St. Charles Green City Initiative
Waldorf, Maryland
November 30, 2009
Thank you very, very much. It is great to be with you. Turn to your neighbor and tell them, it’s great to be in Charles County. It’s a great day in Southern Maryland. It’s really terrific to be with all of you today.
I want to thank the President of the Commissioners, Mike Cooper, and all of his colleagues. What a great group of county commissioners you have in Charles County – always looking towards the future, always realizing that we’re in this together. And to the people of Charles County, I compliment you on your wisdom, prudence and good judgment in the county commissioners you’ve selected, as well as your colleagues in the General Assembly, Matt Middleton and the entire delegation. They do such a terrific job.
I also want to thank Steny Hoyer for the work that he does for our country. You remember about eight months ago, everyone was talking, and all the economists were saying, “We are this close to being plunged into a second Great Depression.” Now they’re all debating about how quickly we are going to see the full effects of recovery. So that’s a turn-about. It didn’t happen by chance, it happened by choice.
It happened by the choice of this leader, our leader, Steny Hoyer, who has never forgotten where he came from, but also knows where our country needs to be headed, and that is to a better economy with more and better-paying jobs. Thank you, Steny. (Applause.)
I really want to thank the American Community Properties Trust, ACPT, their CEO, Steve Griessel, and their vice president, Craig Renner. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to be with you today.
The article in the Post said, well, even though the State isn’t putting money in, O’Malley, the Governor, is going to come and he’s going to talk. (Laughter.)
And why is that? I’ll tell you why that is. And Majority Leader Hoyer said it very well. Today is a great day, not only for Charles County, it’s not only a great day for Southern Maryland, it’s a great day for Maryland. And it’s because of your vision, Steve, and your leadership and what this development here in St. Charles represents for the future of our State, for the future of our nation, and the future of our planet.
And you know what? They are all connected. And one of the words I keep hearing everywhere I go in our great state, in large groups and small, is that word connection. We realize more than we ever have before, more broadly, more deeply than we ever have before, how connected we are in this entire globe, don’t we?
There are none of us who are so clever that we can protect our county, our state, our city from a global recession. We’re all connected. None of us is so clever that we can pull the sheets over our heads and say that we don’t want to participate in this thing called climate change. We’re all in this together. We’re all connected.
And in the same way that our connections give us reason for some anxiety, they should also give us reason for great hope, because it’s really in a strengthening and a deepening and an actualization of the connections that we are going to create better days, not just for ourselves but for our children and our children’s children, which is what this day is all about.
Throughout our Revolutionary history, from the days of General Smallwood, we’ve always seen ourselves as that one star in the center, that center State, that middle State, that State around which the other states rally. You see it on the Revolutionary flag, a flag that very well might have flown over them at the Battle of Long Island.
And it’s in these times of great adversity that Marylanders actually rise and show what we’re made of, because of our understanding of the connections.
In our state, in the face of economic adversity, we don’t make excuses, we make progress. We are focused on the new ideas, like the new ideas that are coming together in St. Charles. We are focused on the new ideas that create the new jobs for the future. And that’s why I’m here today. It’s because Maryland’s innovative economy requires leadership. And that’s what today’s exciting vision and announcement are all about.
It’s leadership that is going to make this Green City Initiative, St. Charles, a model for cities all around the world, making a vital connection between the creation of new jobs, the creation of a thriving economy and the connection that those new jobs have to the imperative of creating a healthier planet—a healthier environment—in which our kids can learn and thrive.
To transform St. Charles into a green city is going to double the size of the city, but reduce the carbon footprint – exactly what we’re striving for in a State that is smart, that is green, and that is also growing. It’s possible to do all three at the same time. If we choose to imagine, to innovate, to create, we can forge those strong connections that allow us to be able to grow, even in a planet that’s become ever more crowded.
And it also means jobs, jobs for residents in Southern Maryland as part of our state’s growing innovation economy. The St. Charles Green City Initiative will create – get this – a thousand jobs right away. That’s 977 for those of you that are writing along with us. That includes a significant share of green jobs. And ACPT, working together with its partners, has a long-term vision to create up to 20,000 new green jobs for our state – a state where we’re working to create more opportunity and a more sustainable future for our kids. That’s what we’re working to do.
Here in our state we’ve established a goal of creating, Majority Leader Hoyer, 100,000 new green jobs in Maryland by 2015. And it can be done.
Why? Because of the connections that we know this new, innovative economy has for the quality of our children’s education. That’s why we created the number one public school system in the country, according to Education Week magazine.
And at a time when a lot of jobs seem to be running downhill like water and going to other countries, green jobs are jobs that by their very nature you cannot export, because they require that the work is done here – that we design a new future, an environmental future, an architectural future, a future for our built environment.
We certainly are facing tough times. There is no easy button. But you know what? There is not a better state more centrally and physically located, with a better concentration of people and better connections of land use to environment from which to discover these new methods to fulfill our Revolutionary traditions of the past by leading in the face of adversity.
We’re still a great Revolutionary people and our goal for St. Charles is to be that model in the 21st Century; a city that’s green, that’s healthy, that’s viable in a thriving economy, that deepens the connections between ourselves and the imperative of healing this planet and creating new jobs in a new economy.
So I thank you so very, very much for your leadership in remaking this world of ours. These are exciting times. There’s no better time than right now. There’s no better place from which to do it.
So, Steve, thank you so very, very much. And I look forward to bragging about this project all around the state. And by your leadership you’re going to show other communities how to lead the way and how to create that better future with better jobs for all our people.
Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)
