Sylvester Turner

What we`ve seen this week in Texas is a total failure of governance.

There are still folks in danger. There are still people without power, and there are a lot of people who simply can’t afford to go into the store.

As leaders, we stay on the ship. We don`t leave the ship when the ship is in trouble.

If you still refuse to recognize the public health danger to everyone involved, then I am still the mayor.

The President of the United States needs to get on TV and have a call to unity, that he needs to dispel the conspiracy theories and the rumors that are hampering the efforts of government at all levels to respond.

We honor him today because when he took his last breath, the rest of us will now be able to breathe.

It begins with -- it begins with training, and not just training in general. That can be generic. But what's important is crisis intervention training.

What people want and what they deserve is good policing. They're wanting police officers who recognize that every single person, every community is important.

I hear it all the time, Anderson. I hear it all the time. We just had a public hearing. Our budget process starts next week and there were a number of speakers who came just this week and talked about defunding or reducing the police…

It does happen way too often, you know, Anderson. It is important, for example, that we create a system or devise a system that respects everyone.

We do need comprehensive immigration reform. You can't do this on a State-by-State, city-by-city basis.

My charge to Marvin was 'to make me uncomfortable,' and he has not shied away from bringing me tough decisions.

Unless we address these flooding issues from a regional point of view, the city will continue to flood.

People cannot recover with debris in their yards, and the city of Houston worked overtime, again, with urgency.

We will never forget those who came to us in our time of need.

It is all about mitigation. We have faced 3 500-year floods in the last 3 years, and now that is becoming the norm.

We as a city will require all new construction to be at the 500-year flood plain, plus 2 feet.

We cannot ask people to rebuild and deepen their roots in our community unless they know we, collectively as different levels of government, are working to mitigate the threat of future floods.

While we in Government refer to such human suffering in terms like 'unmet need,' I can tell you the needs of so many will require all of our efforts to help people overcome Harvey's effects on their lives.

I think it would be helpful to everyone... but more importantly I think it would be helpful to the people who need the dollars the most right now.

Suffering three 500-year floods in a row to me means there is a new normal, and Government should catch up.

How do you shelter in place when you have no place to shelter?

There is no doubt in my mind that we made the right decision to prepare for it, for people to shelter in place.

If they're sheltering in place and they're in need, we will be there for them.

You can't evacuate 6.5 million people and put them on the road in two or three days prior to a storm.