good morning, everybody. thank you for putting together this ideas conference. i'm glad we could bring a little bit of l.a. weather here at least couple days in washington. thanks to all of you mostly for coming here and being a part of

this most urgent and important conversation. for the last few months, commentators have been calling this a big moment for the democratic party and they're right. but i believe this is an even bigger moment for the american people. a bigger moment for our country. you know for practically my entire lifetime, we have heard politicians at events like this talking about how we're on the cusp of a technological revolution. flying cars, solar energy, robots that will make us breakfast. but that revolution isn't coming anymore. that revolution is here. 25 years ago, our country imported half of its oil that we needed to meet our energy needs. today, foreign oil accounts for about a quarter of our energy usage and 25 years from now we may not be using fossil fuels at

all. 25 years ago, aids was the number one killer of men 25 to 44. today that diagnosis is no longer a death sentence. 25 years from now we could say the same thing about lung cancer or alzheimer's. so, we're living in this exciting future that we have all heard about in so many t.e.d. talks over the years and yet for many americans this doesn't feel like an exciting moment, doesn't feel like a moment of incredible progress, a time of great anxiety and great uncertainty. over the next 20 years automation and artificial intelligence are going to wipe out millions of jobs and if you think one of those jobs might belong to you you're not impressed by how innovative the technology is.

you're wondering how you're going to get by, let alone get ahead in this new economy. and you're wondering whether any of those leaders who keep talking about this brave new future think there's a place in that future for you. see, i hear these anxieties every day. for 16 years, as a local elected official. i have been knocking on my neighbors' doors, holding open office hours where people from all walks of life can come and talk to me about anything they want. listening is at the heart of what i do. it may surprise some people here in wash hear the concerns that i hear about in los angeles are similar to ones that we hear throughout this country in places like lansing or louisville. 4 million live in my city, yes, few are movie stars, but most are small business owners, factory workers. they're firefighters, nurses,

bo bookkeepers. in the san fernando valley where i grew up we had car factories that shut down. time and time again we have had to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off and face an uncertain future. what's happening in my city is a microcosm of what's happening around the country. for the folks at the top there's never been a more exciting time to live in los angeles. we have a diverse and thriving class. they're innknow vating and collaborating and having a good time. you don't want to find parking zyou can get rideshare. somebody can pick up your dry cleaning with the tap of the finger. we have a ballooning the service class, the people who are cooking the food, doing the dry cleaning and they're just barely

hanging on, scraping to stay afloat and hoping one day to get ahead. meanwhile, our middle-class is getting squeezed out. the paycheck for years staying the same. their healthcare bills going up. the cost of college is skyrocketing. these folks aren't just anxious and insecure. they're angry and impatient. they hear us talk but regardless of whether or not they agree with what they're saying they don't see anyone take real action to improve their lives and so they don't trust their leaders, any of them. and this isn't just about honesty or ethics. people don't trust that we have it in us to actually solve our problems, their problems. this lack of trust isn't just a problem for progressives who believe some challenges are so big that only government are capable of addressing them.

not just a problem for democrats who watch donald trump capitalize on that frustration to win the white house. this is a problem for our country. because this distrust robs us of our ability to take the kind of big action we need to embrace the future instead of fear it. the kind of action we can only take together. so, how do we win back this trust? i always tell the young people who work for me in order to make an impact in public service you have to show people you can pass three test -- heart, head and of guts. first your heart, do people feel that you can connect with them around the challenges they feel? do you get it? do you feel it? second, your head, if you can connect with them do believe you have smart ideas to address those challenges? and then third, your guts and this is the most important of the three. even if you show you can care,

even if you thought of good solutions do people believe you'll do what ever it takes to deliver the results you promised? even if it cuts against your own political interests. you need all three to lead. mayors who hear from constituent s we tend to understand that. it all goes back to listening. if you really listen and mayors have to, americans actually agree on a lot. they want a decent job with reliable benefits, including quality healthcare. they want affordable house unless a safe neighborhood. they're worried about how they're going to get these things in an economy that's rapidly changing and leaving so many people behind. they want their leaders to worry less about winning arguments and more about delivering results. i guess that's why mayors tend

to be a lot less doctrine. republican mayors often know they can raise taxes to invest in critical things. mayors are in the business of getting things done. while washington is stuck or even worse we see washington moving backwards, cities are moving forward. in los angeles, for example, we raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour. people already more money in pockets. they're spending it on main street and it's helping our local businesses. we're not only raising the floor we're raising the ceiling. we want 40 and $50 an hour jobs. we're making unprecedented investments in infrastructure not just improving safety but crea creating good-paying union jobs. people without college degrees, they were