I know from my own life that you can’t move forward unless you reach out and deal honestly with the past. The truth is that when it comes to race and class, Boston has a lot of unfinished business. We must not be afraid to talk about it.

The Boston's government approves housing projects every month and we're constantly approving opportunities to build more housing. And Boston is one of the hottest cities in America where people want to live. And it's important that we continue to build this housing and to keep up with the demand that we have in the communities.

When you go to urban America and you look at cities around America. People are moving back into the cities at record numbers. In the 1980s it was a flight to the suburbs. And now in 2017, it's a flight back into the cities.

The majority of people who come to America come to America for a better life for their family.

As a mayor, I don't make my decisions based upon whether it is a "Democrat" issue. You make your decisions based upon the people you represent as a city to move our city forward.

Clearly, I think that there have been racial problems in America for a long time. I still think that, particularly during the second half of the Obama presidency, there has been a lot of emotion, a lot of feeling stirred up.

You can't really move forward if you don't heal the past and identify and address the fact that you had a problem and in some cases still have issues. That has to be dealt with.