'm afraid my name isn't very good at disney right now. for those of you who don't know

and i don't know how you couldn't -- actually when you go home tonight google papp disney arctic. last time i checked, there's at least ten pages of articles there. one of the proposals we had, a briekt young lady in my man who was a big fan of the movie "frozen." she can recite the entire script of the movie and sing all the songs. but she suggested that we need to start teaching the youth about the arctic and perhaps having some public service announcements done with the disney characters from the movie "frozen" ana and sven and olaf. i know this because i have granddaughters and watch the movie all the time. when i arrived in norway, they were in the middle of their film festival. on that particular evening, there was an outdoor theater,

about 300 children all bundled up and watching disney's "frozen." so i tell the story to the crowd at the arctic frontier's event the next morning, the 1,300 people, and i mentioned i had gone out to disney in los angeles to meet with them and i didn't think my marketing through very well and i said, you know, you've taught all these kids around the world about a fantasy arctic city in norway, a kingdom that doesn't really exist and conditions that don't really exist. i said you need to start teaching them about the plight of the polar bear and alaskan villages that are falling into the ocean because the permfrost the thawing. this guy was becoming more and more concerned. admiral, our culture here at disney is to project positive images and happy endings. and he's right.

but how do you turn that into finding some happy endings for our arctic as well. i think it can be done and we're continuing discussions with disney and i'm hopeful we'll get there. it's a very good company and they put out a good product. i would like to have them help us raise awareness. your basic question is how do you raise the awareness to the american people? i will never be a lobbyist. i would be running a business a media business or something if i had the answer. it's hard to get bandwidth. there are so many other -- look at the front page of the post today and see the things that are erupting everyday that draw the attention of the american people. and, yes long-term we're becoming -- we're becoming concerned about what's happening in the arctic because of climate

change and other things, but it's slow. and there's no major cataclysmic event that's happening. and when you have so many cataclysmic events that are drawing your attention everyday, it's hard to get the bandwidth to spread it out. it's like, we say, why isn't the white house taking this up? the white house has a lot on its plate. secretary kerry will be the chair of the arctic council, but do you think he has the time to devote to the arctic council on a day to day basis with dealing with ebola syria, isis and everything else in the world? you know, there's something that goes along with leadership and that's because you have a lot on your plate. the united states is fortunately or unfortunately involved in an awful lot of things around the world, therefore the arctic isn't a huge problem right now for anybody so it's hard to draw that attention. so that's what i've been trying to do. how can you come up with something that will draw in the

american people. we're still struggling but i think we're getting closer. >> yes, sir. >> thank you. richard ranger. the lady's question prompts a suggestion for you to consider admiral papp. that is through some resource associated with the u.s. chairmanship, a recommended reading list, something that you could develop over time with the state of alaska with academia. there are a lot of great books out there barry lopez, "arctic dreams." but i think from the standpoint of the long pull, building student interest, academic interest public interest i throw that out as a suggestion that could be developed over your tenure. >> yes. and that's part of our public diplomacy program, we're using

the full bright scholarships to gain interest and start bringing people in. you know, that's why -- one of the reasons why i was really keen in trying to get disney in there because you have to start with the youth. it's like anything else. one of the challenges we faced back in my previous job was getting the best of american talent, diverse american talent into the coast guard academy. and you can't start at the junior year of high school. you really got to start marketing when they're in grade school. and we need to carry over some of these programs and perhaps introduce it in our schools or otherwise. you're absolutely right. >> admiral, in the very near future -- there is one cruise line that has plans to send a ship carrying as much as 2,000 people into the arctic waters. do we as a nation, have the ability if we believe this is

full hardy to regulate this kind of activity and not allow ships that aren't truly seaworthy, arctic conditions to proceed into our arctic regions or should we have such strides? >> we have the ability -- this is one of those things i would bring in my lawyers and start looking at this. if a voyage is unsafe if you can make that determination, you can terminate a voyage if it's an american flag vessel. that can be. will it be done in this particular case? i'm sure they'll demonstrate they have the capability. i'm sure other agencies in the government will take a good solid look at this. okay, if a problem happens you how do you rescue those people. i have been involved with a cruise ship that broke down and the only way to rescue all those people was to bring another

cruise ship alongside and transfer -- in that case, this was many years ago when i did this but i think there were only about 800 people and you had to transport 800 people by ferries across to the other cruise ship. do you require them to another cruise ship come behind them in their wake? do you require them to have an ice breaker? we are look at the end of the day, i'm sure the united states and canada will deploy resources and have them on stand by. those are resources that might be otherwise used for other things. resources are limited. so if you're going to do some new task you have to pull them off other tasks. you might have to send ships up there that would be down intradikting drugs and send them up to make sure that you provide for the safety of those two,000

people. >> i would like you all to join me in thanks the admiral for his provocative presentation. >> thank you. [ applause ]. >> thank you. >> thank you. secret service director joseph clancy is set to appear before house appropriations sub committee to testify about the agency's 2016 budget request. the director is also likely to face questions about a string of

recent security lapses at the white house. the most recent of which involved two secret service agents who crashed into a white house barricade during an active bomb investigation match that's live here on c-span-3. later on in the day the center for strategic and international studies hears from interior secretary sally jewell about energy priorities for his department. that's at 1:00 p.m. eastern and it will also be live here on c-span3. the american public transportation association recently held their annual legislative conference in washington, d.c. more than 600 public transportation leaders attended the event. a group of u.s. mayors talked about the transit systems in their cities and other infrastructure needs. this is an hour and 20 minutes.

good morning, everybody. >> good morning. >> hello. welcome. great to see you. i feel enthusiasm in this crowd today. and you're not going to be disappointed. good morning, i'm the president and ceo of the utah transit authority and honored to be able to host this panel today with three, great mayors from three incredible cities. i've been in the business a long time, four decades. i started my career here in virginia and i appreciate the fact that c-span is here to frankly help spread the dialogue about investments in transportation. you know, in utah we have benefitted significantly by our

partnerships with the federal agencies. our first grant agreement came to us in 1997. subsequently to that we got six full agreement and built 14 years, perhaps the quickest in this nation. and we are benefitting significantly by that investment. a decade or so ago, our community, state, local governments and partnerships with the federal agencies decided and made a commitment to invest their tax resources in transportation, highways and transit. we now are one of the best economic states in the country. i will tell you that no one, no elected official, has lost their job because of that commitment that they made a decade ago. in fact, our governor is now the chairman of the national association of governors.

our state senate chairman of the national league of legislators. our chamber of commerce lane beatty has become on the national board of the chamber of commerce. and our mayor of salt lake city is now the president and the national league of cities. and so, we are looked at, i believe, as a state that is well run, knows how to get things done, but recognizes that investment in infrastructure are one of the key pillars to economic growth and vitality. so we're here today with three incredible mayors that are going to talk to you about their stories. but before i do that, i wanted to read the president of the united states, i've been told, is competing with us today, because he's at the national league of cities. so i very much appreciate these

mayors being here, but i have a statement i want to read to you from mayor ralph becker who is the president of the league of cities. and he says, quote, national league of cities and the american public transit association have enjoyed a close working relationship for many decades. the results of which have been tremendous transit progress for those cities we serve. our great transit accomplishments in the salt lake region is an important example of the benefit of this collaboration. as the nlc president and mayor of salt lake i look forward to continuing to work with apta towards a long-term, well funded, transportation reauthorization this year. the president's proposed grow america act is an important contribution to this must-do reauthorization effort. so with that, those who

participated yesterday in the legislative conference heard from a gentleman who represents america's infrastructure alliance. he made three key points that will be the focus of today's conversation. number one, make it local. okay. you have local here. number two, talk about economic benefits and commerce. talk about how transportation does what it's done in utah. talk about how it will affect your community, and lastly, perhaps most importantly, investment saves money. now is the time to make an investment, because it will pay dividends in the future. you won't be borrowing.

it will cost you less. and i think the mayor will talk about that as we do some local efforts in that record. you're hearing from three, strong, conservative, fiscally responsible, energetic, motivated, fast-growing communities. each of which have a passion for transportation and transit. these mayors have a vitality of their own, and they are developing a sense of place in a community like no others. i like to say that the cities that are surrounding them, salt lake and dallas, and phoenix are suburbs to their cities there. so, let me have you buckle up your seat belts because you're in for a ride here. i'm going to introduce the three mayors in the order that they're going to speak, and then pose three main topics today. first off i want to hear and have them share with you stories about their city and what their vision is. second, they're going to drill down a little bit and talk about

transportation, and their transit projects and what they see as benefits to the community, what their future for transportation are, and then lastly we're going to zero in on the partnerships with federal agencies and things that we can do to the, and perhaps offer some recommendations to apta for things we can do to be great partners with local government. so the first mayor to my left here, on your right, is -- excuse me, mayor betsy price. she is the mayor of fort worth, texas, it's the 16th largest city in the united states. established in 1849, i think, mayor? was an american outpost as part of the mexican-american war. but what i found interesting in looking it up online is there were three transformational times in fort worth's history. number one, they were part of the chisolm trail, the cattle drive. and initially established fort worth. then they became the crossroads of the texas and pacific railway. the second major boone to that

city. and then in the early 1900s, they had close to 400 miles of street cars in the dallas-ft. worth area. huge, huge investment in street cars. so i think we're going to hear from the mayor today as a mover and shaker. she was elected in 2001, the 44th mayor of this city. she leads efforts in engaging and designing a healthy community. she talks a lot about alternative modes of transportation, particularly walking and cycling, and maybe she'll talk to you about her walking and rolling town hall. she's an avid cyclist. yet she gets time to spend with her family, her husband, her children, and her three grandchildren, and apparently she's a proud maverick with a bachelor's degree from the university of texas at arlington. mayor john giles from mesa, arizona. i looked up on wikipedia what a wonderful thing. they call mesa, arizona the center of population for arizona. mayor.

>> center of the universe. >> center of the universe, i'm sorry. >> don't call us short. >> third largest city in arizona, the 3th largest city in the united states, and its history actually goes back 2,000 years ago, maybe we'll hear about this, they developed canals in those communities, another form of transportation. mayor giles is the 40th mayor of mesa. he started his mayoralship in 2014 but he's had a long history with governance being on the city council, and in many, many organizations, boards and committees. he has a policy sky degree from byu, brigham young university so he's a cougar. he has a law degree from arizona state, and has managed and practiced and manages a law office of his own. and born and raised in mesa. he's a marathoner. he's a triathlete. he has finished two full

ironman. and this year, he finished his 20th marathon and his fourth boston marathon. so i think, and i hope, we can keep up with him. lastly and not least the mayor of riverton city, utah. from my community, mayor applegarth served as the mayor, he's been there since 2006. this year they're celebrating their 150th birthday. it is a high energy, high growth community. the population has exploded. he'll tell you about that. it was listed by cnn as one of the top places to live in the united states. it also has a rich transit history in 1913 and has the salt lake and utah railways and urban life that went right through its

community there. so mayor applegarth has been on city council, he's worked as an educator, he has a law degree, excuse me a doctorate from byu, is a cougar, as well, and he spent his entire career in the educational system. he does have eight children, and 30 grandchildren. and he is a leader in our community. he is on virtually every transportation community. our relationship with the transit organization and the npo, the best i know of in the country and kudos to mayor applegarth and the things that he does there. so with that i'm going to ask the mayors to talk a little bit about their cities, and what they're doing so they can paint the picture for you of what's going on in their cities and then we'll move on to even more transportation agenda. so we can start with either one of you. >> you're mic'ed. >> hopefully the mic's not on

we've been up here talking. i've been caught doing that. we're not capital steps, we know you're waiting to see capital steps. although mayor giles said he would tap dance for you. in addition to running marathons he's a tap dancer. and i guess we'll stand behind him and hum. i understand that you're coming to cow town to fort worth in may and i hope each and every one of you in this room will come. you're absolutely going to love it. we are the 16th -- actually the 17th largest city now. we got beat out by 105 people in charlotte in the midterm count. i think that's a statistical error. but we're one of the fastest growing cities in the nation, since the year 2000. about 1,000 people a day come to texas, and about 350 of those people land in dallas or fort worth. so we are huge. we're 800,000 citizens now, and in the next ten years we'll be more than 1 million citizens.

and you know, we always say, we're a big, spread-out city. fort worth is 3 52 square miles and 344 square miles so ultimately we'll be a big, big land mass. and texas her taj, as you know all, we're obviously behind on mass transit, because we love our suburbans and we love our pickups and we're just now getting people to really think about public transit. we've always had it there. it's always served the working class. you mention street cars. believe it or not we used to have the largest line of street cars, dallas and fort worth. bee don't have a single street car any longer. so we really poured a lot of concrete. but we all know as leaders, we know that you're never going to pour enough concrete to accommodate the growth.

you're simply not. and our young leaders, our young millennials who are moving there for the high tech jobs, for the defense industry jobs, aviation, tourism, all really want one car. and we're seeing them move back in the inner city, as well as our suburb cities, but we have to rebuild those inner cities and keep them strong. and transit is a way. they want to be able to leave one car in their garage and not take it out, to take a circulator bus or to take a bus to the intermodal and really get around, and then they want that last mile to be a connection on bicycles. and we've really got a strong museum district. we have 65 million tourists last year in tarrant county. we've redone our convention center and about to redo it again. part of that is development from our transit system. our intermodal that went in made a big difference on what we have done. but we are the -- fort worth together, gary thomas is here from dart somewhere, even though he like to talk about our

friends at dart we really are a huge region and like many of you in this room we tend to not be able to separate dallas from ft. worth. once you come you're going to be able to separate them easily and you're only going to come back to fort worth. because we are not the center of the universe. but we have in the last two years and for the next three years we'll have $34 billion of infrastructure construction going on. we say everybody in fort worth has got orange cone syndrome. they hate us. they're sick of it. they're just sick of it. but we've got to get our public transit better. we've got to get it for the millennials coming in. and more importantly than the millennials the silver tsunami is here. the number of people who turned 65 a day, and will for the next ten years, if you haven't googled it, google it it will blow your mind how many of us there are. and i'm one of those. and they tell me all the time, we want transit because we want to age. we're not going to drive for

much longer. hopefully they will but many of them won't. they want to be able to take transit but they want to be technical savvy. they want to pull up the next bus locator and see when the bus comes. texas is hot. fort worth is 110 in july and august. and you don't want to stand on the corner looking for your bus. you want to be able to be in your office or in your home and say, oh, here it comes all i got to do is walk down the street and catch it. and we're beginning to get there. the federal government has helped with some of that. but it's also got to be a ride that appeals to people. they've got to be able to put their bicycle on the front, which they currently can't, hop on the bus, go to work, take their bike off and complete that last mile. and it really is a major reason for us. we're just not going to accommodate all the cars that we have. my friends that are in the car business hate it when i say that because they say we're going to keep selling.

we're going to try to keep parking them and put them on buses. but gridlock will kill us. the growth that we've seen, already the major arterial from mexico across the u.s., interstate 35, runs through fort worth and it's the best parking lot in the nation. and we're actively remodeling it. in the next four years it will be remodeling, not the proper term, but renovating it and there will be an express lane courtesy of a federal grant down the center. we have a development on the far north edge. it's called alliance town center. and alliance town center sprung up from an old ranch property. it is now 35000 jobs and rapidly growing. one of the largest retail centers we've got. but part of our development incentive is that anywhere from 5 to 15% of the employees there to get a tax incentive have to come from the inner city. and we've struggled with getting them up 35 to alliance town

center. and when 35 is redone the t, which is our transit authority, will run an express bus up in the morning and reverse it and run it back down in the evening. they have to develop a circulating system to get there. that's already in the master plan. i'll talk just a second and let them speak. the t is our transit system funded by a half sent sales tax from city sales tax and federal grants and writer fees. it's been very successful. we have one rail project now that was the first rail project and it's a joint project with dard. it's about 8,000 riders a day and it is a commuter line between dallas and ft. worth. it's been successful because young people and all people really just don't see that boundary between the cities. they like to be able to come and go, go to dinner go to shop,

come to ft. worth to go to the stockyards, go to the museums and back and forth. but our next big project will be a light rail project and we're excited about that. come see us. you're going to love it. >> thanks mayor. excellent. [ applause ]. >> well, thanks for letting me be here. things are so crowded over at the national league of cities with the president coming. we were joking we drew the long straw and were lucky to come over here and avoid all the chaos that's at the other side of the town right now. thank for giving us a convenient out from that activity over there. i'll respectfully disagree as to where the centers of the universe is i think. it's a duel-edged sword there. but if i'm a little bit grouchy that i'm here instead of there now is because during march mesa the is center of the baseball universe. we're a big spring training

season. we are a two-stadium city the cubs or the a's. i would be wearing short sleeves and sipping a diet coke with my feet up having a great time. i invite everyone to come to mesa. march is a great time to be there. the weather is perfect and we have a lot of out of town guests. so, next time you're looking for something to do in march, put mesa arizona on your map. we are a fairly -- we're one of the larger cities that maybe is not a household word in your lexicon out here. we anchor the east valley, the east part of the phoenix metropolitan area. we're about half a million people, 37th largest city in the country. second largest city in the phoenix metro region. big on our own, but still very much a part of the phoenix transportation system, the association of the governments

and other regional transit authorities, we are the beneficiary of a lot of our funding through them. we're the beneficiary of having that asset directly to our east. i'm sorry, to our west. but, again, on our own pretty advanced large city. while there was recently i think a few months ago an interesting article in forbes that labeled mesa the most conservative city in the united states. i think and as a large -- if you look up here, there's not a lot of large urban cities that have kind of a consecutive bent to them.