Oliver Thomas: “They keep trying to come up with excuses to let this city die.”

My city is dying.

Any amount of crime is too much. But we have a history to deal with and we need to make sure that people know that we're doing whatever it takes to make the city safe for them to come back.

If there are leaders who believe that certain communities are not viable, say that. Don't let these communities or these people waste their time talking about rebuilding or coming back home. That would be extremely unfair.

Everybody should count. We are talking about the people from this community as if we were just hiring a whole new cast in a whole new movie and they don't matter.