Matthew Tuerk

Right.

So all this stuff you wanted to do in the campaign, it's nice, but there's more pressing needs.

Among the things that I could see in the city was that we were.

Well, we didn't know what we didn't know.

So we had a lot to learn.

We had to dig in and understand the city a little better and understand what was going on.

We also didn't like we had to let some relationships fail.

And so we needed to get back and make sure that our partners were on the same page as us.

And we kind of lost the capacity to like innovate, to get creative and do new things.

So I was grateful that I entered into the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative at just the right moment when I was feeling desperate.

And they kind of invested in that capacity.

Through doing that, I was able to attack one of the things that was clearly an issue, which was road safety issues.

There was a federal grant, the Safe Streets for All program that was helping cities plan for safer streets.

I'm gonna get to the point, I promise.

I'm a bicycling and running guy, and I felt like we could do better for our city if we had safer streets.

Bloomberg stood up with some partners, the local infrastructure hub.

It helped me teach my team how to use data to apply for federal funds.

It helped us think about how we could work with partners to accomplish good outcomes for residents and try some new things.

I also got right in Secretary Buttigieg's face and said, I need help.

We're lucky to get a planning grant through that program.