rick baker. [applause] >> thank you, mayor. you know, i've been very excited about coming here today. i'm always excited to be able to just be in new york. i love new york city, but to be able to be involved with the manhattan institute, and of course to launch a book is exciting. what i'm excited about is steve goldsmith will be here. he may not fully recognize he's one of my favorite of running for mayor in 2000, i wanted to learn about what other cities were doing. some of you gave me a copy of the book, "21st century city," and i read it, and i thought this looks like a good way to do it. i wonder if there's more. i looked in the binder and it was supported and published by manhattan institute. what's manhattan institute in this was before we were as good at e-mail as now, but he started sending me guides and the entrepreneurial city which mayor goldsmith led, and it's about a 100-page book, and i took three days to go through it because the first part of the book talked about, it was written by great mayors on different is

. >>> rick baker former mayor of st. petersburg florida prisons his thoughts on the revitalization of american cities. this is just under an hour. >> good morning and welcome to the breakfast forum by the manhattan institute center for state and local leadership. my name is michael and i am finally appointed director of the center and it's truly an honor to deal with you one way gone to the job and what a great event to kick things off. it's an honor to be here with everyone. as you know, for over 40 years the manhattan institute has been a national leader in advancing the idea is of greater economic independence and choice and individual responsibility. we have our roots as you all know in the cities having led the movement from welfare to work and from broken windows to see for cities. during the coming weeks you will be hearing a lot about our center for state and local leadership. whether it is examining public employees and the relationships with the government's for which they work, detention systems, the retiree h

petersburg, the honorable rick baker turned it into a hub of economic vitality and civic pride. as you read the book and you hear more from steven goldsmith, you'll get carbon monoxide what he did there and the book "seamless city" once again is on sale and i urge to you stop by and look at that. but first here to introduce him is the former chairman of the manhattan institute's own center for civic innovation, now a project of this center on state and local leadership, the honorable steven goldsmith. now, if ever there was a public official who truly embodies in my opinion thoughtful, selfless and innovative policy-making, that's steven goldsmith. he's currently the deputy mayor for operations here in new york. he has a very simple mandate promulgated by mayor bloomberg. create a mandate for the 21st century that is smaller, more efficient and more cost-effective. good luck with that. [laughter] >> using the skills and commitments that the mayor gains while mayor of indianapolis from 1992 to 1999, deputy mayor goldsmith has a remarkable playbook from which to work and which to